Cameron-brooks

Learn how Fran Lawler went from JMO to C-Suite. This former officer is an incredibly successful leader. She is a 1995 West Point Graduate, served six successful years in the Army as a Medical Service Corps Officer, and transitioned to a business career in 2001 through Cameron-Brooks. She earned her MBA at Harvard and has held high-level human resources roles, including several Chief Human Resources Officer positions. She recently founded her own leadership consulting and coaching company, Harvest Cove Talent Partners. Fran is also the first officer I recruited to participate in the Cameron-Brooks program. I met her in Leesville, LA, just outside Fort Polk, LA (now Fort Johnson) in May 2000. She agreed to be a podcast guest to share her experience and leadership lessons. She shares her incredible story, filled with lessons on resilience, adaptability, and the pursuit of personal growth. Fran’s insights shed light on what it takes to lead with authenticity and impact. Identify Personal Purpose A pivotal moment

Welcome back to another Post-Conference Recap. For the November 2024 Career Conference, we had three of our most recent alumni on a webcast to share their experiences about the Cameron-Brooks process and where they chose to launch their careers. Aine Armstrong – LT, Navy Supply Officer Maria Blom – CPT, Army Engineer Officer Haadi Elsaawy – LT, Navy Surface Warfare Officer They each offered great advice and perspective to other military officers who are preparing to transition. In this conversation, we cover many topics around some of the following questions: November 2024 Conference Statistics Economy Update Developmental opportunities at the November 2025 Career Conference Interview preparation tips and techniques Did the opportunities at the Career Conference meet your salary expectations? Why did you choose a partnership with Cameron-Brooks? What were the conversations like with these Hiring Managers? Study Groups Tips to Ace the Interview! And much more! I think these Career Con

Welcome to another episode of the PCS to Corporate America Podcast. This is a special episode for me. I recently completed my MA in Organizational Leadership at Gonzaga University. I significantly changed as a leader and person as a result of this program. The Leadership and Hardiness class co-taught by Dr. Adrian Popa and Kelsey Solberg, which I took this past summer, particularly impacted me. Dr. Popa and Kelsey graciously allowed me to interview them for this podcast. In a world of constant change and challenges, resilience, and hardiness are critical qualities for leaders navigating transitions. Dr. Popa, Kelsey, and I dive deep into these themes.   This episode is packed with insights for those transitioning from military service to civilian careers or simply seeking greater purpose in their work. Below are key highlights from this enlightening conversation.   Exploring the Foundations of Resilience Dr. Popa opens the podcast with a personal reflection on his childhood in Eastern Europe under a co

Happy Holidays from the Cameron-Brooks Team! In this podcast, Cameron-Brooks team members from our company's candidate and client sides share lessons from 2024 and what we look forward to in 2025. As usual, you will hear from Transition Coaches Brock Dudley and me (Joel Junker), as well as two new voices from our client side, Lauren Kordzik and Megan Miller. We will feature them more in our 2025 podcasts.   Below are some highlights from the podcast. Learning and Preparation Extends Beyond the Transition One of the key takeaways from the discussion is the importance of preparation—not just for the interviews but for the entire journey. We emphasize that understanding the business landscape is just as crucial as understanding your strengths and interests. Your path might have been clearly defined in the military, but in business, you need to proactively shape your career. This shift requires continuous learning and growth, and we provide practical tips to help you to do so. These tips include: Be curiou

In July of this year, I climbed Mount Adams in southern Washington, just across the Columbia River from Hood River, OR. I did this climb as a part of my Leadership and Hardiness class at Gonzaga University for a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership. I complete my degree four days after this podcast publishes! I learned much from my classmates, Team Denali, whom I prepared and climbed with, and my instructors. While climbing posed a significant physical challenge, I discovered the most profound life and leadership lessons during this climb. My colleague Brock Dudley interviewed me to draw out those lessons and share them in this podcast. We cover the following lessons: Beyond Goal Setting: The Value of Presence We often get caught up in pursuing goals, striving to reach the next milestone or achievement. I struggle with this tendency, prioritizing tasks and objectives over personal connections. However, my experience at Mount Adams and my studies in Organizational Leadership at Gonzaga University re

