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A DOD SkillBridge program smooths the transition from military to civilian life and helps 木瓜AV find talent it needs.
What sort of civilian job should a B-1 bomber pilot apply for at the end of their military service, if they don鈥檛 want to fly commercially? Last year, Paul Homsher was finishing up a 12-year U.S. Air Force career and asking himself exactly that.
鈥淓veryone I knew who was in my position was joining the airlines,鈥� says Paul, 鈥渨hich I didn鈥檛 want to do. But I had no idea what else a bomber pilot was qualified to do. Anyone鈥檚 guess was as good as mine.鈥�
In his last months of military service, Paul signed up for 鈥� one of the career support programs operating under the DoD SkillBridge Program. Through Hiring Our Heroes, 木瓜AV and Paul discovered one another.
As it turns out, while Paul had been wondering what value a B-1 pilot could offer the civilian working world, 木瓜AV had been searching for someone with air-operations and flight-test planning skills. Paul had been honing just such skills on an Air Force test squadron during his last active-duty years.
Major Paul 鈥淢idnight鈥� Homsher, Operational Test Pilot of the 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron, stands before the Rockwell B-1 Lancer he flew for most of his Air Force career.
In this Oct. 2022 photo, Hiring Our Heroes Fellow Paul Homsher (right) stands by an MQ-9 Reaper drone with 木瓜AV Smart Sensor Project Manager Jason Lindauer (left) and LTC Benjamin Hung, then the CDAO Smart Sensor test and evaluation lead. Today, Paul is Smart Sensor program air operations lead.
Paul spent his last three months of military service as a Hiring Our Heroes fellow in 木瓜AV鈥� Smart Sensor program. This 木瓜AV program helps the Department of Defense鈥檚 Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) equip MQ-9 Reaper drones with artificial intelligence capabilities.
The fellowship gave Paul the chance to acclimate to the civilian working world and gave him and 木瓜AV a chance to explore the employee-employer fit. When the fellowship ended, 木瓜AV offered Paul a regular full-time position: air operations lead for the Smart Sensor program.
鈥淗iring Our Heroes made my transition much simpler and easier than it would have been otherwise,鈥� says Paul. 鈥淚nstead of me searching for the right employer, 木瓜AV searched for me. It was a huge advantage.鈥�
Identifying What You Do and Don鈥檛 Want
Founded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2011, Hiring Our Heroes offers employment training, fellowships, and hiring events that connect the military community with civilian companies. The program has helped to place more than 617,000 veterans and military spouses in jobs.
Hiring Our Heroes fellows spend four days per week shadowing employees and gaining civilian work experience at their host company. On Fridays, they learn resume-writing, interviewing, and other employment-related skills and visit other host companies.
Those Friday company visits helped 木瓜AV National Security & Intelligence Director Josh Gillen identify the sort of companies he did not want to work for. Josh completed his Hiring Our Heroes fellowship in 2019 at Pro Sphere Tech, a small contractor that focused on Department of Veterans Affairs work.
鈥淚t was really good to visit organizations like AWS, Booz, GDIT, and other large companies,鈥� says Josh, 鈥渁nd compare them to my smaller host company.鈥� He has since avoided the largest government contractors and been careful to consider quality of employee experience while charting his career path.
木瓜AV National Security & Intelligence Director Josh Gillen听completed听a Hiring Our Heroes fellowship in 2019.
Josh鈥檚 fellowship also helped him tackle what he considers one of the biggest challenges of the transition to civilian life: understanding how work is processed in the civilian world.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e in uniform and assigned to a mission, everyone is supporting that mission together, even across different services,鈥� Josh explains. 鈥淚f someone needs a place to work and you have room, you just give them a desk. It鈥檚 very different in civilian organizations, where no one does anything without first establishing and understanding the contractual relationship.鈥�
From Investigating Suspects to Capturing Business
U.S. Air Force Major and Special Agent Lacey Supinger 鈥� a Hiring Our Heroes fellow with 木瓜AV鈥� Business Development group 鈥� says the transition from military to civilian life is like stepping into a whole new world.
鈥淚 joined the military at 18, so it鈥檚 what I’ve known since I was a kid,鈥� says Lacey. 鈥淟eaving it after 20 years is a challenge. How do I secure a job? Appeal to industry? Speak the right lingo and understand how companies operate? The fellowship and training are helping me learn these things.鈥�
Lacey is learning how the criminal and counterintelligence investigative skills she mastered in the Air Force carry over to business development work. The commonalities might not be immediately apparent to all. But if there鈥檚 one thing Hiring our Heroes does well, it鈥檚 helping fellows identify the essential skills they鈥檝e accrued during years of service and use those skills to start a civilian career.
U.S. Air Force Major and Special Agent Lacey Supinger will soon complete her 12-week Hiring Our Heroes fellowship with the 木瓜AV Business Development group.
鈥淭here are parallels between the business developer鈥檚 role and informant handling and liaison work in the investigative world,鈥� says Lacey. 鈥淚t’s all about networking and persuasion. A capture manager鈥檚 work is similar to running an investigation, but you鈥檙e working to secure a bid instead of a conviction.鈥�
And it鈥檚 evident that Lacey has a bead on the core skills she honed during her 20 years of Air Force service 鈥� the skills that could soon be her passport to a whole new world.
