Episodes

This month I celebrate my 23rd year at Cameron-Brooks! Wow, time flies! Funny thing is that I still think of myself as a new team member at Cameron-Brooks because I am always learning something new, and each JMO I work with is unique. Even though I look at myself as someone new to the business, I know I am a seasoned veteran with lots of experience and knowledge on how to make the transition from military to business. I’ve helped thousands of military officers find new careers, and I’ve spent a...

Welcome back to the podcast! In a recent episode, Joel, Hope, and I discussed the 3 Game-Changing Strategies that JMOs can employ to maximize their transition. The podcast is based on a recent transition guide with the same title. The first strategy we recommend is to find opportunities where a JMO can build a track record of success, typically within three to five years. In this episode, you will meet Mike Scheer. Mike is a former Army Special Operations officer who transitioned in 2014 after b...

Today on the podcast, we tackle 3 recession myths every JMO should know. As I write this post, I am flying from El Paso to Denver for a week-long trip through the Southwest US to meet with Junior Officers preparing for their transitions. In my one-on-one meetings, officers are asking more questions about the economy. This makes sense with non-stop news about record inflation, the Fed raising interest rates to combat inflation (which will “cool” the economy), and a wildly fluctuating stock mark...

Welcome back to the Cameron-Brooks podcast. 2017 Cameron-Brooks Alumnus Nick Henderson and I talk about the recently published Cameron-Brooks Transition Guide, “3 Game-Changing Strategies for JMOs Making the Jump to Business“. Nick is a Consultant with Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA), a leading executive search and leadership advisory company. Nick is a great example of making the successful transition from the military to business. In five years, Nick has created a track record of success wit...

What is a transition strategy? Do you need one? We tackle this topic on our most recent Cameron-Brooks podcast episode. Today, we’re hosting another round-table discussion with Joel Junker and Pete Van Epps to share with you our THREE game-changing strategies for junior military officers looking to make the jump to business and WHY it’s important to have transition strategies put in place. Deciding to step out of a career in government and into a career in the private sector is a BIG step. Our...

Welcome back to the Cameron-Brooks podcast. Today we're publishing one of our MOST DOWNLOADED episodes, "From USMA to Infantry Officer to Iraq to Senior VP of Supply Chain in Switzerland," with Steve Joachim. -

Welcome back! I am glad to introduce you to Lauren Kordzik. Lauren is an Associate Principal at Cameron-Brooks. Her role in the company is to work directly with companies who want to hire Junior Military Officers (JMOs). During our conversation, she shares more about why companies hire from Cameron-Brooks. Lauren has an interesting background – she came to Cameron-Brooks after successfully starting her career in the FBI. The bulk of our conversation centered around her role at Cameron-Brooks an...

Transitioning from military officer to business leader is a big change. Military and business careers present different professional and personal cultures. For example, they compensate and promote differently, and although the skills and experiences relate across the domains, functional experience rarely does. It is a big change to leave the military and enter civilian life and a business career. Change equals uncertainty, and often uncertainty creates caution, doubt, lack of confidence and some...

Today on the podcast, we're featuring a special discussion revolving around one of the most frequently asked questions that we are asked by Junior Military Officers: How much money can I make? - A concern we often hear from military officers who are c...

Welcome back! I am glad to introduce you to Steven Sandoval. Steven is a former USMC Aircraft Maintenance Officer (F-18 Hornet) who launched his business career in 2018 as a Manager of Customer Service and Support at Textron Systems, a division of Textron. An interesting aspect of this episode is we recorded it just after he received and promotion to a Director-level position and was back at the Career Conference interviewing JMOs to backfill his position! Steven makes some great points about h...

What are some of the biggest interviewing mistakes JMOs should avoid when transitioning to business? What are some tips for avoiding a verbal professional faux pas? We can help. After 50+ years of coordinating interviews with officers in our program and our client companies, we’ve learned a thing or two! Our team puts together five conferences per year, each averaging 500+ interviews over the span of two days. The success rate of our officers? For the past year, we’ve been sitting at 100%. E...

Internships vs. Recruiting Firms. What’s Right for You? (Part 2) - We recently hosted a roundtable discussion, covering the topics of choosing to engage in an internship vs. utilizing a recruiting firm on the podcast.

