I have a job!

After a successful, accomplished and very memorable 14 year Air Force tenure, I made a risky and calculated decision. I left the military with only 6 years till retirement. The befuddled look I get from people for making such a decision is both justified on their part and hilarious on mine.

See, I joined the AF for every reason in the book: Struggling college student lacking discipline, broke, lost in a chaotic world but motivated to step up and serve after 9-11. And I left the service for just about every reason in the book.

I lost trust in my leadership on numerous levels and occasions. I filed IG complaints for serious violations of fraud, wast and abuse with no action ever taken. I could no longer serve on flight status due to having an unknown history of a stroke. The operational side of the Air Force was my bread and butter, I didn’t see myself being happy flying a desk on the support side of the house. I was over the never ending wars in the Middle East, tired of living out of a suitcase, and desperate to grow a beard.

In the last two years I got out of the AF, got married, went back to school to finish my bachelors degree, paid off all my debt, bought a house, graduated, and have a little girl due in about a month and a half. I had a couple very basic entry level jobs on campus in my new career field, which is kinesiology and health. But I couldn’t get a decent internship, and I was having a hard time getting job interviews.

I started my “post college-non entry level-real world” job search back in November as I approached my last semester of college. In that time I submitted hundreds of online applications, paid $500 for a professional resume, cold-called numerous local businesses and physically dropped off resumes at several other places in search of some kind of an opportunity. For months, I got nada, zilch, zero....I had some interviews here and there but each time I was told no. Being told “no” as an adult, time and time again, really demoralizes a person.

I started to second guess myself. The last couple months has been really stressful. My wife has a great job but she can’t afford the mortgage, bills, me and a new little one all by herself. We were plowing through our savings like a grasslands wildfire. I was starting to question everything, mildly depressed over the lack of opportunity, and my confidence was plummeting.

3-4 weeks ago I got a call from a local healthcare network about a job I applied for. It was the perfect job that fit my college education and my military managerial and leadership experience. After being told “no” for the better part of two years it felt nice to just have an opportunity to interview for a position.

But then I got called for a second interview. And then I got called with a job offer. And then I accepted the position. And now I start on Monday. I feel vindicated, validated and justified for the huge risks I took to get here. I’ve got my confidence back, the looming financial stress is lifted off my wife and I’s shoulder and the pay off is right around the corner.

Anyway, just wanted to share with you guys. If you took the time to read this, thanks for reading! I guess being a 40 hour work week kind of guy with a newborn on the way will take me off the internet a lot more. Probably a good thing with it being campaign season.

Cheers!

Good luck on the new job. Hopefully it is a good place to work and the coworkers are friendly and not cutthroats.

a reply to: Assassin82

Congratulations! So happy for and proud of you. All the best for the future, and may you be happy and fulfilled in every way.

I cringe hearing people get out with that much time in. Still should join the reserves. Join the Air Guard. One weekend a month and 2 week summer camp. Big deal. That time will go by fast and you get your retirement. You can also get cheap family health insurance in the Guard.

I would do that and also get an age waiver for officer school. You could retire at least a Captain in 6 years. You would be hauling in about 40K a year in today's dollars at retirement. Put it this way, that 6 years of one weekend a month and summer camp, 6 years of your retirement pay in today's dollars would be almost 1/4 of a million dollars. Probably even more with 14 years active. You would get your full retirement which is half your salary. Who gets that today? Almost no freakin body that's who. Only 17% of those in the military earn the retirement to put things in perspective.

a reply to: Assassin82

Congrats on the little girl.

The very first thing you do after taking your wife to dinner to celebrate ... is ...

Replace those savings you plowed through as fast as you can.

Keep those savings available and if invested, then ensure the investment is capital guaranteed.

P

a reply to: Assassin82


**CONGRATULATIONS** and very well done......

A lesson for many, never give up and every time you get knocked down GET UP

the law of averages says a time will come when you will stay up.

a reply to: Assassin82

The hardest part of any journey is taking the first step. Congratulations !!

originally posted by: Stupidsecrets
I cringe hearing people get out with that much time in. Still should join the reserves. Join the Air Guard. One weekend a month and 2 week summer camp. Big deal. That time will go by fast and you get your retirement. You can also get cheap family health insurance in the Guard.

