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How Stoicism Can Help Your Military Transition: A 4-Step Guide for Officers If you’re a current or former military officer, there is a strong chance you have a copy of Meditations, The Enchiridion, or Admiral Stockdale’s writings on your bookshelf. Stoicism has many applications to life as a military officer. But how can it help you with your military transition? Stoicism helps your military transition by separating what you control from what you do not. You cannot control the hiring market or whether an interviewer nods along while you answer. You can control your preparation, your mindset, and the quality of your work, and that is where every productive decision in a career search gets made. Geoff Fries joined Cameron-Brooks as a transition coach in August 2025 after ten years as a Navy pilot. He read his way through the stoics during his own transition. In episode 245, Geoff sits down with Maddie Reese to discuss how stoicism can help officers during their military transitions. Below, you’ll find a 4-step guide to how Stoicism can help with your military transition and influence your timeline. Step 1: Decide what you want, ideally 18 to 24 months out Preparation beats reaction. Begin before you need to. Roger Cameron, our founder, told officers to go sit on a rock and think. That wisdom still holds. Decide what matters to you and your family before anyone asks you to rank companies or cities. Write it down. The goal is not a perfect plan. The goal is a clear one. This is also where you sort what you control from what you do not. Epictetus called this the dichotomy of control. He used dice to explain it. You cannot control the numbers that come up. You play the hand you rolled. He could not control being born into slavery. He controlled what he read, what he wrote, and how he responded. Make two lists. Things you do not control: the economy, which companies are hiring for which roles, whether an interviewer is having a good day. Things you control: your preparation, what you read, the questions you ask. Spend your energy on the second list. You can’t control the first list, but you can choose how you respond to it. Officers who skip this step spend the next year reacting to opportunities instead of choosing between them. Step 2: Build the courage to be a beginner, then the discipline to keep going Courage in the stoic sense is not the version from the movies. It is the willingness to become a beginner again. To walk into a new field in front of people who haven’t seen your leadership in action and be a sponge. Marcus Aurelius wrote that the impediment to action advances action. The obstacle in the way becomes the way. At the 12 month mark, that means choosing the harder path on purpose. Take the assignment that stretches you. Learn the function you do not know. Do not optimize your last year in uniform for comfort. Courage starts it. Discipline carries it. Geoff keeps a passage from Meditations in his gym. It is about rising unwillingly in the morning and remembering you were made for action, not for staying warm under the covers. He says it still lands like a slap in the face. Discipline is consistent, repeatable action toward a result you have defined. Set a weekly cadence and hold it for a year: One hour a week on your resume and your stories One conversation a month with someone who made this transition One book a quarter in the business function you are targeting Over time, this steady work will compound. We have designed our preparation program with this steady, repeated work and coaching in mind so that when you enter the interview room, you aren’t just ready. You can flourish. Step 3: Interview with wisdom, and decide now how you will handle a bad room Wisdom is not necessarily knowing a lot. It’s sorting what matters from what does not. In an interview, that means one thing. Find the problem the hiring manager actually has. Read the job description for the problem behind it. Ask questions that get at the real issue. Then show how you solve it. Then there is the room itself. Geoff tells a story about a candidate who interviewed before joining the military. The hiring manager wrote NO in large block letters on a sheet of paper in full view of the candidate while he was still answering. That candidate’s takeaway: after that, nothing in an interview could rattle him. You might come across a disengaged interviewer. Someone might step away from the camera. Someone might play devil’s advocate about your lack of industry experience. Someone might try a negative sell about your hometown. None of that is yours to control. Your answer is. Geoff calls it excellence for excellence’s sake. Be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Set the temperature in the room rather than reflecting back what you find there. Step 4: Work the process, not the result The Cameron-Brooks Career Conference runs four and a half days and is scheduled 45 to 60 days before you start transition leave. You will do roughly eight to twelve interviews across two of those days. Do not carry the whole thing at once. Geoff breaks it into three-interview chunks. