Transition through connection with LinkedIn

Transition through connection with LinkedIn

Servicemembers looking down the road to leaving the military - whether it's two years or three months away - might feel overwhelmed by all the options and pathways ahead of them. The ever more interconnected and always-on nature of communication today can make it confusing to boot.

Matt Scherer has looked down that road himself, and wants to help his younger brothers and sisters. The San Antonio resident served more than 20 years in the Air Force, retiring in 1997, and even when he got out it was "a little rocky at first," he says. He worked at a major insurance company, then went to school, then decided to get the tools to build a public relations company - "so I definitely saw the need to understand the transition."

With that inspiration, Scherer wrote "LinkedIn for Military: A Warrior's Guide for Changing Careers," published in 2014. He talks about the LinkedIn social networking system - which bills itself as "the world's largest professional network" with over 300 million members around the world in literally every walk of life - as the best way for today's transitioners to gain the connections they need to pursue an education, a career or both, whether they went into the military with that goal or developed it later, and provides step-by-step instructions for planning, starting and bolstering a profile. Those who want to go to school can find people at that school who can tell them if it's friendly or if they can find mentors - perhaps they'll even find them there. And those who just want to get a job can reach out to professionals for guidance and advice. "The military has its own informal networks," Scherer says, but they might not be exactly what people need when they get out.

LinkedIn focuses on combining your education, career, other interests and other connection points (like military service). According to Scherer, his book has received a lot of positive feedback: "A lot of people have used it to find the network they're looking for."

Scherer suggests that those currently serving sit down with paper and a trash can 18 months to two years before even thinking about leaving, and start a "dream sheet" of what they need and have to do when they leave the military. If time is shorter, he says, "write a profile that Larry the Cable Guy (i.e., a civilian) can understand." Those informal networks will come in handy to get recommendations from higher-ups now, and to reach back to later.

In the spirit of connection, Scherer even thinks LinkedIn could make a useful membership tool for American Legion posts; with a profile of their own, they could reach out to area employers, then host a weekend job event with those employers. Scherer definitely believes in connection, and in LinkedIn as a way to it - he is working on a similar book for college students. But to give an elevator pitch of sorts on his current project: "LinkedIn makes it a lot easier for military guys to build a network ... to help them get a job." Wherever they are.