What can I say except you are welcome.\n\nDoes that make any sense to you?\n\nI sure hope it does! 

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I'd be remiss if...\nI didn't at least start this blog by making it \nextremely\n clear that while I truly believe in the advice I'm sharing in this post, there is absolutely more than one road that leads to Rome (or in this case perhaps Silicon Valley? 😛 ). While this general approach helped me in my own personal transition out of the Air Force, it's certainly not the end all be all.\nI also want to highlight from the jump that this post is focused mostly on breaking into big tech, so depending on the companies you end up targeting your experience could be \nradically\n different. There is a ton of upside to targetting smaller companies, startups, and some titans of industry that don't often get associated with "big tech" specifically. No wrong way to go about this either, but wanted to at least put out this disclaimer. \nAs with everything else you see online, feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt, keep what works for you, and dump the rest. No matter what, I wish you will in your own pursuit and hope this helps in some form or fashion! 🙌 \nBreak Break Break It Down \nWhile my own personal journey was centered on trying to make the jump into big tech as a software engineer, I think the majority of my perspective holds true for a lot of the more technical positions in the tech industry. With that in mind, my plan is to keep this breakdown more general for the sections I'll lay out below. If there is interest, I can dive deeper down the road into my experience with more of the software specific lessons learned.\nIn terms of my overall journey, I've grouped my effort into three distinct stages:\nLook Yourself in the Mirror 🪞 \nLimber Up 🏃‍♂️ \nLobster in a Pot 🍲 \nIf you're starting to regret reading this, stay with me. It'll make sense--I swear! \nLook Yourself in the Mirror 🪞\nThis step is absolutely critical in any career transition, military or otherwise, and it's the step that I'd wager most people transitioning out ignore until it's too late to really adjust course. This is a huge decision you're making, and it's not one to be taken lightly. While there is plenty of time to recover from a misstep here career wise, there is no bigger favor future you will appreciate more than putting in the time and effort to ensure you know \nexactly\n what you want from your transition. \nIf you think of your new career as a ladder 🪜, knowing and understanding precisely what rung you are seeking AND are suited for are both absolutely crucial in shaping your entire application and interview strategy. Defining this well will help you fine tune what positions you lock in on, and will ensure that you capture your relevant value in whichever one you end up landing. Why start from the bottom when your experience may have you a good ways up the ladder already?  \nTo help define this well, here are three questions that I labored over extensively:\n1. What do I actually want to do when I get out?\nFor a lot of people, this is decided subconsciously--"I worked in xyz field in the military, so I'll do xyz when I get out." For others, they obsess over it and as a result become too nervous to really dial into anything specific. You'll see those sorts of people with seemingly endless attributes in their linked in taglines (e.g Caleb Winningham - Software Engineer | Product Manager | Leader | Cybersecurity Expert | Innovator | <- I'm sure you all have a person or two that comes to mind for this haha 😂 ). These roles, while all in tech, really aren't all that similar and if anything, to me at least, show a lack of focus to the outside eye. If you don't know what you want to be when you get out, who does? Even if it means completely starting from zero in a completely new career, this is your chance to take the wheel 🏎.