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. By the time you finish lunch you are halfway through and you never had to hold the full event in your head. This is compartmentalization. You already know how to do it. You did it every time you stepped into an aircraft and left everything else on the ground. The same principle applies to the whole search. Geoff brought up something Sam Presti said when a reporter asked how a team repeats as NBA champions. Presti explained that it’s not about chasing a result, but about repeating the process that produced it. It can be all too easy to fixate on the end state. Which company. Which city. What the offer looks like. Those matter. They are also the part you control least. Control the process. Excellence becomes a habit, and the result follows from the habit. Frequently Asked Questions About Military Transition Is stoicism just about suppressing emotion? No. While people today often associate stoicism with suppressed emotions, classical stoicism is actually about regulating emotion, not eliminating it. Stoicism in an interview can look like regulating your emotions to deal with nerves, bringing your best self to the interview and focusing on building a genuine connection with the interviewer. When should I start preparing for my transition? Ideally, start 18 to 24 months before your separation date. The first six months are for deciding what you want. The next twelve are for building skills, stories, and a clear picture of the business world. The final 45 to 60 days are the Career Conference and the follow-up process. We have worked with officers who started just three months out and still found great success. However, their timelines were more condensed, with more pressure, and less time for preparation. What do I do if the interviewer seems disengaged? Give the best answer you can give and let their behavior be theirs. You do not know what is happening on their side of the screen. A disengaged interviewer may be distracted, may be testing you, or may be assigned to play the skeptic. Your job is to raise the level of the room, not to mirror it. Do I need to read Meditations to use any of this? No. The lessons from the podcast and this blog will help, even without studying stoicism yourself. That said, most officers who pick it up find it familiar immediately. Marcus Aurelius wrote it as a private notebook and never expected anyone else to read it. It reads like a leader working through the same problems you are working through, two thousand years earlier. Thinking about your own career transition? At Cameron-Brooks, we help junior military officers transition from the military into rewarding business careers. See what career fields our candidates move into. If you’re a company-grade or field-grade officer exploring what’s next, Geoff, the entire Cameron-Brooks team, and I are here to help. Feel free to reach out below. We’re here to listen, answer your questions, and help you decide if this path could be right for you. Email: [email protected]  Call: 210-874-1500 Speak with a Coach

Join us for inside a JMO career conference with three alumni from the August 2026 Cameron-Brooks Career Conference, hosted by Cameron-Brooks career coaches Brock Dudley and Geoff Fries. Peter Carver and Jonathan Guilbe are both headed to Flowserve, in the nuclear engineering valves division in Raleigh. Bryan Bornn is going to Pacifico Energy in Dallas, building power infrastructure for data centers. What does a Career Conference actually look like? The August 2026 numbers: 47 companies 34 candidates 409 interviews across two days About 12 interviews per candidate 29 Cameron-Brooks alumni came back as hiring managersAlmost half of the companies in the room had a Cameron-Brooks alum conducting screening interviews. Why is that meaningful? We’re fortunate to partner with so many Cameron-Brooks alumni who have gone on to become hiring managers. And many of them, along with their companies, come back to hire more JMOs from the Cameron-Brooks program. Why do they come back? A big part of it comes down to the success of these placements. Great JMOs. Great companies. Proven track records of success and career advancement. Simply put, companies see firsthand how strong Cameron-Brooks alumni are as leaders, and they want to hire more people like them. That’s part of what makes Cameron-Brooks so special. It’s not just a network. It’s a community of people who continue to support each other, hire each other, and help the next group of JMOs succeed. What helped them prepare? All three landed on the same short list. The interview prep worksheet. Peter called it the highest-value tool he used. It forces you to pull the competencies out of a job description before you walk in. Reps with other people. John attended nearly every optional session and met with his study group around them. Practicing with a real role in mind. Bryan had his regular answers down. He hadn’t practiced them with an actual job description in mind until the conference got close. What surprised them? The interviews were more conversational than expected. Bryan said practice felt rigid by comparison, and the real thing flowed better. Location mattered less than they thought it would. John ranked Texas low on his list. He is moving to Dallas. Peter nearly took a role in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, a place he had not heard of before the conference. Their advice was consistent. Focus on the role and the company first. Let location and compensation enter the decision once you have offers in hand. If you’d like to learn more from other recent alums about their experience, you can listen to the following alumni roundtables: June 2026 Career Conference April 2026 Career Conference February 2026 Career Conference November 2025 Career Conference August 2025 Career Conference  At Cameron-Brooks, we help junior military officers transition from the military into business careers. If you are thinking about finding a job after the military, we would like to talk. If you have any questions, we’re happy to help. For those of you in our program, we know how daunting the process up the career conference can be. We are here for you and we’ve got your back. In the meantime, practice in your study groups, stay active in discord, and attend your interview workshops. And if you’re new to Cameron-Brooks and are looking to explore your transition to the business world, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.