As we reflect on what makes Cameron-Brooks not just a company, but a community, one word comes to mind: gratitude. Every day, we are reminded of the extraordinary individuals who make our mission possible, and today, we pause to acknowledge the contributions that drive our success. We’re grateful for the dedication of our team. At Cameron-Brooks, every role is crucial, and the commitment our team members bring to empowering leaders is nothing short of inspiring. From preparing candidates for their transition to connecting companies with top-tier talent, your efforts make an immeasurable impact. We’re grateful for the trust and partnership of our candidates. Transitioning from the military to the corporate world is a significant journey, and we’re honored to guide each individual through this process. Your courage, ambition, and openness to growth are what make our work so meaningful. We’re grateful for the companies with whom we partner. Your confidence in our ability to provide exceptional tale

What does a post-military career in Operations look like? In today’s fast-paced and competitive business landscape, companies must find ways to optimize their operations, minimize costs, and meet customer expectations more effectively. The competitive advantage for any company is getting the right product, to the right customer, for the right price, at the right time by using the most cost-effective means. In this episode, we're fortunate to enough to bring back four former JMO's and Cameron-Brooks Alumni who are leading in the Operations and Supply Chain Management Career Fields to discuss their experiences, common misconceptions, and concepts like the integrated supply chain and why it is essential for sustainable growth and gaining the competitive advantage. What is Operations and Supply Chain Management? The Operations Career Field encompasses all activities in Supply Chain Management and involves leading teams of people in: Inventory Management, Warehousing, Distribution Management, Logistics, Transporta

Roughly half of the military officers who attend a Cameron-Brooks Career Conference are married when they are PCS'ing to Corporate America. Though we do not measure it, my guess is another 25% of the unmarried officers are in a serious relationship where their significant other plays a major role in the transition. Making the move is a team effort and a big deal. We know that firsthand because every former military officer who works at Cameron-Brook was married when we made the move from the military to the business world.  That is why Cameron-Brooks puts a significant premium on inviting spouses and significant others to participate in the process and create pathways to ensure that can happen. In this episode, you will meet Richard and Shelby Snyder. Richard is a former Army Field Artillery officer. He graduated from West Point in 2014 and spent 10 years in the Army. He recently attended the June 2024 Cameron-Brooks Career Conference and launched his career at Corning, Inc. I really enjoyed working with Ric

Welcome back to another Post-Conference Review. For the August 2024 Career Conference, we had three of our most recent alumni on a webcast to share their experiences about the Cameron-Brook process and where they chose to launch their careers. Marina Muenster - LT, Navy Nuclear Surface Warfare Officer Ryan De Franco  - LT, Naval Aviator David Lara - CPT, Army Air Defense Artillery I started the webcast by asking one question, then went for the questions that the attendees on the webcast asked of the panelists. My question to the group was, "What was your biggest surprise from the Career Conference?" They each offered great advice and perspective to other military officers who are preparing to transition. Prepare Ryan said he put so much time into preparing to interview that when the time came, he spent less time thinking about the tactical nature of answering interview questions and more time listening, reflecting and delivering specific answers. This allowed him to focus his answer on the unique aspects

Joel and I teamed up to talk about one of our favorite topics: Leadership! As some may know, Joel is currently a graduate student in the Gonzaga Master of Organizational Leadership program. He’s taken a couple of classes in heartiness and resiliency and read the book Leading at the Edge by Dennis Perkins, so I gave it a read! In this episode, we discuss a couple of key leadership strategies that Shackleton exemplified, and Perkins identifies in his book through extensive research and a life dedicated to learning about leadership. Dennis Perkins has spent a major part of his life trying to understand what it really means to be a leader – particularly under conditions of adversity, ambiguity, and change. His passion to understand the art of leadership began at the United States Naval Academy. He went on to commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps and serve as a Company Commander in Vietnam. His leadership “post-graduate” education continued well past the USMC. Perkins went onto atte