\n2. If I'm being brutally honest, how qualified am I for the role I want? What level should I be targeting? \nIf knowing what role you want is the destination, then the level you should be targeting in interviews is more or less your route. Some roads are through icy winter mountains 🏔, others through easy Kansas interstates. You wouldn't try to drive a motorcycle 🏍 up a icy wintery incline because it's not prepared for that challenge just like you would be wasting the potential of a souped up snowplow on the open Kansas highway. \nFrom all my conversations with people who have made this transition, are in process of this transition now, or are planning for one soon, this is the biggest mistake I've seen people make. Just because you worked in a similar role in the military doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have the experience needed to work the same level of role on the outside. Using software engineering as an example, working 4 or 5 years in the Air Force on a tool or app that is used by a few thousand people won't necessarily qualify you to work as a senior engineer on a tool that is used by tens of millions of people. The opposite can be just as true. It's no knock on you either way, but this critical self-evaluation is crucial in ensuring you don't over/under shoot your true experience and potential.\n3. What factors are most important to me in this next role? 🌎 💰 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦\nNothing gets me more personally frustrated than when the slew of "transition experts" on social media tout the idea that you should disregard things like location or salary in the name of prioritizing getting your foot in the door with the first company that looks your way. You have had essentially ZERO input on a lot of these things up to this point, and now more than ever I think you should be picky. Think about things like salary, benefits, work/life balance, and location. Again, if you don't know what you want, who does?\nWith that being said, being picky doesn't mean getting every single thing that you want so knowing and prioritizing what's important to you is key. For me, I knew that location was non-negotiable; with this in mind, I mentally prepared for the reality that my salary may end up being lower than it could be elsewhere but that trade off was in line with my family's wants and needs. \nBenefit of Really Knowing Yourself\nAfter spending some time sitting and reflecting over each of these areas, I came out with a clear, specific job that I wanted (software engineer), an honest self-evaluation of my abilities which shaped the roles I would target (mid-level), and I knew that wherever I landed I wanted a specific location with another big emphasis on work/life balance. By answering just a few questions, the millions of jobs I could have maybe filled were cut down dramatically.\nLimber Up 🏃‍♂️ \nOnce you know what you're shooting for, the next major focus should be on preparing yourself for the race ahead. The interview process can be absolutely brutal, so focusing on your "training leading up to the big run" is huge! Here are a few things to have absolutely dialed in as you approach the time to really put yourself out there:\nResume: \nIt is not uncommon to see hundreds if not thousands of applications for roles when you scope out jobs at some of the bigger tech companies. Fine tuning your resume to (a) capture your relevant skills and background concisely and (b) ensure it is good enough to make it pass auto-screeners is pivotal. There are ample resources out there to help with this, but it's time well spent to ensure this is in order. (Semi-related sidenote: because of how busy these companies are screening candidates, I would not waste a ton of time with cover letters. No one across the 20 or so places I interviewed with even looked at any of mine)\nLinkedIn: \nWhen you switch your profile to "Looking for Work," LinkedIn uses your profile's data to help highlight you to recruiters seeking candidates for applicable roles. To ensure you're ready for this, I'd recommend you do the following:\nGet a good, non-uniform photo of you on your profile (dress for the job you want!)\nUpdate your location to where you want to work out of if that's relevant\nShape your tagline and summary section to capture the relevant details about you \nconcisely\n \nUpdate your skills section with relevant keywords/skills\nEnsure your experience matches up with your resume and is in plain English\nInterview Prep: \nDepending on the role you are aiming for in tech, this could be extensive or it could be extremely extensive 😭. For most all interviews, behavioral rounds will be a major component. To prep for these, I'd recommend having 10-12 stories typed up at a high level so that you have some "Tell me a time when" situations ready to share when prompted. In addition to having stories, ensuring you are able to share them eloquently is key; to do this well, I'd recommend having a format like the STAR method that you mentally use to work through a story. 
