Establish a Relationship with your Mentors

by , Feb 29, 2012

I had a very close relationship with the battalion commander that I served under in Afghanistan. I had no idea how important and close our relationship would become, especially after I left the service. Almost everything in civilian life requires a letter of recommendation or at least a reference.

If anything, I wish I established morelastingmentor-mentee relationships while I was in the Army. I always had great relationships with my company or battalion commander, but when I PCSed (moved), I didnt keep in touch with these men. Im not suggesting that you start sucking up to every superior officer before you leave the service. Im suggesting that you think about the key people who have made an impact on you during your military career and reach out to them letting them know that you are separating. Ask if you could use them as a reference.

Keep your old evaluation reports as a starting point for what your mentor will write about you because they will probably have forgotten what occurred two or three years ago, and tons of junior officers separate and ask for recommendations or references. You dont really need to coach them for general job references, but you really should have a phone conversation about MBA applications. MBA letters of recommendations are so unique that they need to be tailored to each particular school. The story on the letter of recommendation needs to match the story in your essay.

Veterans tend to get similar letters of recommendations extolling their combat service so you need to differentiate. What did you do in the military that wasnt related to the military? I know we were all busy due to a heavy operational tempo but if you think really hard you might think of a few things that you did non-military related. A personal story for me is when I went through some mediation training as part of what my commander wanted me to do. However, since I liked mediation, I went beyond the mandatory training and actually volunteered for a mediation organization for a few months before I deployed. Things like that.

My next post is going to talk about reaching out to the veteran associations and clubs for business schools. They have been great advocates and supporters during my MBA application journey and you should definitely put a priority on reaching out to these folks.In the meantime, if you are interested in reading my other posts, click here to check out my blog.