Key Points:
- Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life: Wes Wood shared his journey from military service to the civilian workforce, highlighting the challenges and uncertainties he faced after leaving the Army. He recounted how he conducted around fifty informational coffee meetings, reaching out to professionals across various industries to find his fit. His perseverance and networking led him to a nonprofit role that allowed him to build critical relationships and skills, ultimately helping him advance to a strategic role in the tech company Veryable.
- Understanding the Civilian Job Market Needs: In his work at Connexus and now at Veryable, Wes noted the gap between what employers seek and the workforce’s skills, observing that companies often need more workers with the appropriate skill sets. His current role as Director of Strategic Growth at Veryable involves addressing this demand-supply mismatch through a gig-work app, which connects workers with companies in need, illustrating an innovative approach to addressing the labor market gap.
- Insights for Veterans and Employers on Transition and Hiring: Wes offered advice for both transitioning veterans and companies looking to hire them. He emphasized the importance of veterans’ soft skills and encouraged them to be patient with learning curves when entering a new industry. For employers, he suggested creating a supportive environment with resources, such as mentorship, to help veterans adjust to civilian roles. His insights underline the value veterans bring to the workforce, as well as the potential challenges in translating military skills to civilian careers.
Transcript:
Emily Bose: Hello and welcome back to Landing Zone Nashville. I am Emily Bose and really excited to be joined by Wes Wood. Wes, thanks so much for taking the time to be on here with me today.
Wes Wood: Of course. Thanks for having me.
Emily: Absolutely. Well, I know that you are both an Army veteran and the Director of Strategic Growth for Veryable. And would love to hear just a little bit about your background, your journey. How did you end up in the military? You’re obviously welcome to share any highlights from your military career that you want to touch on. But then I’d really love to know how you ended up in the position you’re in now. What was your journey like going from military to the civilian world and kind of landing where you’re at now with Veryable?
Wes: Yeah. Yeah. So, originally from the State of Indiana, I was about halfway through undergrad when I decided I wanted to join the army. So I went ahead and completed undergrad, but went to basic training about a month after I graduated. So I ended up being infantry, stayed in for five years. I was primarily stationed at Fort Campbell in Clarksville, Tennessee. Did one deployment to Afghanistan and then I transitioned out as an E5 in 2015. So at that point, you know, I was married, had no kids. We moved up to Indianapolis so that I could work on my MBA at Indiana University. Up there. And then I really, you know, I knew I wanted to go to school, but had no idea what I was going to do for a job. So used up all of my transition leave to basically just interview people. So I went around, I probably went on fifty different coffee meetings, contacting everybody I could in my my network and my networks network. People in all different industries at all different levels trying to figure out. which industry to go into. I was kind of unique in my background and that I was, uh, had a degree in finance, but I was a sniper for the last five years. So what do you do with that? You know, it’s not a clear cut path.
Wes: Everybody in the transition assistance program at Campbell had basically, they give you all the classes and I’d stay after and go up and ask for advice. And they really didn’t have anything for, for just a grunt like me. So, talked to people in a lot of different industries and in one gentleman that I met with he actually ran a non-profit so he was a chance encounter. I met him at a at a local local bar my wife and I were at, found out he used to be high up at rolls-royce and he was now running a non-profit asked if I could buy him a cup of coffee, we met up a week or two later and about a month later he called me up and asked me if I wanted to interview for a position that I probably never considered before, but he thought I might be a good be a good fit for so that ended up being my first real job out of the army I was a workforce development manager for a economic development focused non-profit called connexus indiana I worked there for about a year and then I I pitched the idea for a veteran focused nonprofit component of what they did that got legs and I ended up running that for about four years before I eventually came to Veryable.
Emily: Awesome. And tell me just a little bit about what you do now. I think we were saying director of strategic growth, not everyone is going to know what that means. And yeah, what do you find just interesting, exciting about the role that you’re in now? Because as you said, a lot of people coming out don’t always know what direction to point themselves, don’t always know what types of jobs to consider. So I just think it’s interesting for people to get to hear a little bit, you know behind the curtain of what a role like that might be like or what might be compelling to consider about the type of position that you’re in right now.
