Hiring Military is Like Learning To Golf
The internet is awesome – news flash, right? What I mean is that you can teach yourself so many things from guides and videos on the internet. I have a colleague, who is not a handyman by any means, who took apart and fixed his washing machine with a $1.50 part thanks to a youtube video.
Even for harder and more difficult to master tasks, this applies as well, but only to a point. If you want to learn how to hit a golf ball and play golf, there are guides and videos on that skill as well. I’ll bet there are some success stories of beginning golfers who advance using the internet as their coach, but without a professional to guide them, they probably took some time-consuming and costly wrong turns along the way. Others may have even given up in frustration when the desired results weren’t forthcoming.
Likewise, there are many guides and videos regarding hiring military and veterans on the internet. And just like our golfer above, these may get you to the point of “getting good contact” on the ball. But can they help shape a plan that takes into account your goals, your physiology and the amount of time and money you have to invest? Only a coach can help on that level.
The coach I’m referring to in this case is a military-focused recruiting firm. For our beginning “player”, every new veteran hiring guide that comes on the scene lacks important information that leaves a well-meaning company open to expensive mistakes. Military recruiting firms, like Bradley-Morris, provide expert guidance that translates to efficiencies in time and money spent.
The online playbook does not take into account the physiology of your organization and the skeletal, motor skills and musculature structure that makes it unique. The differences in physiology manifest themselves in big differences in the “swings” of organizations in terms of the way they approach the military hiring process, even for companies in similar industries. For instance, the way Walmart hires military is vastly differently than how Amazon hires military even though some of the roles, especially in the supply chain, are similar.
In the same vein, the internet guide is one size fits all – it doesn’t take into account the differences between teaching someone who has the resources to play three times a week versus a weekend duffer. Or someone who needs a quick “win”, that is, needs to get be able to get around the course for an upcoming corporate event, versus a player who has a strategic goal that is building for long term success. Translating our hypothetical “player” in these scenarios to a company interested in hiring veterans, the methods to hire and even more importantly the types of roles that could be a success vary greatly depending on the specific scenario.
Among those who are serious about becoming good golfers, most players hire a coach at some point of their careers. The coach evaluates your swing, learns your goals, sees inside your head and is invested in your results. The value of outside perspective and analysis provides changes – sometimes revelatory, sometimes subtle – that produce exceptional results…whether we are talking golf or hiring military.
Bobby Whitehouse
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbywhitehouse
Image courtesy Tour Pro Golf Clubs