Twice a year, Joel Junker sits down with our CEO, Chuck Alvarez, to talk about what’s actually happening in the business world and what it means for officers getting out. They’ll be discussing the JMO job market in 2026. Chuck leads the client side and has been doing this for more than 30 years. Joel leads the candidate side. This one covers a lot of ground. Chuck opens with the hard part. Geopolitical tension is as high as he’s seen in his lifetime, and that makes it difficult for companies to plan. But something has shifted. Nobody is holding their breath waiting for it to pass. Is this a good time to leave the military? For the right person, Chuck says it’s the best market he’s seen. Two things are driving it. The first is onshoring. He calls it one of the biggest 50-year trends in the US economy, and he’s never seen this level of capital investment in American infrastructure. The second is AI, and not the software side. The concrete, steel, power, and logistics it takes to build all of it. Both need leaders now. There’s a catch. Chuck calls it the great mismatch. Companies have openings. Strong candidates are out there. They keep passing each other in the night. Why doesn’t applying online work? AI screening tools were built for traditional hiring. A junior military officer is non-traditional by definition. You change your industry, your skill set, and your professional network all at once. Joel talks about officers who submit hundreds of applications and hear nothing. It feels productive. It isn’t. Chuck and Joel also get into the difference between a comfort path and an investment path, why every search needs a Plan B, and what Roger Cameron once told Roland Smith about maximizing opportunity instead of location. Chuck closes with the most useful thing in the episode. Companies want performance leadership now, not just people leadership. His challenge to anyone still in uniform: over the next 12 months, build five real examples of using technology to improve something in your unit. Maintenance. Training. Forecasting. Thinking about your own career transition? At Cameron-Brooks, we help junior military officers transition from the military into rewarding business careers. See what career fields our candidates move into. If you’re a company-grade or field-grade officer exploring what’s next, Joel, the entire Cameron-Brooks team, and I are here to help. Feel free to reach out below. We’re here to help and listen and see if this path could be right for you. Email: [email protected]  Call: 210-874-1500 Speak with a Coach

TALK WITH A COACH How can I go from junior military officer to the C-suite? In interviews, JMOs often get asked where they see themselves in ten or twenty years. The honest answer, the one most people keep to themselves, is often: running the place. Matt Beliveau actually did it. He got there by learning a new function from the ground up, staying long enough to build real depth, and understanding the difference between a mentor and a sponsor. Twenty-five years ago, Matt left the Army and started as an Associate Human Resources Manager at General Mills. Not a VP. Not on a fast track. Learning a brand new function from the ground up. He stayed at General Mills for 13 years. Then came CHRO roles at Morton Salt, Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, and Del Monte Foods. Today he is Chief Human Resources Officer at TreeHouse Foods. We’re bringing this conversation back because the lessons in it held up. What makes the JMO transition so hard? Matt is direct about this. It isn’t just finding a job in the right city with a good paycheck. Three things change at the same time. Your identity shifts from military officer to civilian. You learn an entirely new functional role. And you have to read a company culture nobody hands you a manual for. That’s a lot to carry in year one. How did he reach the C-suite? He managed his career on purpose. He found mentors. He also found sponsors, which is a different thing, and he explains why the difference matters more than most people realize. Matt talks about leading through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. He compared it to being on deployment. Success came down to staying agile, caring about people, and following through on commitments. Things good JMOs already know how to do. He also predicted, back then, that work was headed toward more flexibility and hybrid schedules for office roles. Five years later, he called it. Then Matt shares his leadership lessons, some of the best we’ve had on the show. Those are worth hearing in his own words. More from this episode: – Matt’s LinkedIn post on his first 20 years in Corporate America (worth three minutes of your time) – What makes Cameron-Brooks different from other transition options This episode was recorded while Matt was CHRO at Sara Lee Frozen Bakery. He has since led HR at Del Monte Foods and is now CHRO at TreeHouse Foods. At Cameron-Brooks, we help junior military officers transition from the military into rewarding business careers. Want to explore your options? See what career fields our candidates move into. Curious about your marketability? Let’s talk.