Wes: Yeah so I guess um it’d probably be useful if I took a step back at that if I go back to connexus and what that exposed me to that I really hadn’t been exposed to at all definitely in the military or really anywhere else is this huge gap between what employers are looking for in the labor market versus what is actually available. You know it’s on the one hand there’s there’s a pure there’s a pure numbers uh of just bodies of just people problem right there’s more jobs than there are people but within that there’s also um not necessarily the right mix of what people are looking for versus what is actually needed in the local economy. And Connexus really exposed me to that. That’s what a big portion of their whole purpose was, was creating that right alignment of local population to what the local economy needs. And so I routinely engaged with employers, large employers that paid well, that said, hey, we’d love to hire veterans. We’d love to hire any hardworking people that’ll show up, that’ll learn. We just don’t get enough people. And so I heard that story over and over again for years.
Wes: I eventually met had coffee with at the time he was the vice president of Midwest operations for Veryable. And he’s telling me about Veryable about how it’s this tech company that provides this app that connects, you know, ten ninety nine kind of gig worker economy people with manufacturing and logistics companies. And it’s it’s made to kind of solve this misalignment in in need supply versus demand when it comes to labor. And so he’s explaining it. And in the back of my head, I was thinking, you know, this sounds great. I’ve heard a million ideas that sound great. None of them work. You know, they can’t solve this problem. What he wants me to do is get all these workers that I know to go sign up for this app, to go work for these companies. And so, you know, at the end of the conversation, I was like, hey, you know, Pat, I Sounds like a great idea. I could see how like maybe veterans could use this app to test out some careers, test out some companies. And he stopped me and he was like, I don’t want any of these veterans, you know, to sign up for the app. He’s like, that’s not why I’m having coffee with you right now. The people is not the issue. There are so many people that want to work in this flexible capacity, this kind of gig style capacity. We have a six to one ratio of workers to positions. Um, and that really grabbed my attention because it was completely the opposite of everyone, everything I’d engaged with previously. So, you know, I told him just by the end of that conversation, I was like, Hey, I’m trying to figure out what comes next after the nonprofit world. If you guys are really doing what you, what you say you’re doing and having these results, you know, if there’s a, if there’s a way for me to come partner with you guys, I’d, I’d love to discuss it. And so, you know, six months later, they had created a position. uh that I eventually moved into and so um so as director of strategic growth I kind of float a little bit I’m on a regional team that that you know we we operate in forty major metros across the us and so I’m on the team that covers everything from new york to louisiana so I kind of float where the where the need is um help help some of our markets that are underperforming and then and then work on strategic partnerships and some of our larger employer accounts as well and It’s been a great role, you know, especially because, you know, I see the impact it has. I know the demand for it and the benefit we can provide to the customers with. And I get to directly apply a lot of those skill sets I brought from my last role as well as my time in the military.
Emily: That’s awesome. Yeah, I think it’s just so good to hear how those connections get made. And you mentioned earlier the going to coffees, you know, booking fifty coffees. That’s that’s impressive. I know it’s not that easy to do. I mean, typically I would think you’d probably have to ask. hundred hundred fifty two hundred people to get that number right unless you’re actually going to people you know and they’re introducing you to people they know you know once you get those warm intros going or you’re asking other veterans you know I think those are usually the fastest path to that. Curious to hear what that was like for you you know how how did you end up landing so many in such a diverse area did you you know start with people you knew and kind of get referred out were you just cold messaging people on linkedin. How were you able to get in front of so many different people?
