Joe | Vector Accelerator (00:01)
Right? Subscat.
Scott Schimmel (00:05)
Did we start recording? I think we did. Yeah, hey Joe. Good to see you. We're so mellow right now.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (00:07)
Yeah, it's recording.
to see us.
Yeah, yeah, it feels kind of mellow.
Scott Schimmel (00:13)
Hey, Joe.
Yeah, it does. Yeah. We are March 31st. This will probably come out not in April Fool's Day, April 2nd. And ⁓ no joke, we spent a few hours on Monday with Allegiant Vets, a fantastic organization, 500 plus veterans, many of them active duty. Are they all active duty? I think they're all active duty.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (00:38)
Most of them are
active duty. There's a few that are out, most majority, would say out of the 500 something, probably like 450 are active. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (00:40)
Okay, still.
So they're in a skill bridge program interns and we get a chance to help them think about their transition. And obviously most of the conversation around ⁓ career transition, military transition is around things like resume and LinkedIn. we don't touch that. Or I should say we don't fully dive into that. We think there's something that goes in front of that, which is vector accelerator. So just your thoughts, Joe, on this most recent, I think this is the
Maybe seventh or eighth time we've done this live once a month with this crew. And it's, it's, I think it's fantastic. So what was your thoughts from this week?
Joe | Vector Accelerator (01:26)
Yeah, it's amazing that we get to do this, first of all. ⁓ I think a lot of them, when they start hearing you, specifically you, because you usually launch the program, and I love how you set the tone. And I think in their mind, what you're saying about LinkedIn and resume and all that, they're kind of expecting that. That's the show. But then when you start talking, you share stories and you talk about
Scott Schimmel (01:47)
Mm hmm. Yeah.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (01:57)
trying to find who you are outside of the role, which for many of them just, it's like pumping the brakes really hard. ⁓ So much so that they start thinking about their own story and it might be natural to go into IT or it might be natural to stay in the aviation industry because that's what they did on a carrier. But then they start thinking about, man, maybe, maybe I don't want to do that. know, and it's that little.
Scott Schimmel (02:15)
Mm-hmm.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (02:25)
that little switch that they don't get anywhere else. They get it in vector. It's awesome to see it. You can almost see the aha moments. And if you don't see it, you see the chat where on the side, we're doing this live, there's a whole bunch of back and forth, sometimes jokes, typical military stuff, right? But there's a lot of vulnerability in there and ⁓ people, some self talk too. I mean, notice that there's like a lot of like some self talk and
Scott Schimmel (02:35)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (02:55)
saying, I don't know if I can afford to dream. don't know if, you ⁓ And so you and I have this uphill battle, but it's worth it to show them there's another way. There's a better way, right? And yeah, it's cool. I love it every time we get to do it.
Scott Schimmel (02:56)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I liked the comment someone wrote in the chat. We always start off with the general question. What are you worried about? What's your biggest transition problem? What's on your mind right now? And so you just get a whole host of folks who are talking about their transition. And someone wrote something that I don't think I've heard anyone share before. I think it was a ⁓ woman who said, I feel like I'm graduating from high school. I feel like it's the same.
taking me back to the same fields I had during that time. And obviously, Joe, you and I grew up very different places. And what it reminded me of, at least the way I related to it was in my high school, I went to this like private prep Catholic prep school where ninety nine point nine percent of the graduating class, four and something. They all went to university. So it was like it wasn't if it's where and then it became
Joe | Vector Accelerator (03:59)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Schimmel (04:11)
kind of a competitive wear, where are you going? And there was just this like ranking system that no one really shared, but you know, Ivy League. And what so what would happen would be on I think it was on Fridays, it was like college sweatshirt Fridays, the one day you didn't wear just your uniform, you got to put on a little pizzazz and, and, ⁓ and towards the end of senior year, people would be wearing the sweatshirts of the college that they chose.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (04:17)
Mm.
