Project Manager

Northeast
US Navy, O-3

I resigned my commission from the Navy in 1996, but I started my current job search in early April 2009 after my job was eliminated as part of a 1200 person workforce reduction. I was a nuclear trained Submarine Lieutenant (O-3) in the Navy and served on a fast attack submarine. After spending the last 13 years in the automotive sector, my nuclear power training, even though well in my past, opened up quite a few opportunities and interviews for me. It was a goal of mine to transition out of automotive and into the utility or commercial nuclear industry.

Both Todd Phillips and Chris Hurst at Orion were excellent. They listened to my goals and my experiences and set up the interviews with solid companies. They helped me land a position as a Project Manager with a large international design engineering company, doing work for the commercial nuclear power industry.

As someone who has been out of the military for 13 years, I didn’t think Orion would be suited to help me. I was wrong. They did an excellent job of pairing me with companies looking for someone with military and civilian experience. In fact, I was surprised to see the number of people at the DCC in a similar situation to mine, i.e. out of the military a few years and job was eliminated.

When I first separated from the Navy in 1996, I worked with a different JMO recruiter. At the interview conference, the company representatives and candidates were never encouraged to meet and talk outside of the actual interview. Orion set up an informal mixer/happy hour for everyone to meet in advance of the scheduled interviews. This helped me tremendously. In fact, I think I had the job even before the scheduled interview.

The actual interview was almost like a second step in the process. The interviewer already knew my background and then just followed up on a few specific items. Meeting with the interviewers informally really helps to take the edge off and relax you during the interview. This was a key difference from my previous experiences and one which really helped me land the job!

Every job I have held after the military has been through a JMO recruiter, except one. Throughout my job search, I applied to dozens of jobs online with numerous companies and posted my resume online with four different search engines. From all of that, I had one decent interview and dozens of terrible follow-ups with companies looking to sell insurance or investments.

Even though my timeline to find a job was much shorter than normal for Orion, Chris and Todd did an excellent job of finding QUALITY opportunities for me. In less than two months, I had quality interviews, and one month later, I had a job. I have friends who have been out of work for almost a year. My job search and results were more than I could have hoped for, especially in this terrible economy, and they are definitely due to Orion!