What Actually Happened at the June 2026 Career Conference Thirty-seven officers. Three hundred eighty-four interviews across two days. Every single officer pursued by an industry-leading company for the follow-up process. Two weeks later, most of the officers knew where they were launching their business careers. In this episode, Cameron-Brooks transition coach Brock Dudley sits down with two recent alums to talk through what the June conference was actually like and what they would tell an officer preparing for August. In this episode: – Why Jake went on five follow-up visits and received an offer from every one – How Xavier’s one location requirement nearly cut his options in half, and what changed his mind – What eleven interviews in two days actually feel like, and why they were conversations rather than tests – The number both officers say you should be comparing when you evaluate an offer, and it is not base salary – The two weeks after the conference, and the scheduling mistake to avoid Meet the panel: Xavier Mallet spent eight years in the Army as an engineer officer, leading a platoon in Hawaii and commanding a construction company in Germany. He is now a project manager at AMS Industrial in the Denver area. Jake Sidner served just about five years in the Marine Corps as an air defense control officer and left as a captain. He is now a go-to-market finance manager at Motorola Solutions in Chicago, where he grew up. If you’d like to learn more from other recent alums about their experience, you can listen to the following alumni roundtables: April 2026 Career Conference February 2026 Career Conference November 2025 Career Conference August 2025 Career Conference  If you have any questions, we’re happy to help. For those of you in our program, we know how daunting the process up the career conference can be. We are here for you and we’ve got your back. In the meantime, practice in your study groups, stay active in discord, and attend your interview workshops. And if you’re new to Cameron-Brooks and are looking to explore your transition to the business world, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.

In this episode, Joel Junker sits down with Saša Mirković, author of The Inspire Code, to talk about freedom, the importance of trust and conflict, and how leaders can build teams that can run without them. Saša’s story doesn’t start in the boardroom. It starts in Sarajevo. He survived the siege of the city in the 1990s, served two years in the military, and came to the United States after the war. In 1998, he applied to 385 jobs. He got one reply. He eventually landed at American Express Financial Advisors, worked his way up to VP, and in 2006 started his own practice. Today, the Inspire Confidence Group spans multiple offices, alongside a leadership company and a tax firm. But the most important lesson in this episode came from a failure. In 2018, Saša’s business partner left the firm. Eighty percent of the team walked out with him. That was the moment Saša realized he had been talking about leadership without actually building trust. Why does trust matter so much for a team? Trust is the currency of leadership. You can’t lead without it, the same way you can’t run a business without money. And Saša is clear on where it starts: the leader gives trust first. It’s planted, earned, and renewed every day. Trust is also what makes healthy conflict possible. Saša describes problems like a beach ball. You see one side. Your teammate sees another. Strong teams fight the problem together instead of fighting each other. Joel and Saša also get into Slack and Flow, Saša’s framework for working smarter: eliminate half of what you do, delegate the rest to technology and to people who love that work, and protect real thinking time every week. It’s how his team doubled the business without adding headcount. Whether you’re a junior military officer preparing for your transition or a leader building your first civilian team, this one is full of ideas you can use right away. Want to learn more? – The Inspire Code by Saša Mirković (Amazon bestseller! Hardcover now out) – The Nudge — Saša’s weekly two-minute leadership newsletter, Wednesdays at 5 a.m. ET – Inspire Network — white papers, Tug Cards, and a complimentary coaching session Thinking about your own career transition? At Cameron-Brooks, we help junior military officers transition from the military into rewarding business careers. See what career fields our candidates move into. If you’re a company-grade or field-grade officer exploring what’s next, Joel, the entire Cameron-Brooks team, and I are here to help. Feel free to reach out below. We’re here to help and listen and see if this path could be right for you. Email: [email protected]  Call: 210-874-1500 Speak with a Coach