Scott Schimmel (04:37)
And you wouldn't go a day without hearing comments that kids would make about each other's, you're going there. really? Like, for whatever reason, whether it's they have a bad mascot, or you look down on them, or you thought they were nerdy, whatever. But what ⁓ I was reminded about was I chose a school that in my world, people more or less look down upon. It was like, you're going, you're just going there. And what a
Joe | Vector Accelerator (04:51)
Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (05:07)
What a powerful way to ⁓ shape someone's concept of themselves. It's a really vicious thing. And so I wanted to dig in a little bit on that because we talked about this in the last episode, how comparison is such a big deal. ⁓ But I think we need to spend a little bit more time about just that dynamic of the different voices that are part of our transition and ⁓ how do we...
pay attention that that might be influencing the actual choices that we make. ⁓ So anyways, just to open up there, your thoughts on high school transition.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (05:42)
Yeah. Well, I mean,
I had the opposite of what you had. I was a typical Gen Xer latchkey kid. So by that time, our parents were divorced and I was walking to and from school from home and the house would normally be empty. So I would kind of make my own bologna sandwich. Right. And then did I do my homework? No. Because why? I had no structure.
Scott Schimmel (05:47)
Ha ha ha
Joe | Vector Accelerator (06:12)
I wanted to just go hang out and, ⁓ and I really wasn't studious. So that was not the best environment for me. So there were two groups of people. There are some that went towards college and then some like in the other category. ⁓ but looking back at it, just hearing your story and then even the environment I was in, there was still a structure that was still sort of this, call it script. I don't know that you're kind of playing, playing. And, ⁓ and then at some point it's kind of like.
Scott Schimmel (06:22)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (06:41)
choose your, you know, the flip book growing up, like, like choose your, choose your fate or choose your adventure. Okay. Well, you can go left and down the hallway and open the door and you can go to college and pick that college, or you can go this way and not go to college and get a job and just kind of figure it out. ⁓ but that script is somewhat like, a security blanket in many ways. And then all of sudden that it's abrupt. And so to your point, when you're talking about that one veteran who said, I feel like I'm
high school again, like that script is ending, that plan is ending. Because in the military, there's another script. It's very much laid out for you. The difference though, which we've talked about at great length in the past, is the job in the military, some people's work that they choose, whether it's maybe law enforcement or medical, like saving lives or whatever, there's a mission and a purpose behind it. Agriculture, there's a lot of people farming out there that love doing that work because there's a big impact.
society, whatever. So that's cool. But the feeling of that ending is kind of like high school, like leaving high school again, okay, now, what do do now? So it leaves a question, you know, there's a bunch of question marks that are hanging over your head. And these are folks that are now in their 30s and some 40s, feeling like they're 18 years old again. It's wild to just consider that, think about.
Scott Schimmel (07:47)
Yeah? Right.
Right.
Yeah.
We were on a call this morning with a new friend, newer friend, Megan Brown. She runs talent acquisition at Visa and a shout out to Megan. We hope to have her on the podcast as a guest pretty soon, but she made a comment that reminded me of this topic. She just had said that she's noticed when she has conversations with veterans that there is a temptation on their side to kind of hand her or her team their resume and then just kind of say where
Joe | Vector Accelerator (08:18)
Mm.
That'd be great.
Scott Schimmel (08:39)
What do I do? What where do you want to put me? And she was just saying like, you know, of course culturally give me orders. I just tell you know and and how she and her team have developed a very clear philosophy of we're not going to do that. And I thought that was so refreshing because it's the same thing we're trying to do is the ⁓ maybe the same experience that this woman yesterday was talking about. Allegiant Fats of the transition of high school is really the first time.
that point of your life where the question is, what do you want to do? And obviously, there's a script there based on where your culture and your family, but but it is like, for real, what do you want? Even even my daughter who's a junior, we're going on a college trip next week. And ⁓ the biggest, the challenge is the question for her is what do you want? Where do you want you to go with your life? And obviously, that's so different than tell me what to do. Tell me what's next. And so obviously, that brings up a ⁓
Joe | Vector Accelerator (09:24)
also in your court. Yeah.
Mm.
Scott Schimmel (09:38)
For many people, a sense of thrill and optimism because it triggers autonomy and many people are wired for that. But for others, it's like the loss of security and predictability and status quo can be terrifying, can be paralyzing. I loved it because I highly value agency and autonomy, but I'm not necessarily wired for security and safety.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (09:54)
Yeah.