Recruiting Firms vs. Internships. What's Right for You? Today we wanted to discuss a hot topic as of late: internships. Traditionally, there were just a couple of avenues in which an officer could initiate and facilitate their transitions (like pe...

Welcome back to Part 2 of the conversation that Cameron-Brooks Senior Vice President, Joel Junker had with alumni Melodie Nye, Carl Case and Mike DeBock. In this episode, we hear more from our alumni around the area of work/life balance. Joel specifically leads the discussion around: What are your personal hacks/habits for self-development? We go through valleys or slumps where we are at risk of making a poor career decision. How do you overcome that and use that for career progression? What do...

Welcome back! We recently surveyed our alumni, asking about topics for our annual virtual leadership panel. We cover a variety of leadership topics during these panels, but the two most popular topics centered around career management and work/life balance. We have a special 2-episode podcast series featuring three great alumni stretching back all the way back to 2004. Melodie Nye is a former Air Force Intelligence Officer who transitioned in 2010 and launched her career at Kraft Foods as an Ass...

Welcome back to a special episode of the Cameron-Brooks podcast! During this discussion, our CEO, Chuck Alvarez, and Senior Vice President, Joel Junker, sit down to review the year that was 2021 and forecast trends for 2022. Reflecting on the last 12 months, we’ve all continued to navigate a virtual world and live with continual ambiguity. However, one thing is for certain: this past year kept surprising us. Chuck and Joel will review 2021 as a whole and look forward to trends for 2022. The t...

Welcome back to another installment of our Conference Alumni Series. On this episode we hear from 4 recent Cameron-Brooks alumni who attended the November 2021 Career Conference share their conference experience. We really like bringing these conversations to you. It is one of our attempts to try and remove uncertainty from the transition process and ultimately give you confidence through this process. And what was really remarkable about the November 2021 Career Conference was that 77.8% of all...

Today on the Cameron-Brooks podcast, we're tackling a NEW topic that can be half of the equation when officers consider making a transition. - SIGNIFICANT OTHERS. - We're always believed that significant others make a SIGNIFICANT -

We speak with thousands of military officers every year about making a transition, and we've picked up on a couple of patterns. Our ultimate goal at Cameron-Brooks is to help ensure the long-term success of our candidates and our client companies.

What do business leaders have in common? They read. For the first 20 years of my life, I was not a reader. I paid the price. My verbal, reading and writing standardized test scores were average. This was an indicator that I was missing out on a whole world of development and education out there. Not until my spring break as a sophomore in college did I start reading. I picked up a novel by John Grisham called, The Firm. Not exactly a professional development book, but it kick-started my love of ...

When I ask officers in the military what they are looking to do when they get out of the military, I often hear something like, “I want to do something I am passionate about.” When I follow up with a question, “Like what?” I typically don’t hear a clear and specific answer. I think I know why. When a leader really examines what they are passionate about it’s NOT a hobby like golf or surfing. It IS typically LEADERSHIP. I speak to former military officers all the time and the thing that I hear...

Welcome back for a special episode! Rob Davis, Transition Coach, interviewed 5 recent alumni of the August 2021 Career Conference for our post-August 2021 Conference review webcast. At the time of the interview, all alumni guests had already accepted an offer for employment. We really enjoy doing this type of episode because it gives those who are planning to attend a future Career Conference (or those who are curious about the details of the conference) a “peek over the fence” to how exactly ev...

Twenty years ago, Matt Beliveau transition from an Army Officer to a Human Resource Specialist at General Mills. Today, he is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Sarah Lee Frozen Bakery. To thank all of those who helped him along the way, Matt wrote the following post on LinkedIn. It is definitely worth 3 minutes of your time to read. After reading his post, I reached out and invited Matt to be a guest on the podcast and share his leadership lessons. It was clear Matt knew that the transition ...

Welcome back to the Cameron-Brooks podcast! I am excited to bring this particular episode to you, because we have the pleasure of bringing back Chuck Alvarez, Cameron-Brooks CEO. Chuck has been with Cameron-Brooks for over 25 years, the last 9 of which has been at the head of the organization. He has personally helped over 2,500 JMOs move from the military to Corporate America, so he brings a wealth of insight and perspective to the conversation. Back on January 4, 2021 our Senior Vice Presiden...