Notes from the Naval Academy Alumni Association President, George P. Watt Jr. '73, on making the transition from your military to civilian career. For more information on your new career be sure to visit the
Alumni Association Career Center.
When you transitioned from the Navy to the civilian world you worked for IBM. What factors led you to choose this company? If you could go back would you use the same or different criteria to select your first civilian job?
Actually, when I made my decision to submit my letter of resignation of my active duty commission in the Spring of 1980 (the hardest decision I'd ever made, before or since), IBM was in a hiring freeze. I had been approached by a search firm that specialized in junior officer placements (headquartered in Atlanta) - this was before the Alumni Association offered Service Academy Career Conferences – SACC. Through that process I was recruited and hired by W.R. Grace & Co. into an executive leadership training program. I also had an offer from Proctor & Gamble and, believe it or not, from Westinghouse to be part of the Navy's Nuclear Reactor prototype in Idaho (and I was a history major at USNA). While on my final deployment with VP-5, I had sponsored a reserve CDR and Commanding Officer while they were on ACDUTRA. The C.O. happened to be USNA '64 and was a sales manager at IBM. He very much wanted me to go through their interview process and told me he would let me know when the hiring freeze was lifted. Six months (nearly to the day) after I left USN, I was in Jacksonville for weekend duty and ran into this same SELRES officer (now a Captain). He asked me to stay over one day and interview with IBM's General Systems Division office in JAX. I did, it went well, I resigned from Grace & Co. and I began a career with IBM in early July 1981.
I picked IBM because I knew about its reputation, its value system and some of its history. I also knew that there were a lot of ex-Navy officers and USNA grads working there. Also, I wanted to work my way into management and eventually executive leadership and I knew the fastest and best way to do that was through sales (and marketing) – as opposed to manufacturing, distribution or finance. Therefore, I signed on as a sales trainee at the ripe age of 30 and began a nearly 14 year journey. As to whether I would use the same or different criteria to select a first civilian job, let me hold that one until we get to question 6 below.
What aspects of your transition to the civilian world posed the greatest challenge?
This is a great question…it is one I assist USNA grads with as they are coming out today (junior and senior). I think all of us leave the service thinking we know many (if not all) things. What we typically have is strong technical competence (regardless of academic major at USNA), a sense of purpose and a sense of how to get things done through peo