When Cameron-Brooks partners with a military officer, we really do view our relationship as a partner. I know when many officers find Cameron-Brooks, whether through an internet search, on social media or just through word of mouth, they often approach us with an immediate and short-term need. Namely, they are getting out of the military and want to find meaningful work that will allow them to use their leadership to make contributions to their new organization and will allow them to continue to grow and develop professionally. While certainly, that represents one of the ways we help military officers launch meaningful careers, that is not the only way we partner with military officers. Before they begin interviewing, we guide officers through a curriculum-based Development and Preparation Program (DPP)© Additionally, after an officer accepts a position and launches their career, we commit to walking alongside them throughout their career. In this episode, Cameron-Brooks Principal Lauren Kordzik shares some

When a military officer leaves the military in search of a high-potential leadership career in corporate America, there are many ways they can use their leadership experience to launch their business career. One area where officers have launched their careers and accelerated is in the career field of business analysis. This is the career field where you will provide program, process, or project leadership and support for either an internal or external customer. This type of work focuses on building and maintaining key relationships with customers by developing an in-depth knowledge of their business needs to improve or optimize results. This can be done in a wide array of functional areas and industries, such as finance, marketing, data analytics, program/project management, consulting, and many more. As a matter of fact, functionally speaking, business analysis is the broadest of the career fields we represent. Many different types of roles and functions fit into this bucket. Essentially, if the primary fun

When I interview junior military officers (JMOs) to determine their fit with the Cameron-Brooks program, I ask them to describe their leadership style. They often label their style as “I am a servant leader.” When I help the officers in our program prepare answers to the question, “What is your leadership style, or similarly, how do you build a team?” I hear much of the same, such as, “I use a servant leadership style approach.” When I hear JMOs describe what they mean, I wonder if they genuinely understand servant leadership. To help gain clarification, I interviewed Dr. Michael Carey, a professor at Gonzaga University School of Leadership Studies who was the first director of the Organizational Leadership program in 1987 to be a guest on the show. Dr. Carey is the coordinator for the Master in Servant Leadership program and teaches several classes. Gonzaga University is recognized as one of the leading institutions in Servant Leadership. I am currently a graduate student in the Gonzaga Master’s of Organiz

Let's talk about a post-military career in professional sales. Business-to-business (B2B) sales is one of the most important functions in the business world. It is where a company that makes a product or service interfaces directly with a customer. As the name suggests, B2B sales is all about selling products and services to other businesses in order to help them meet their professional goals in the market. From a JMO perspective, Sales is also one of the most misunderstood career field categories. When I initially talk to military officers about Sales, I often hear objections such as they do not want to go into a role that is 100% commission, high pressure, and high travel. Additionally, they think sales is a zero-sum game where you have to "do" something to someone in order to win. Business-to-business sales are different. With B2B Sales, your objective is to create a trusting relationship with a customer, demonstrate your credibility in solving their problem or creating value, and deliver a product or sol

I think one of the hardest parts of the transition from the military is the unknowns and uncertainty about what is next. Not everyone experiences this uncertainty. Many JMOs who move from the military have their immediate future locked up, whether they choose to attend a full-time academic program such as an MBA or law school or if they work in a general schedule (GS) role for the government agency or department, those options are often secured many months for they separate from the military. Moving from the military to the business world is often very different. Corporate America hires for and fills open positions, whether recently vacated or new positions created because of the company's growth. At each and every Cameron-Brooks Career Conference, companies attend with an actual open position and, very often, multiple open positions. By that, I mean each role has a boss and a salary with a start date in a specific location, and these positions are important and valuable to the company. We continue to featu