We are bringing you a special encore episode following a truly historic time in America: our 250th birthday. In honor of this milestone, we thought we would talk about another type of founding: the founding of Cameron-Brooks. In this episode, you will hear from our very own Mary Lou White. She is one of the founding members of Cameron-Brooks and has been helping Junior Military Officers transition from the military to Corporate America for over 50 years. Here she will talk about Cameron-Brooks’ history and the history of the military-to-business industry. A California native, Mary Lou met Roger Cameron and Rene Brooks. Roger and Rene were both working for a company named Career Seminars at that time. The company worked with JMOs but also did other types of recruiting. After Career Seminars underwent a restructuring, Roger and Rene decided to build their own company focused on helping military officers transition to the business world. The rest, as they say, is military-to-corporate history. Mary Lou takes us on a journey from the early days of Cameron-Brooks, life before technology, and the way things “used to be.” One key takeaway: although processes, technology, and people have changed along the way, the core mission of Cameron-Brooks has never wavered. Our goal is to change people’s lives by helping them reach their professional goals and dreams. Thank you, Mary Lou, for your warmth, commitment, and servant’s heart! You have made a tremendous impact on many thousands of officers and their families. We are proud of the role we’ve played in military-to-corporate history. Contact us if you’re interested in learning more about your transition options. You can also check out our Transition Guide on “3 Game-Changing Strategies for JMOs Making the Jump to Business” for additional transition tips. We recommend subscribing to our YouTube channel and following us on LinkedIn to stay connected.

In this episode, Lauren Kordzik sits down with Cameron-Brooks alum George Pesansky to discuss what his 30 years of hiring and building teams taught him about JMOs, and why the best companies keep coming back to hire these great leaders. George Pesansky came through Cameron-Brooks in 1996 as an Army officer. He didn’t know exactly what was next. He just knew he was ready for something new. Thirty years later, he’s built a company, hired JMOs, and coached leaders inside some of the most complex manufacturing operations in the world. He wrote a book about it. And he still comes back to the same idea when someone asks what separates good leaders from great ones. We Before Me We before me. It sounds simple. But George will tell you, it’s actually rare. Most organizations, at some point, start optimizing for individuals. Career paths, visibility, personal outcomes. It’s subtle. But over time, it shapes how decisions get made and how teams show up. JMOs come from a different culture entirely. The mission is the priority. The team is what matters. Candor isn’t a personality trait; it’s expected. That doesn’t disappear when someone transitions out of the military. It comes with them. George also pushes back on one of the most common reasons companies hesitate to hire JMOs: they don’t have industry experience. His take? There’s a difference between knowledge and skill. Knowledge (a product, a process, a system) can be learned in weeks. Skill (real leadership, the ability to drive results through people, the discipline to do the hard thing) takes years to build. JMOs already have it. Hiring managers sometimes get those two things mixed up. When you get that hiring decision right, the return isn’t just one good hire. It’s a stronger team. Fewer people walking out the door. A culture people want to stay in. George saw it firsthand. And he’s watched it play out over and over again in the organizations he’s worked with since. Work with Cameron-Brooks If you’re looking to hire a JMO for your team, we would love to connect. Feel free to contact us to learn more about attending a Cameron-Brooks Hiring Conference. Or feel free to email Lauren Kordzik at [email protected]. For any JMOs thinking the transition? We’re here to help.

