Hello. My name is Tony Grayson, and I spent 20 years in the United States Navy on submarines where I lived my lifelong dream of commanding a submarine. Before my retirement, I worked at Facebook, then AWS, then Oracle, before coming here to Compass Data Centers to run their Edge business. Since retiring, I’ve been searching for opportunities to give back and help those transitioning. Working with Compass, I’ve started a new video series on transitioning tips which are meant to not only help those global veterans leaving the service, but those veterans who’ve already left. My goal is to record short videos on the lessons I have learned so you don’t make the same mistakes that I did during my transition or during my time in the private sector.
The first thing I really want to talk about is, don’t sell yourself short, which is easier said than done. You all know more than you think you do and can achieve more than you realize. By serving in the military, and this could be in any service in any country, they all teach you to quickly pick up a new job since you’re transferred every two years and knock it out of the park. That same lesson learned could be fought on the outside. Are you worried that after you found a project job that you might not be able to manage it? Prepping for a deployment could be very similar. Have you found a job in technology, but you’re afraid you don’t have technology experience? Most water weapons systems that we dealt with are much more complex than anything we’d have to do on the outside.
My point really is, all veterans know more than they think they do so don’t be afraid to apply for that dream job. Trust me, your enthusiasm, team-first mentality and dedication will come through. I always believe that you can teach skills, but you can’t teach attitude. Thank you and good luck, and please let me know any other topics you’d like me to cover in the future. Thank you.
