As of march 2 I'm offacially eligle to begin working as a civillian again upon awaiting release from active duty military. I've been to "job hunting" workshops and the like but none of them are really geared toward Network Admins / Engineers / etc. Ive got my resume in order and have plenty of leads, that's the easy part...

What all can the community share on past experiences they've encountered during the interview process (phone and in person) that may better prepare me for what an interviewer may ask me or have me do.

Thanks for your time.

Wow, March 2nd was my ETS date also, but that was three years ago. I never spent the time going to a job fair or workshop. The most important thing that I would do is look at other people's resumes that work in IT. Try to take as much military talk and lingo out of your resume as possible. If you have a clearance that can be your ticket for a job more than even your experience depending on where you live.

In an interview besides knowing many of the questions you're asked I believe confidence and enthusiasm is most important.

Also if you find yourself in a job and you're not learning or being challenged enough get out and find another job quick. That happens quite often in government or government contract jobs. The government will hire 50 people to do the work that is required by about 10.

If you want to keep your clearance make sure to use it within 2 years of leaving the military.

BTW, what was your branch and MOS?

Don't waste your time on any more job hunting workshops. They are a complete waste of time if you want into this field. Not only do they not have anything related to the field, they ultimately try to stick you into something that has some type of sales angle and/or have jacked up hours and bad pay. The assumption being I assume that you're used to that.

I agree with sacox31s. If the job isn't really providing any type of challenge, and your first one might not, leave and leave soon. If you stay you'll end up with velvet handcuffs on. That's to say you can't leave because the money is ok or you need the insurance or it's too hard to find something else.

As far as the interview process have some hip pocket questions for the typical behavioral interview questions. The type we all hate that have nothing to do with your ability to do something but to see what type of person you are. "Tell us about a time when you had to tell a superior they were wrong." That type of crap. On the techincal side, most of my technical screens were on the phone. In those cases it was question, answer. Pretty straightforward. If you've got answers you're good. For onsite be prepared to possibly have to configure something. I didn't have to but have your mind right about it in case you do.

Keep in mind it's not the military. While you may think you're respecting the process by calling people sir or presenting yourself with military bearing, a lot of people who never served don't understand that. They'll think you're a robot and won't fit in. It's not true of course but when someone's total knowledge about the military comes from watching reruns of JAG, you can't be but so mad at them. Check their website and see if you can get a feel for what their culture is like. If you can find anyone on LinkedIn or something like that that works for the same folks see if you can ask them about what it's like to work there. If the place is full of Michael Moore fans and you're a neocon, you might want to look elsewhere. I can attest that if you HATE working there it doesn't matter how much money they give you.

Other than that I would say don't bother applying to anything you already know you're blatantly not qualified for. Some people will tell you different. At first I only applied for stuff I thought I had a chance at getting but then listened to those that said "don't eliminate yourself" and got "the finger." That's a email that tells you that you suck and they'd rather urinate glass than hire you. That's hyperbole but nobody likes rejection. The less you get the less demoralizing it is.

I made the same transition except I just went civilian with the same branch of service. I was fortunately able to get involved with an organization that supported exactly what I had been doing for work. The real trick for me was establishing a relationship with the current employees of that organization, they were able to assist me with resume preparation and also put in a good word.

To answer your question I would suggest checking out a couple websites that translate military MOS's into real world terminology. I believe this site https://www.cool.army.mil/overview.htm is a good starting point. Otherwise don't forget to include attributes like property management, time management, mission-critical situations, personnel management. It's easy to forget a lot of the non-mos skills you learned and utilized and to not give yourself credit for them.

Would be interested in what your MOS and branch were as well.