Wes: Yeah, well, I think it depends on what part of the country you’re in. If you’re in the Midwest or the Southeast, you know, like there’s areas that are friendlier where people are more willing to take time out to help other people. But yeah, I did not have a big network when I moved to Indianapolis. I had a brother-in-law who knew people. And so he made some initial introductions and they would make additional introductions from there. LinkedIn was a really good tool to utilize for that type of thing. And, you know, I wasn’t going to these meetings with the ask of, hey, can you give me a job? Or, hey, does your company have any jobs where I might be a good fit? It was, hey, you are a distribution manager. don’t know anything about that world at least I don’t know that I do um can I buy you a cup of coffee or could I meet you at your office for thirty minutes and just ask you some questions about your industry about your company that type of thing.
Emily: Yeah that makes a lot of sense I know we’ve heard on the podcast from quite a few different you know I would say successfully transitioned military members who have mentioned doing similar things you know networking kind of purposefully building that network. I think the fact that you were able to do it on terminal it’s great you know if you’re able to kind of get out ahead of the transition and build the network before you need it, versus, you know, being fully out and really needing a job and then trying to build a network at that point, I think is a lot harder. Were you able to kind of be a little bit it sounded like from what you said, you were sort of a little bit ahead of the curve, maybe building some of that while you were in school? Did I hear that right? Or were you kind of doing it in tandem with with job hunting?
Wes: Well, so the MBA program that I went to was primarily in the evenings. So I was looking for a job while I was going through that MBA program. Naively, I thought I had ninety days of terminal leave. I thought that’s more than enough time. I’m going to go on vacation for two weeks. I’m going to go travel. I’m going to do all this. I’ll get to Indiana maybe a month after I separate and I’ll have plenty of time to find a job. It was not nearly as easy as I thought. And it took way longer than I thought. So, you know, I even took a, I did try and take advantage of resources. So I, you know, went and thought out, there’s a local veteran organization that provided some skills training or some like resume building type stuff. I went through that and, uh, I even ended up taking a stopgap job. You know, I worked as a, as like a part-time accountant for two months in there while I was trying to figure out what my main thing would be. So it definitely wasn’t smooth sailing necessarily. It didn’t, I wasn’t at that ahead of the curve. Um, but, uh, yeah, it ended up working out. Uh, I definitely should have thought about it before I, before I exited the military, you know?
Emily: Yeah I would say that’s a pretty common approach though you know I think it’s only forty five percent of people who transition have a job lined up at transition so I think you know your that approach would be quite common and I think unfortunately it ends up being a lot harder on the other side than most people think. Just because if you’ve never done it, how would you know, right? How would you know what it’s like to try to come out and get a job, especially if you’re trying to find your way? I love the fact that you were willing to consider and, you know, pursue a job that was totally outside of what you had previously thought of. What was it that made you, you know, more open to taking that job in the nonprofit space? Was it like the relationship with the guy that you had connected with or just the interest in the topic? Like what prompted you to go, okay, this is totally outside of what I normally would consider, but I’m going to go for it because.
Wes: Yeah, I think. And actually, right when that job came up, I was actually going through the interview process, multiple stages of it for a different job that was kind of in my field. It was a finance role at a big real estate company. And it paid more. And the guy that had introduced me to the one I ended up taking, you know, I was kind of laying out both options to him, because nonprofit one, I basically made the same or less than what I made in the army as an E five when I took, when I first took that job and I kind of laid out both options and he was like, yeah, he’s like the other one probably pays a little bit more now. He was like, but if you stick in this job for two years, you’re going to have relationships. You’re going to, you’re going to leapfrog the relationships, the connections, your trajectory, your career trajectory is going to be vastly different than if you had just, if you take that kind of traditional entry level finance job. And that was a hundred percent correct. You know, I would not have been able to get kind of the ability to launch that next organization without the relationships I built at Connexus. And my salary, I think over the first two years, I think I doubled it in the first two years and almost tripled it within three or four years. You know, it, it, it, It went way better than it would have gone if I had taken that other job.