We started this podcast 8 years ago on May 26, 2016 and as we've reached our 200th episode, we are extremely grateful for the officers with whom we get to work with on a daily basis.  We're grateful to serve JMOs! We started the podcast with the goal of providing another avenue for military officers to hear and learn more about making the move from the military to the business world. For our first 100 episodes, we mostly focused on interviewing our alumni. In doing so, we have built a base of knowledge that many officers have dipped into to gain insight and confidence as they prepare to transition. For our centennial episode, Joel interviewed our founders, Roger Cameron and Rene Brooks. From there, we have broadened the content. Of course, we still do regular interviews with our alumni, but we also bring other content to the platform, from author interviews to roundtable discussions on current topics to "minisodes" like this episode. In this episode, Joel, Brock, and I each express our gratitude for our serv

Welcome back! As Transition Coaches, a topic that we often help officers think through as they are making decisions about getting out of the military is short-term thinking versus long-term career thinking. It is completely natural for officers leaving the military to focus and think in the short term. They have a future date in which they are going to exit the military, usually with in the next 12 months or less, and they need a plan. Because of this, there are typically two main issues that tend to drive decision-making in the transition. First, officers now have full autonomy to make a decision about their future and second, officers, at least while in the military, have never had to fully manage their careers or have had full power to make important career decisions. In this episode, our three Transition Coaches, Joel Junker, Pete Van Epps and Brock Dudley meet to has a discussion about a topic that we discuss often with military officers - short vs. long-term career thinking and decision making.   I

Welcome back! This is the second installment in our Career Field series podcasts. In our first episode (Episode 192), we featured three Cameron-Brooks alumni who explained their careers within the Engineering Management Career field. In this episode, we invited two of our alumni who launched their careers within Manufacturing. After listening to them, you'll have a better understanding where a post-military career in manufacturing can take your career. Michael Warwick is a former Army Infantry/AG officer. He attended the August 2017 Career Conference and started his career at Oldcastle Building Envelope, which creates glass products for commercial and residential buildings. He spent 5 years at that company, becoming the Plant Manager of his facility before being promoted to General Manager, covering Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. In that role, he managed all aspects of the business, from production to sales and business development functions. This allowed him to pull different levers to positively affect th

Welcome back! This episode continues our Post-Conference Review series. As many of you know, Cameron-Brooks holds five Career Conferences per year. After every Career Conference, we lead a webcast with a few of our most recent alumni to let them share their experience with the Conference and the follow-up interview process. Hear some real JMO transition stories. We continue to conduct these webcasts because officers continue to provide feedback on these episodes and how helpful they are.  Though everyone's experience through the Cameron-Brooks process differs, our alumni continue to provide valuable insight that will demystify the entire process. In this episode, you will meet: Mikayla Blaska is an Army Infantry Captain, Ranger qualified, who graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Psychology in 2019. She accepted a position with Motorola Solutions as a Territory Sales Finance Manager. Kevin Hanigan is an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle pilot who graduated from Ohio State University with a BS in Elec

Let's talk about the value of the Cameron-Brooks Preparation Program. The number one feedback comment I hear from Cameron-Brooks Alumni is, “I wish I had started preparing earlier.” Regardless of whether the officer started 12 months or 2 months before interviewing, they all wish they had more time. Another common feedback comment I hear is, “The transition from the military to a business leadership career and civilian life is more of an adjustment than anticipated.” They are changing career fields, industries, and organizations. They have to adapt and adjust to new cultures, processes, and personality styles. Start Preparation Early In this podcast, I make the argument that JMOs need to start gathering information and preparing for the transition as soon as they even consider leaving the military. Just before I wrote this post and recorded the podcast, I spoke to a naval officer who made the decision two years ago to leave the Navy, and he starts terminal leave in a month. I asked him what he had been doing