Yeah, and that's okay. Cause I think that's the same thing with military folks too. There are some that will transition well and they'll jump right into something and it's not an issue. ⁓ we're kind of working with the majority that do have these sense of anxiety. They don't address it though. They just kind of right past it. They push it down, suppress it and go right into a job. And they're like, okay, now I'm doing the civilian thing. Does this tie look right? You know, you know, whatever. don't know. It's, ⁓ but the difference with
Scott Schimmel (10:22)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (10:33)
And it's funny because I'm thinking about this, this late, this, ⁓ woman who said that yesterday about high school, man, you think about yourself, Scott at 18 and then think of yourself as a third, you know, your age now, like imagine you're exiting the military, how much experience in leadership and getting stuff done and getting your teeth kicked in, but then also finding a way out to succeed in that thing that you were doing or like, there's so much story there. It's not the same. It's.
Scott Schimmel (10:37)
Mm-hmm.
and I'll
Right.
Yeah.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (11:03)
clearly. So it's one thing that, I understand the feeling you have, but tell me what you did in the military. Tell me how you did it in the military. Tell me how you survived that one thing that you know was really difficult, but you found a solution. When you start getting into all those stories, that's when the person's sort of like they start shifting in their seat a little bit realizing, man, I actually have a lot to contribute. I actually just need to find the right environment. And so, hey,
Scott Schimmel (11:07)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I know.
Right.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (11:33)
people at Visa or whoever company name the company, you know, what is it about you and your company and organization? What's your mission? What are you, what are you trying to achieve? And it's having these personal real, you know, human connection conversations versus flicking resume and hoping it sticks to something that's, yeah.
Scott Schimmel (11:35)
And that's
Right.
Right. Someone pick me. Pick this,
pick this, this resume and put it to work and relieve my anxiety. ⁓ Yeah. Right. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. Long arms. Regardless, as you're going through transition, there's, there's a researched method.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (11:59)
We're not picking dodgeball teams right now. Like, okay, the tall kid, know, no, it's not, it's not what we're doing. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (12:15)
about how to manage transition well. And so much of that obviously is about what's going on in the future. But the research shows that the people that handle transition the best are also the ones who take time to unpack what they've been through and how it shaped them. And a part of that might be to do some work emotionally, potentially grieve things, which is an emotional process of recalling what you've been through and allowing yourself to feel what you didn't feel at the time.
or didn't have the space to, or maybe the language to, and then it's a process of letting that go. And there's also a side of rejoicing and celebrating and gratitude for what you've gained, the experiences you've had, the people you've met and touched. And again, the best way to go through transition is to actually look backwards and spend some time there before you can really look forwards. you know, it's in some ways, when I share that people are like,
it really so I think it's you got to kind of trust us trust the research trust that that process works well because it can feel unproductive to look backwards. ⁓ But you know, if you don't you'll be carrying stuff with you that might not be helpful for your next season of life and at the very least will distort some of the clarity that you could have if you were to do that work, which is why you and I are such believers in introspection guided journaling processing out loud.
The point is not to get stuck there. The point is to move through there and ⁓ integrate and make sense and connect dots so that you have a cohesive coherent story going forward. Any parting comments for me, Joe?
Joe | Vector Accelerator (13:57)
Now it's just amazing to see when veterans do transition well. They have this sense of agency. They have this sense of clarity, which we've talked about at every podcast is what is clarity? Well, the veteran decides, they define what success looks like. It's not you or I telling them that. So it's a sense of empowerment. And that's what we're trying to do is help as many veterans get through that. We're a guide. We walk with you through it. And vector is very much the method we do it.
Scott Schimmel (14:12)
Yeah. Right.
Mm-hmm.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (14:25)
So we encourage you, you're hearing this for the first time, you're curious, log in and seek us out.
Scott Schimmel (14:33)
That's it. See you in there.
Joe | Vector Accelerator (14:34)
Yeah,
too easy.
Scott Schimmel (14:36)
you
