Lessons Learned for Vets

Send us Fan Mail Amber Kulesza served 12 years in the Air Force and Air Force Reserves. Her transition was unexpected, and she wasn’t given much time to plan. Despite these challenges, she navigated through the transition with the help of a robust network and leveraging certifications to upskill. After working in human resources for the State of Florida, she took a year to travel, decompress, expl...

Send us Fan Mail After serving 10 years as active duty Air Force, Jeremy Montgomery, who goes by Monte, served an additional 12 years in the Air National Guard. When he retired in 2020, he used LinkedIn to grow his network and ultimately land a role with Fusion Cell as their business development manager. Although hired right away, Jeremy reflects on his transition and shares his mistakes and offer...

Send us Fan Mail Having served 7 years as a US Army intelligence officer, Sarah Ostrowski decided she was ready for a new challenge. Her transition plan included going back to school, however, when the acceptance letters started to arrive, her gut was telling her to go in a different direction. Today she is the Manager of Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis for the Walt Disney Company. Her job...

Send us Fan Mail Husband and wife team Nathan Wallace and Kelsey Wolf-Wallace share the microphone on this episode of the Lessons Learned for Vets podcast. After serving 5 years in the US Army as a junior enlisted soldier, Nathan decided to separate in 2019. Not prepared for his separation, he shares his struggles and the resources that helped him get back on track.  While Kelsey was supporting Na...

Send us Fan Mail After serving 10 years as a pilot in the US Navy, Mark Rothschild was ready for something new. Knowing his strong work ethic, his need to connect with people and desire for a career where pay was connected to effort, he decided on a career in tech sales. After completing a training program to gain a base foundation on the tech world and a framework for how to be successful in sale...

Send us Fan Mail You know me, Lori Norris, as the host of the Lessons Learned for Vets podcast, but did you know I have been providing education resources to the military community since 2005? I have owned my own resume writing business since 2004 and I've written close to 5,000 resumes.  There are lots of great resources out there on LinkedIn, networking and job searching, but there are only...

Send us Fan Mail After spending 27 years in the USAF on active duty and in the reserves as an intel officer, Brian Niswander continues using his background in data and analytics as the founder of Military-Transition.org, an organization that uses data analytics and visualizations to assist with the transition process  For 21 years, Brian worked in both the public and private sector in market resea...

Send us Fan Mail When Lucas Connolly retired after a 20-year career in the US Army as a Field Artillery Officer, he accepted a position at a Fortune 500 company. After reevaluating his career goals and values, Lucas made the decision to rejoin the military community working first as a TAP counselor and then TAP Program Manager at Fort Drum, NY. Today he continues serving the needs of transitioning...

Send us Fan Mail After serving 20 years in the United States Marine Corps conducting cybersecurity operations, Jason Shockey has successfully held 3 different chief information security officer roles in the private sector. While his transition may sound “easy”, a lot of hard work, careful planning and deliberate action has placed him at the top of the cyber industry. His methodical approach to his...

Send us Fan Mail Julie Sanders served 4 years in the US Army as an Arabic Linguist and Intelligence Analyst. With a high-level security clearance, impressive military job and veteran status, she assumed the companies she would get hired right away. However, the only place she found that valued her skills was as a contract employee with the FBI. When she decided that was not the career route she wa...

Send us Fan Mail Tyler Burkholder recently began a SkillBridge program after his service in the Navy. As a loyal follower of the Lessons Learned for Vets Podcast, Tyler has used previous podcast discussions to his advantage while building a strong network on LinkedIn. In this Military Q&A session, Tyler reflects on his transition process and looks ahead to learn how to best serve those who wil...

Send us Fan Mail Robert Washington joined the Navy after 9/11 and served for 9 years before separating to pursue a full-time career as a professional MMA fighter. After retiring from professional fighting, he found himself underemployed when he reentered the traditional workforce. By tapping into the very qualities that made him successful in the cage and in uniform, Robert reframed his mindset to...