Emily: That’s so interesting to hear. I feel like that leap can be so hard for people to take. I’ve been on the other side of presenting those offers to people where you’re like, I can’t even explain to you how… Huge. I remember we had an opportunity to plug someone into an organization where the CIO was so enthusiastic about this person, wanted to personally mentor them. They were in a role that the previous person had, like you said, leapfrogged into from kind of this coordination role to like a regional director type of thing. Like it was just one of those springboard roles within the company that you get into, you, you work with all the department heads, you meet everyone, you build this huge network and then you can just explode off into something massive. And it was like, five thousand dollar difference maybe from the job that they took you know it’s just not that much but just the initial number on the piece of paper was so hard to overlook and it was so hard to explain like the value of being personally mentored by an executive you know like I can’t even tell you what this is going to do for your career entirely but it’s going to be huge it’s going to be massive and um it’s good to you know I think it’s good for those type of stories to get out like you’re sharing just because without having that kind of context that that that type of taking a risk if you will on that type of opportunity can actually really pay off I don’t think there’s enough conversation around that.
Emily: And transition is so hard and vulnerable and scary, especially if you have a family, you know, and you need to provide for them. You’re trying to create that stability for yourself as fast as you possibly can. I think it can be really hard for people to take what can be perceived as a risk like that. So kudos to you for taking it. um I don’t know you know it’s does that resonate does that make sense what I’m saying like just from the recruiting side I’ve kind of walked through that with people multiple times and almost every time I would say people take the the higher salary lower opportunity job in my experience so
Wes: Yeah and I think one benefit I had from my time in the military you know I mentioned I was in a sniper section basically the whole time and I loved that job I loved Everything about that job. And so, because I loved it, whenever I was there at work, it was fun. I didn’t mind diving in deep. I didn’t mind working hard. I didn’t mind like all the hard components about it because I, it was so exciting to me. And so when I looked at those two other positions, there was one that was, you know, kind of a paper pusher finance role that paid more money. Or there was this other one that I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but at least had know you got outside the office it had a bunch of different components to it it seemed like it had the chance of being super interesting and I knew that long term if I could find something that mimicked that kind of passion I had for the sniper world I was going to be way better off from a performance standpoint and being worth a raise if I can mimic that versus if I found something where I was bored every single day I knew like I wouldn’t be able to even ask for a raise if I wasn’t putting forth the work and the value to justify it. And that would be hard to do in a job that I didn’t enjoy.
Emily: Yeah, that makes sense. from your you know from your perspective now like you said you’ve gotten to see a lot of the pain points I guess you could say from employers who want to hire folks from the military um and I I would assume you know given the organization that you ran you’ve probably gotten to work with quite a few military members and veterans military community who are looking for jobs. And as we know, having both been in that space, those connections can be difficult to make even with all the right intentions and desire on both sides. Is there any advice or insight that you could share with military members that are navigating the job market right now? Which is, I would say, having been in recruiting for a few years, I think the job market right now is particularly hard. Um, for a lot of people, any, any advice, any insight, um, about, you know, positioning themselves or even how to think about or approach the market. You know, we talked a little bit about the networking piece. Um, but yeah, we’d just love to know if there’s anything else that you’ve really found helpful or insight that you’d want to share for people in that space.
Wes: Yeah. I think the military does set you up for success, but the majority the major way that that happens is through soft skills, not technical skills. So if you are, you know, an analogy I use used to use a lot of time with guys or girls is that, you know, if you, if you took Elon Musk into your rifle platoon, he might be the smartest guy there. He might be the most hardworking guy there, but on day one, you’re not going to put him in charge of the platoon. He doesn’t know how to shoot. He doesn’t know the SOPs. He doesn’t know, how to be a good member of that team and you can’t you know he might he’ll get there super fast he’ll probably learn it faster than anyone else you’ve seen he might be running the platoon within a month but not on day one so as you make that transition from the military to the civilian sector you can’t expect for it to be a lateral move necessarily you can’t expect to be a leader and you know the majority of people coming out are leaders you can’t expect to be that leader to walk in to a leadership position in an organization or a career field where you have zero experience, there’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve. So if those opportunities present themselves, great, awesome. But just expect to have to work your butt off to catch up to people on your level in that new career field.