The April 2026 Cameron-Brooks Career Conference has officially come to a close. We had 48 interviews, 51 companies, and 540 interviews over two days. Every single candidate was pursued. Every single candidate who entered the follow-up process received an offer. In this episode of the Cameron-Brooks podcast, Brock Dudley sits down with three recent alums to talk through what actually happened at conference and what they’d do differently if they were starting over. Learn how these three officers navigated their transitions from business In this episode, you’ll hear: – How Ryan Smith accepted an offer in a location that wasn’t listed originally on the job description, and why that happened – How Scott Hicks honed his ability to answer interview questions confidently without sounding robotic – Why David Tierney (an art major) ended up in financial services and what being “open” really means in practice – What all three wish they had done earlier in their preparation Meet the panel: – Ryan Smith, former Navy officer, now in medical device sales at Boston Scientific CRM in Jacksonville, FL – Scott Hicks, former Army officer, now in medical device sales at Zoll in Atlanta, GA – David Tierney, Army officer, now heading into financial services at Horace Mann If you’d like to learn more from other recent alums about their experience, you can listen to the following alumni roundtables: February 2026 Career Conference November 2025 Career Conference August 2025 Career Conference  If you have any questions, we’re happy to help! For those of you in our program, we know how daunting the process up the career conference can be. We are here for you and we’ve got your back. In the meantime, practice in your study groups, stay active in discord, and attend your interview workshops. And if you’re new to Cameron-Brooks and are looking to explore your transition to the business world, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.

30 Years of Conferences: What Michelle and Candy Want Every Officer to Know For more than 30 years at Cameron-Brooks, Michelle Spisak and Candy Belcik have worked with thousands of military officers navigating the transition from active duty to corporate America. In this mini episode of PCS to Corporate America, they share the honest, practical advice they wish every officer heard before starting their transition. Here are the key takeaways: 1. Lead with your leadership. Your degree matters less than you think. Companies hiring through Cameron-Brooks are looking for your leadership experience first. That is your strongest asset and the thing that sets you apart. 2. Going it alone means going through filters. When you apply online you are competing against hundreds of applicants and may never reach a hiring manager. Cameron-Brooks removes those filters and gets you in front of 8 to 12 hiring managers in two days at our career conference. 3. The conference has changed but the support has not. Since the pandemic, Cameron-Brooks moved to a fully virtual conference model, which actually aligns with how most companies now conduct first round interviews. The format is different but the experience, the coaching, and the care behind the scenes is the same. 4. Start early. Not for Cameron-Brooks. For you. The more time you give yourself in the program, the more you will get out of it. Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at cameron-brooks.com. And if you’d like to speak with a career coach, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.

Tom Morin went from Army Infantry Captain to the Leadership Program at Extant Aerospace. Matt Horsley went from Marine Corps Logistics Officer to Financial Leadership Program at BD. Josh Klimek went from Army Infantry Captain to Operations at Macerich. Three incredible officers. Three success stories. All Cameron-Brooks, Inc. alums. These are just three of the officers are launching their business careers after our conference. On average, each officer had ~11 interviews. Most officers accepted offers after ~14 days. This isn’t just about landing a job. It’s about building a long-term leadership career. For more than 50 years, Cameron-Brooks has helped JMOs do exactly that. If you are considering your next move, learn from others who have been in your shoes. Listen to what these three officers learned from their successful military to business transitions. If you’d like to learn more from other recent alums about their experience, you can listen to the alumni roundtables from after the November 2025 Career Conference and the August 2025 Career Conference.  And if you’d like to speak with a career coach, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.

