At Jobcase.com, we pride ourselves in being the social platform for every aspect of your working life. The members of our community represent a rich diversity of work and life experiences that we all can learn from. Read on to hear the perspective of our featured Jobcaser – Cavett Ishiara (https://www.jobcase.com/p/cavett.ishihara).

Cavett is from Salt Lake City, UT and is a job seeker with an extensive military and civilian career. He spoke to us about how he uses the community to give advice and to keep networking in the new job hunting world. Thank you for your service, Cavett!

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Cavett: I have always had two careers. I have been a career military person in the Army, in the reserves. I'm going to retire this year after 22 years of service. I have also grown up in Corporate America, in multiple locations. I have more than 15 years of experiencewith American Express. I've also ventured out into different worlds. I went back to American Express to work in their compliance group in the bank and then tried becoming a consultant. That's what I am doing right now - I want to see if I can become a consultant and do things where I'm more self employed and manage my own schedule versus being tied to a cubicle.

Wow! Can you tell us a little bit more about how your military career has helped in your civilian career Cavett: I joined the military when I was 22, with a goal to pay for college. “Come do your one weekend a month, two weeks a year, and learn your leadership skills” - and really right away it provided me a lot of opportunity. I went to basic training, started college and right away I got deployed for 9 months. In '96 I went to Bosnia, Germany, Croatia. I worked in a theater level command in public affairs and relations. I worked a lot with media and earned how to communicate at upper management level, because we were always working with Colonels, General Officers and then multiple stars in General Officers - I would say three and four star command - where you have to grow up really fast.

That provided an opportunity that when I went back to American Express to promote from being a German speaking phone rep, to a people leader. Then I was promoted to a manager role and just worked my way up. That provided me as opportunity to be a people leader, both of salary people and then hourly wage people, and help them promote and develop

Is there any advice that you could give to some of our community members who are on active duty right now, that are trying to find a civilian corporate job? Cavett: There are two epiphanies that need to occur in your military career. Number one, Mother Army is not a person. We personify Uncle Sam and Mother Army, and when you go to transition, it can create big problems.

Number two, 99% of American does not understand what you do. You can't have the expectation that you can use military lingo, military jargon, military body language, within your communication style within corporate America. It doesn't work, it not effective. Its different when you know your interviewer is ex-military, but other than that, you've got to change. You've got to adapt and really bring the intensity level, one of the largest pieces of feedback I get is, “you are so intense, you work so hard, you go so fast, slow down, your bringing the whole team but your dragging everybody with you”. It’s because we are taught to move fast. You've got to be able to anticipate, take your slowest Army day, and that's going to be your fastest corporate day.

How did you find out about Jobcase? Cavett: I was looking and searching though LinkedIn, trying to transition and figure out what I wanted to do, and I came across Jobcase. Why I did I do that second click, that third click? I think really what intrigued me was that were people like me, in my age group, that were seeing the same things that I was. It wasn't me making it up. Then I also saw other people were struggling, and to be able to voice some concerns out there with people that you can identify with, and then encourage each other, that's really why I've stayed active on Jobcase. I think it really adds value to the process, even in my own insights and my own pursuits. It helps me adapt and keep sharp.

What's one takeaway that you get from the community that you really hope that everyone's able to see? Cavett: That if you need help and you can ask for it. Be open to that feedback and apply what you think is most relevant to your the current need. In order to be employed, you have to adapt quickly and I think that's what Jobcase does. If you've got someone that says, "Hey, I'm in the same area as you, do these things". Do those things, act on it quickly. Don't just dismiss their advice just because you are frustrated.

That's what I try to, when I'm responding on Jobcase. I try to encourage, we have enough critics and we're very, very hard on ourselves. To get unstuck you need to kind of have a coach or someone to push you along and say you can do it, just change a little bit.

I also really like the candor that Jobcase can provide. Its validating to understand that, even though I'm in the West, people on the East or in the Midwest or on the West coast, are experiencing some of the same frustrations I am with the employment process. I think one of the things that we could do better as a community on Jobcase is not be negative. Don't validate me by being more negative; I get them from myself enough.

What’s the best piece of advice you can share with the community? Cavett: The biggest piece of advice that I can give anybody that's job searching is that there is a different between a goal and an objective. This is what I've learned from 22 years of being in the military. A goal, when you're searching for a job, is get a first interview. The objective is employment. You can’t reach an objective without reaching a series of goals. You need a first interview, a second interview, a good resume, a good referral, a cover letter, a way in the door… those are all goals to your objective. As soon as you understand that, you are going to be very successful because, failure comes when we fail to understand what the goals are. A goal, with this blast of resumes going out, is to get one interview. and if it takes 100 to 1, you improve when it comes down to 20 to 1. You know that you are making the right improvements when those ratios improve.

Want to connect with Cavett? Follow him on Jobcase!

Interested in being featured on Jobcase.com? Message us to schedule a time to speak about your experience with Jobcase!