Emily: Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. I think of it almost like a Venn diagram, if you will, if you had two jobs that were exactly the same on face value, like two logistics coordinator roles, one in the military and one in the civilian sector. On the military side, you’re going to have the skills that overlap between the two, but on the military side, you’re going to have a huge amount of responsibility that you likely may never have on the civilian side, just because the quantity and numbers and, you know, size and dollar figures that get dealt with in the military are just enormous. And then on the civilian side, you likely have software programs or you know other skill kind of things that are just things that you didn’t get exposed to in the military so you know both sides are going to have things that the other side doesn’t and then you kind of have that overlap of skills and um it’s it’s tricky to to bridge that gap it’s very rare I feel like that everybody has all the things on either side but that’s true on the civilian higher side too right you know like If you’re going from one company to another, you’re likely going to have used different software, slightly different skills, slightly different things. So I don’t think that’s something to be discouraged by. I just think it’s something to be aware of, to your point, that even if you have more experience than what they’re asking for in the job description, there probably are key things that you just didn’t get exposed to in the military that you’re going to have to learn. And that’s some of that learning curve. coming in that can just take a little while it’s it’s just kind of the nature of the beast um and so I I think that’s a great point and to know like on the positive side for the company they’re going to gain a huge amount of experience they wouldn’t have with any other candidate so for folks coming from the military being confident knowing that they bring a lot with them that you know probably no one else in their same position is going to have that they’ll be able to add value to the company with which I think is exciting so it’s you know any any time you career change I feel like you have to be willing to be a little bit flexible with your expectations so that you can overcome those gaps that are naturally going to be occurring.
Emily: What about from the company side like if a company is looking at hiring veterans you know again you’re kind of flipping the coin it’s hard to know how sometimes how to read the lingo how to understand what this person did in relation to our business and I think there’s a lot of companies that want to hire people from the military community and just maybe get a little intimidated trying to figure out, you know, what their skill sets are. What advice would you give like hiring managers who are trying to bridge that gap?
Wes: Yeah, you know, I think kind of what I said earlier, I think soft skills are the most valuable thing that veterans bring to the table. You know, that’s knowing that you’re going to have somebody that’s going to show up, that’s going to work hard, that’s going to learn quickly how to do what you need them to do. However, not all veterans are created equal, right? And just because someone came from the military, there’s a lot of people that come from the military. They’re not all great. They’re disproportionately probably more likely to be great. But, you know, I think utilizing resources, you know, like you guys or, you know, other tools that are out there to help translate those skill sets, to help look at someone’s background and say, okay, you know, granted, there’s going to be a learning curve with this individual. Are they going to be worth the investment? Are they going to stick around? And then the thing that goes kind of hand in hand with that is, is the other thing I would tell veterans is, you know, that first year is going to, have some twists and turns you didn’t expect on the job side, but also on the personal side, most likely. As you adjust to that cultural shift from the military to a civilian organization, there’s going to be some rough patches. And so that takes hard work and persistence on the veteran side, but it also takes work and persistence on the employer side, knowing that, hey, just because somebody curse on the job. Maybe let’s not fire them on day one. Let’s talk to them, adjust how they handle those situations going forward and give them a little bit of slack as they figure out how to make that jump.
Emily: Absolutely. Reset those expectations a little bit. One thing that we’ve found to be super helpful if companies are willing to do it, it’s just setting up some sort of internal mentor, especially one that’s not in their chain of command that people can bounce ideas off of, you know, or just like, I don’t know how to respond to this email appropriately. I mean, I feel that way sometimes and I have over twenty years of professional experience at this point and it’s like I don’t always know how to respond to someone’s email in an appropriate way. And so I think that that can be such uh I don’t know if easy is the right word but a simple way to add a tremendous amount of support is just to say, hey, this is your buddy, your go-to mentor that’s going to walk with you, even if they’re a peer on the same level that just is coming from the civilian side. I think that can be just a massive support if companies are able to provide that.
