Mike’s story

Mike’s transition

Mike spent 20 years in the Navy and retired as a Chief. In all that time he had never been to a job interview. Not one.

He had a master's degree in cyber and a Sec+ certification, but not the hands on exposure employers were asking for. The obvious move was to take a help desk job and build experience from the bottom. He turned that down.

Instead he went looking for a role that used the electronics work he was already good at, paid well, and would let him build the IT skills on the side. In his second interview he asked the panel what problems they were dealing with. They told him they had no bridge between their electronics assemblies and their networking. That was the gap he could fill.

He sent roughly 50 resumes over the search, tailoring each one. Twenty one of them were built on BMR.

Then came the first interview of his life. Thirty minutes. The second round was scheduled for 90 minutes with a panel of four and ran to 100.

Then the offer. He countered once and came away with 17 percent more pay and 20 percent more stock, landing near $104,000 in total compensation, before his pension and VA disability.

He is already positioned to move up to a senior technician role.