CRITICAL THINKING
LEAN, MEAN, TRANSITION MACHINE
Michael Quinn
For Michael Quinn, retiring from the Army was ‘the most dif ficult year of my life,’ struggling to find the right job. But eventually, he created his own job helping others find their next steps.
by Ellen Summey I
f you spend much time on LinkedIn, chances are you’ve heard of Michael Quinn. Te two-time LinkedIn “Top Voice” and member of the Forbes Coaches Council has more than 300,000 followers; his posts about military separation and veteran employment are viewed by more than a million people every month. For military service members on
LinkedIn—Quinn’s key demographic—you can’t swing a reflective PT belt without hitting one of his posts. So, how did Quinn go from active-duty Soldier to LinkedIn leader? It all started with a misguided retirement plan.
“I was a military intelligence sergeant major, planning on doing 30 years. I loved everything I was doing. I was at 23 years, there on Fort Belvoir [Virginia], where I was the G-3 [opera- tions and training] sergeant major for the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. Te next list of assignments was coming out, and when I brought that list home to my spouse at the time, she said, ‘Yeah, I’m not moving.’ ” Quinn and his family had moved seven times in nine years, “a typical military story,” as he put it. “She gave up her career when we got married, she couldn’t get a job overseas, she couldn’t get a job at El Paso when we moved there for the Sergeants Major Academy for a year, and we finally got back to the D.C. area. We were eight minutes from her family, we had two small kids, we had a house, and she finally had a good job, and she said, ‘I’ll see you when you get back.’ And so, I went from having seven more years, at least, in the Army, to ‘I’m getting out in a year.’ ”
ADJUSTING FIRE Quinn prepared for his retirement with the dedication you would expect of a career Soldier. He started planning and applying nearly a year in advance, he attended all the Army transi- tion workshops, and he set his sights on high-paying jobs in industry. “You know, I’m pretty
https://asc.ar my.mil
113
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176