Military to Corporate Leadership: Dave Parmly on Navigating Career Transitions, Integrity, and the Trusting the Process With over 40 years of experience spanning the US Military, KFC, Pilot Company, and CSUSA Shoffner, Dave Parmly has navigated multiple career transitions and leadership roles. Each of these transitions required preparation, trust, and the willingness to listen and adapt. In our latest PCS to Corporate America podcast episode, Dave shares the leadership principles that guided him from military service to senior HR and operations roles in business. Here are some of the core themes from the episode: You Don’t Just Transition Once It is easy to view the military to civilian transition as a one-time event. However, each new role, each new company, each new life change is its own transition. Dave partnered with Cameron-Brooks and made the military to business transition in 1990. Through his storied career, he navigated career transitions along the way, across companies, roles, and locations with his family. And he’s picked up incredible wisdom along the way. Listening and Seeking Feedback Are Leadership Fundamentals Dave’s move to corporate leadership taught him that listening is one of the most underrated leadership skills. He encourages leaders to seek feedback from multiple sources: peers, direct reports, even family members. If you’re not actively seeking feedback, you’re missing opportunities to grow. Integrity Means Being a Whole Person Too often, people compartmentalize their lives. They’re one person in the office and another person at home. But, according to Dave, true integrity means aligning who you are in these different spaces and showing up authentically. What are ways you can show up more authentically at work? How are the benefits of increasing trust at work? Listen to the Full Episode This episode was truly a gift. Great conversation, great people, great advice. Thank you to Joel Junker and Dave Parmly for your wisdom and generosity. Listen to the full episode wherever you listen to your podcasts, and if you’re curious about Joel’s own military to business transition, check out this blog. Thinking about your own career transition? If you’re a company-grade or field-grade officer exploring what’s next, Dave, Joel, the entire Cameron-Brooks team, and I are here to help. Feel free to reach out below. We’re here to help and listen and see if this path could be right for you. Email: [email protected]  Call: 210-874-1500 Speak with a Coach and Schedule a Personal Marketability Assessment

The Power of Mentorship From Military to Corporate America: Leadership Lessons in From A Supply Chain Leader, Jim O’Rourke Transitioning from military service to corporate America isn’t just about landing a job, it’s about preparing for a completely different operating environment. In our latest podcast episode, Cameron-Brooks alum Jim O’Rourke shares how humility, mentorship, and leadership frameworks helped him build a successful supply chain career after the military. Why Military Transition Requires More Than a Resume Most officers underestimate what it takes to succeed in corporate America.”Humility is important in transitioning,” Jim explains. Coming from the military, where rank and experience are clear, the corporate world requires a different approach. You’re no longer the expert. You’re the learner. This mindset shift is critical for officers moving into leadership-intensive roles like supply chain management, operations, or manufacturing—where understanding team dynamics and business processes matters as much as decision-making ability. The Role of Mentorship in Career Development One of the most valuable aspects of Jim’s transition was mentorship. But not just any mentorship: the kind that provides a “safe harbor for growth” and challenges your thinking. “Mentoring is a safe harbor for growth,” Jim notes. In corporate America, you need people who can help you navigate unwritten rules, decode organizational dynamics, and develop the critical thinking skills that separate good leaders from great ones. Cameron-Brooks provides this structured mentorship during the transition process. What about after the transition? According to Jim, finding mentors within your company accelerates your career development long-term. Understanding Supply Chain: More Than Logistics For officers considering supply chain roles, Jim breaks down what this actually means. It’s not just moving products. It requires leadership-intensive work in addition to the following: – Managing across operations: Managing cross-functional teams across manufacturing, distribution, and planning – Process optimization: Understanding the COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) ladder and how every decision impacts profitability – Strategic thinking: Balancing production needs, customer demands, and financial constraints “Clarity of purpose helps teams succeed,” Jim emphasizes. In supply chain, that clarity comes from