Send us Fan Mail Joshua Atkinson served 11 years active duty in the US Marine Corps and 2 years in the reserves. He now works as a logistics SME and consultant for Whitney Bradley and Brown and as a Business Development Director for PM-ProLearn, a veteran founded project management training company.  Josh was not expecting to leave the USMC after 11 years. It was an unexpected process that was ful...

Send us Fan Mail Hayden Barnes served 4 years in the Utah National Guard and 7 years as an Army Infantryman. After participating in the Microsoft Software and Systems Academy (MSSA) in 2021, he landed a great job with an impressive salary at a tech firm in software development management.  Hayden was told by senior military leaders that he’d never make it as a civilian and should stay in the milit...

Send us Fan Mail Olivia Nunn retired from the US Army in 2021 as a Lieutenant Colonel. You may recognize her as the host of the US Army’s Soldier for Life Podcast. Olivia gets honest with us in the podcast about some of the challenges and struggles that she went through during her transition out of the military, many of which have driven her to be a passionate advocate for mental health.  On the s...

Send us Fan Mail John Axtell retired from the Marine Corps in 2014 where he was a military police officer, infantryman and a recruiter. He and I met many years ago when he went through my TAP class and I helped him see the value of his skills and experience in recruiting to land a role in talent acquisition with an airline. He went to Wells Fargo as a recruiter and is now on the Military Talent Pr...

Send us Fan Mail Andro Infante is wrapping up a successful 20-year career in the U.S. Army. With just a year until his retirement date, Andro is taking an active role in his own transition to ensure success.  In this Military Q&A session of the podcast, Andro comes to the show with some questions for Lori. Since recruiters are only spending a few seconds on each resume, what are your thoughts...

Send us Fan Mail Rich Comitz retired as a LTC from the US Army in 2019 and wrapped up his career as a Professor at the US Military Academy at West Point. After working in higher education for just over 2 years, Rich took on the role of Senior Vice President of American Corporate Partners, or ACP, at the end of 2021.  It is believed that officers, especially those like Rich with advanced degrees, s...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features husband and wife duo Scott Tucker and Jen Amos. Scott served 10 years in the US Army as an officer. Scott founded US VetWealth in January of 2012, offering financial services for career military families. Jen joined the business in 2016 as the Director of Community Relations. She's also the host of the award-winning podcast, Holding Down the Fort. Scott...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Klemmer retired from the US Army as an officer. He had a shortened 9-month time frame for his transition which really put the pressure on, especially when COVID added an extra wrinkle to the process. He found some of the provided programs to be lacking so he started looking for other resources such as LinkedIn, American Corporate Partners, SkillBridge and the COMMIT Founda...

Send us Fan Mail Eric Crist is an active duty Army Sergeant Major who will wrap up his career as a Command Career Counselor with the Army within the next few years. He is here to ask some questions about the transition process.  Question 1: What military to civilian experience gaps did I see during my time teaching the TAP program and during my 15+ years supporting veterans? Some of the common exp...

Send us Fan Mail When Tom Zacher retired from the US Navy in November of 2019, he very carefully planned out all the steps of his transition.  He had no idea there were companies that help you with your resume, so he posted his resume on LinkedIn and asked for advice. After getting a big response with many conflicting thoughts on what was right for his resume, he was a little overwhelmed. We discu...

Send us Fan Mail Samira Searcy retired from the US Army in 2020. She went from a SkillBridge internship into a role before her final out-processing date. Unfortunately, before she was even officially retired from the military, she was laid off from her position. After taking a pause to recover from that terrible experience, she quickly got back in the game. Samira talks about how she made the big...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s episode is a little bit different as our guest Michael McCoy is still serving in the Tennessee Army National Guard. He has been in talent acquisition, specifically seeking veteran and military candidates, first for Premise Health and now for Verizon.  Mike is here as an experienced talent acquisition professional to pull back the curtain and give a behind-the-scenes lo...

Send us Fan Mail Mark Brock had a relatively smooth transition after retiring from the US Army as a Command Sergeant Major. Though he landed a SkillBridge and then a great job pretty quickly, he discovered that the struggles of the military transition were much bigger than landing a job.   He vowed that he would wait until he had 2 years of experience in the private sector before he started sharin...