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⁠Next, if you are applying for a more technical role, you will likely need to spend a significant amount of time preparing for algorithm centric problems and system design questions. If you haven't heard of Leetcode, I'd recommend checking it out as it's basically the best resource for this sort of prep at this point. \nCompany Research: \nFor this, I ended up making a spreadsheet of over 65 companies that met the factors that I had deemed important to me with a link to their career pages (I was advised to apply directly on company sites vs some of the popular career pages). This way, when I started applying for positions, I could quickly work down the list and add notes where applicable along the way. While location is a little more straightforward, these following resources were invaluable in evaluating salary (levels.fyi) and work/life balance (teamblind.com and glassdoor.com)\nOnce you're around 3 or so months out it's time to transition into the last phase of this grueling journey. That may feel way too early to start applying but the interview loops for candidates are long at a lot of the major companies and a week or two between two or three interview rounds adds up quick! ⏰ \nLobster in a Pot 🍲 \nI will warn you--this part is definitely not fun (at least it wasn't for me haha). It's in this phase that you are going to have to balance and confront a slew or really tough things:\nHaving an interview or two not go your way whatsoever\nGetting a rejection following a lengthy interview you thought went well\nNot even making it through the auto-screening of a company you may have been stoked about\nHaving to potentially slowly lower your expectations and compromise on things that you were hoping for\nHaving to sit through upwards of 5 hour long interviews at a time (5 one hour rounds); even when interviews go really well this is generally a horrible time 😂\nThese things, plain and simple, are hard. These jobs at the bigger companies especially are hard to get, and you will certainly be tested; but, if you remain focused and put the time in to prepare it honestly is just a numbers game. You only need one 'Yes', so if it takes 50 'No's to get there that's just the price of admission. \nWe're much smarter than lobsters, so as we enter this last pressure cooker it's a lot clearer to us when the water starts getting hot. It's then, more than ever, that you need to allow yourself to process your feelings while also reminding yourself that you are (a) more than capable of this and (b) are determined to see it through. You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket, and the more you interview the better your odds are of getting to that 'Yes'; in many cases, you'll get to a group of 'Yes's all at once! \nAs you work down your list of companies you made in phase 2, apply for 2-3 roles if you can find that many that you are qualified for. A lot of bigger companies have a different recruiter for each of those roles working to fill a slot on a different team. It does not look bad to apply for a few, and in many cases it really helps. You will usually hear back quickly from companies if they aren't moving forward with you since the screening autorejects candidates faster or the role that looks open on the website is actually closed. For me, my first batch of interview requests took about 5 days to start trickling in.\nThe interview process will usually start with a quick, informal feeling-out sort of call with the recruiter and here you will basically just confirm for them you are a normal human capable of conversing appropriately and they will often share details on the interview process for that company, some details on the role, and capture some high level background info on you. Sometimes, though not always, they will ask for salary expectations on this call; more and more companies will provide ranges for you now, but it's a good idea to scan through glassdoor and levels.fyi to establish a baseline of what to say if prompted. \nFrom there, a shorter screening will usually get scheduled. From this point on, it is in your best interest to know exactly how you should prepare for the interviews ahead that are specific to that company. Your recruiter POC will be a good person to get broad stroke expectations from, but I would highly recommend that you leverage glassdoor's interview section for each company you have interviews with to get an idea of how they are structured and how best to prepare. \nFor this first round, if it's for a technical role it will likely be a one hour timed algorithm based question with an engineer from the company you're interviewing for; sometimes this first round is also solo through an online testing platform. For other less technical roles, it may be more conversational. If you pass this round, you will usually move on to either one more additional short screening or what is called an 'onsite.' Though more and more of these are now virtual,  you may be asked to come in in-person for one depending on the role and location. These will typically be 4-5 hours long, with each hour being a different evaluation with a new evaluator. These are usually a good mix of 1 or so rounds prodding into some of your work background, 2-3 rounds testing your technical skills and design familiarity, and 1 or 2 rounds probing your behavioral skills. From my experience, you will need to do 'Above Average' on all of the rounds to have a shot at landing the role. There is nothing more frustraiting than killing all but one round, but it's best to expect that will happen at some point. After this longer interview session, you will typically hear back within 7 business days with a decision. 🤞 \nIn Summary\nIn the end, I applied to almost 115 roles, got interview requests from ~20 companies, made it to 8 or 9 final onsite interview rounds. From there, I ended up with 3 offers from the 5 final rounds I completed before accepting a role. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, and doubted myself countless times throughout the process. I had many, many late nights, and several strong urges to pursue something less technically demanding. \nI am so glad I stayed the course. \nKeep your chin up. You only need one 'Yes.'

A few tips and tricks for anyone considering a move into big tech after their time in the military. 

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