understanding how your decisions ripple through the entire organization. What Makes Cameron-Brooks Candidates Different In addition to his expertise in supply chain, he has been on the hiring side. When asked what differentiates Cameron-Brooks candidates, Jim pointed to two qualities: 1. Genuine preparation: They’ve done the work to understand industries, roles, and companies before interviews 2. Intellectual curiosity: They ask better questions because they’ve been coached to think critically about fit “Cameron Brooks candidates are well-prepared and genuine in their approach,” he observes. They’re not just looking for any job…they’re looking for the right career trajectory. The Importance of Lifelong Learning Jim’s final piece of advice? Never stop learning. Whether it’s leadership books, industry podcasts, or formal training, lifelong learning is crucial for career advancement. The military teaches you to be adaptable. Corporate America rewards those who continuously evolve. Ready to Start Your Transition? If you’re a company-grade or field-grade officer exploring what’s next, Jim’s story shows what’s possible with the right preparation, humility, and mentorship. Listen to the full episode wherever you listen to your podcasts. Ready to explore your options? Email: [email protected]  Call: 210-874-1500 Speak with a Coach and Schedule a Personal Marketability Assessment

A Year-End Look at the JMO Transition Market As the year winds down, a lot of Junior Military Officers are asking the same thing: What does the market actually look like right now? And what should I be doing about it? In the latest Cameron-Brooks podcast, our CEO, Chuck Alvarez, and Senior Vice President, Joel Junker, break down where things stand at the end of 2025. The short answer: the market isn’t easy, but there are still great opportunities out there. Uncertain Economy There’s no question the economy feels uncertain. Global conflict, political gridlock, and nonstop headlines about AI have made companies more cautious. Hiring has slowed in many corporate roles, and expectations are higher across the board. But here’s the part that often gets missed: companies are still investing heavily in leaders who can run teams, solve problems, and deliver results. That’s where mindset matters. What does 2026 look like? Looking ahead to 2026, that gap is only going to widen. AI isn’t replacing leaders, but it is raising the bar. Companies expect new hires to show up ready to learn, ready to adapt, and ready to drive outcomes. Officers who prepare early, by learning the basics of business, understanding how data and finance work, and translating their military leadership into real business impact—will stand out. Officers who wait until separation to start thinking about all of this will feel the market’s friction much more sharply. Launching Pad vs. Landing Pad Additionally, Joel and Chuck talk about the difference between a landing pad and a launching pad. A landing pad feels safe. It prioritizes location, familiarity, and getting comfortable quickly. For many officers, that leads to internships or roles that don’t fully use their leadership experience—and frustration sets in fast. A launching pad is different. It treats the transition as the start of a long leadership journey, not the finish line. Launching pad roles are harder. They come with more responsibility, steeper learning curves, and sometimes less geographic control. But they also create momentum: early wins, faster growth, and compounding “opportunity” interest over time. Prepare to Gain Control The year-end message is simple: you may not be able to control the economy, but you can control how prepared you are for it. If you want 2026 to be a year of growth rather than regret, build a launching pad now. Listen to the full Cameron-Brooks podcast for a candid conversation on the market, mindset, and what it really takes to transition well. Thinking about your next steps? We’re more than happy to talk.

Check out our latest Alumni Panel after the November 2025 Career Conference. Brock Dudley sits down with: Cody Williams (Army Air Defense, Major | Caterpillar, Senior Production Manager) Ian Burgess (Air Force Intelligence, Captain | Twist Bioscience, Account Manager) You cannot control the market, but you can control how prepared you are. Cody and Ian started early, stayed open to learning, and trusted the process. In turn, their preparation led to fantastic, well-aligned career launches. This is not just about landing a job. It is about building a long-term leadership career. For more than 50 years, Cameron-Brooks has helped JMOs do exactly that. If you are considering your next move, now is the time to prepare. https://youtu.be/oSYdpYoVfPQ If you’d like to learn more from other recent alums about their experience, listen to the alumni roundtable from after the August 2025 Career Conference.  If you’d like to speak with a career coach, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.