I would do that and also get an age waiver for officer school. You could retire at least a Captain in 6 years. You would be hauling in about 40K a year in today's dollars at retirement. Put it this way, that 6 years of one weekend a month and summer camp, 6 years of your retirement pay in today's dollars would be almost 1/4 of a million dollars. Probably even more with 14 years active. You would get your full retirement which is half your salary. Who gets that today? Almost no freakin body that's who. Only 17% of those in the military earn the retirement to put things in perspective.

I loved the job I was doing, but I wasn’t happy anymore. The stress levels were becoming to much. And the stress wasn’t from the job, it was from the total work environment. Leadership, deployment demands, the non stop computer based training on things that were a complete waste of time. I didn’t really think it was worth my quality of life to chase down a pension.

Also, physically, I’m a mess. All the flight hours I logged beat my body down. All the ruck marches jacked up my feet and my knees. I left with a 60% disability rating. I think 6 more years would have given me 100%. Plus, because of the history of a stroke (the stroke was found incidentally during an MRI of my neck and I don’t recall ever having an actual stroke) the reserves, nor the guard won’t take me due to the health risks. I could have stayed active duty in a non-operational role but my overall physical and mental happiness wasn’t worth it anymore. I had to take care of myself.

Thanks! College was easy. Translating my military experience to the civilian world and playing by a new set of rules and expectations was way harder than I anticipated!

Double Post

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: Assassin82

Congrats on the little girl.

The very first thing you do after taking your wife to dinner to celebrate ... is ...

Replace those savings you plowed through as fast as you can.

Keep those savings available and if invested, then ensure the investment is capital guaranteed.

P

Ohh for sure. Now that I’ll have a steady income we’ll be able to get our saving in a much better place.

way to go man. And congrats on the new kid. it's time to work hard and enjoy weekends.

a reply to: Assassin82

Congrats, Sir, o7 !

And, a great big Thank You for Your Service !

NF

60% disability with a wife and child is $1255 a month. Your mortgage must be way up there if your spouse is working as well and still struggling. A general rule of thumb is a family should be able to get by on one income with some frugal living while the other is seeking re-employment. I don't know man, not trying to be a jerk but it looks to me like some marginal living beyond one's means...meh.

Good luck though with your new job. I know the feeling of searching and then finally nailing the job you want. I was searching during the recession which sucked profusely. Finally hit pay dirt beyond my wildest dreams but like you, just kept trying and refused to accept defeatism.

a reply to: Assassin82

Nice man , perfect timing with the baby on the way , you have way less to worry about.

All the best to U

originally posted by: Stupidsecrets
60% disability with a wife and child is $1255 a month. Your mortgage must be way up there if your spouse is working as well and still struggling. A general rule of thumb is a family should be able to get by on one income with some frugal living while the other is seeking re-employment. I don't know man, not trying to be a jerk but it looks to me like some marginal living beyond one's means...meh.

Good luck though with your new job. I know the feeling of searching and then finally nailing the job you want. I was searching during the recession which sucked profusely. Finally hit pay dirt beyond my wildest dreams but like you, just kept trying and refused to accept defeatism.

Not quite. See, I took a severance package with the military. But, it’s weird. If I never joined the guard or reserves, and I never got disability, it’s all mine. If I did either of those two things, I have to pay it back. So I have the disability rating but I don’t receive any compensation until the entirety of the package is repaid. That won’t be until May of next year.

Beyond all that, we live within our means. We don’t have car payments, we don’t have any extravagant things. Our savings was depleted mostly due to a custody battle I had going on for my teenage son along with an outdated child support amount. It was $840 a month now it’s $225 a month (as of just a couple weeks ago). The custody battle went on for the last couple years while I was in college and cost about $20K. But it was mostly money from my severance package.

I had to cut a few things out of the OP so it didn’t turn into a lengthy novel. But those were factors in the background but mostly irrelevant to the job portion of it.

a reply to: Assassin82

Gotcha. I always hated the stupid rules about disability pay. They would take my disability pay equal to the amount I earned in the Guard which is nonsense because if I was working a civilian job they would not touch it. Makes zero sense. I didn't know about the severance one which is also stupid. That is something you earned outright but you get penalized for it?

With the new job, then getting your disability back within a year, you'll be in great financial shape. I used my disability to pay off my mortgage. I was inside of 45 yrs old with 0 debt but it took a lot of sacrificing. Glad I did it. Think I eliminated 80K in interests paying it off early.