Emily: That’s awesome. What would you say, because I know, you know, we talked a little bit about how you were in Indianapolis, which is a very cool city. I got to go to India a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, honestly, a lot more than I expected to, as terrible as that sounds. I went for a conference and I was kind of like, this will be whatever. And then I was like, this is such a cool place. So I really, really enjoyed it. I would totally go back again. But I you know we’re focused obviously in this show on nashville which is also an extremely cool city and has a lot to offer so you know coming from one great kind of midwestern town to another um what would you say you found compelling about nashville.
Wes: Yeah so I’ve The part of Indiana I’m originally from is the very southern tip of Indiana. So it’s about three hours north of Nashville. So we would visit Nashville all the time as I grew up. And I just love the area. We lived in Clarksville for four years, which is about an hour north of Nashville. So we’d come down here all the time. So when it came time for our kids to, you know, they’re almost getting into kindergarten. We’re like, all right, we’ve got to pick a spot that we’re going to settle down long term. Where’s it going to be? For us nashville was the spot and specifically we’re just south of nashville we’re in franklin which is a suburb to the south so it’s an awesome area uh my parents live down here too they moved down here about about thirteen years ago so that helped. You know down down there in that county it’s the type of area where like people don’t lock their doors to their cars or their their houses it’s uh It’s got a great school system. It’s beautiful. It’s just a great place to raise a family. It’s kind of like growing up in a Hallmark movie a little bit.
Emily: That’s awesome.
Wes: Yeah. It’s definitely more expensive than Indiana, but I think any place that’s a place people want to move is going to be more expensive. There’s a reason it’s more expensive a lot of times. But it’s growing. That’s one of the other things I love about the area too, is the amount of opportunity is massive. With all the influx of people, there’s now an influx of need for little things, car washes, pizza shops. The amount of growth, commercial growth, the amount of businesses that are moving to the area is just exploding. So it’s cool to be a part of that.
Emily: That’s awesome. I know you mentioned before we came on that you’re a real estate agent. You also on the side, you primarily work in those kind of more Southern parts because I know Franklin is very, very cool. It’s actually the first place I ever had froyo. I was moving across the country and came through Franklin and everyone had talked about, I think it’s called like Sweet Cece’s. It was like the place to go. And I didn’t know, I didn’t realize that it was like by the pound. I don’t know how it was the most expensive froyo I’ve ever had in my life because I obviously got way too much, but it was very fun. Very memorable. But Franklin, of the surrounding Nashville area, super cool spot, but it is a little pricier. Are there any hidden gem places that you feel like people might not typically think of that are kind of in that Metro Nashville area that you just are like, people should check out? I don’t know, whatever it is, some some neighborhoods or things that might not be as well known.
Wes: Yeah. Yeah. I am curious to hear your thoughts. So, so I am an agent on the side. My mom’s been an agent for about, since they moved here about years ago. So I do it with her and my brother-in-law. If you’re looking south of the city, Nolensville, Spring Hill are definitely a little bit less expensive, but you still have a lot of those same amenities. So still that same community feel as Franklin or Brentwood. But if you’re looking just in, in Metro Nashville, one of the places that I think is actually a really good value is in kind of like the White’s Creek area, which would be to the Northwest of Metro Nashville. You can be fifteen minutes, twenty minutes away from downtown Nashville and feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. The development hasn’t really hit that area yet now you don’t the downside is you don’t have like the cute little downtown that franklin has and and the shopping and all that stuff but if you’re looking for a place that feels country that doesn’t have some crazy commute with traffic to get to downtown nashville I think that northwest northwest section is is where you’re going to find the most bang for your buck.
Emily: That’s awesome. Okay, well, pro tip, if you’re looking to move to Nashville, now we know. Um, well, thanks for being on the show today, Wes, really appreciate it. Just really appreciate all of your insights. If anybody’s interested in checking out Veryable, definitely give Wes a message or a connection or something on LinkedIn here or leave something in the comments. I’m sure he would be happy to talk to anybody about it. Um, but really appreciate it also just your insights into just your transition and networking and all of those things. I think it’ll be really helpful for anyone looking to make that move.
Wes: Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Emily: Of course.
