THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030437
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
Never start at the bottom when you're trying to get a job interview; start at the top. Salary really is not negotiable, because you can get top pay for your qualifications. Specific telephone techniques can help you get past company gatekeepers whose task is to keep job-seekers at a distance from the people who hire.
These and other tips may help men and women who are leaving the military, and who are well-trained and disciplined, but don't know how to market themselves for the civilian work force.
It took former headhunter Connie Sloane Brown seven years to write, revise, self-publish and market ``Job Hunting Civilian Style.'' But her book is being carried in more than 200 Army and Air Force base exchanges. And she has just landed a contract with the Navy to stock 33 of its exchanges.
``Due to draw-downs, Congress is phasing out the TAP (Transition Assistance Program) as of March 1,'' said Brown, 38. ``But even though the big draw-down is coming to an end, 300,000 people a year are still leaving the military.''
In her 10 years as a career counselor, recruiting people for technical fields worldwide, Brown met all sorts of highly skilled ex-military folks who thought she would market them for a good job.
``But I worked for the companies who wanted to hire, not for the people looking for jobs,'' she said. ``I began to feel like I was playing God with people's lives, steering them towards jobs that may not have been exactly right for them just so the companies got someone.''
So seven years ago, Brown quit that job and wrote a mail-order booklet on how to find the most suitable employment. With a $100 investment, she had 50 booklets printed and sold them all immediately.
Then she revised and enlarged the material into a $14 paperback, which she marketed to military bases; 32 exchanges took copies.
``Then I made a financial blunder,'' Brown said. ``I didn't have enough capital to keep printing and filling all the orders I had. I was pregnant with my second child, and my mother had a stroke.
``That's the time when I say the project became ill, and it had to be put to rest for a year. Then, in 1992, something told me to send it to a big publisher.''
Brown hired an agent, who, she said, got a verbal confirmation that Simon & Schuster wanted her book; but she never received a contract and the deal fell through. The disappointment only inspired her further.
In 1993, she ran a weeklong ad worldwide in the Army and Air Force Times, which resulted in orders from dozens of exchanges, and the Pentagon. About the same time, Brown started her own career counseling business in Virginia Beach with partner Jim Campbell.
The business lasted about six months, but Campbell, a retired Marine major married to a retired Marine colonel, had praise for Brown and her book.
``The TAP program is, basically, a resume writing course,'' he said. ``It doesn't help you discover what you really can do, what you want to do. Her book offers good guidance for those who are stepping out of a uniform, and who are going to have some real problems when they do.''
The Transition Assistance Program, Campbell says, was never meant to be a full-time, permanent solution to people getting out of the military; it was designed for the temporary time of draw-downs. He thinks offering Brown's book, instead of seminars, to those leaving the military is a good idea.
``For, roughly, a $15 investment, this book gives you all the basic information you need to get started,'' Campbell said. ``And it would be a lot cheaper for the military than having someone come in and tell you how to write resumes, plus the space and the time involved.''
Now that Brown has a market for ``Job Hunting Civilian Style'' in so many branches of the service, she's taking the book on tour. During February she'll be giving seminars on job hunting, and signing copies of her book, at military exchanges throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
Husband Randy Murray, an electronics subcontractor, will go back to being the primary caregiver for the couple's three children and Brown's mother.
``I've always been behind her 100 percent,'' Murray said, ``because she always persisted with it. But I saw that she had something there and I wanted her to go on with it. There were a couple of times I was jealous, but I've kind of gotten used to being a house-husband now, and I enjoy it.''
Brown has big plans: She will be teaching a series of seminars on self-publishing, and she is meeting this week with her local congressman to present her idea for a transition center for women coming off welfare. Her ideas come from confusion, she said.
``In my 20s I was so confused about a career. I was a model, a secretary, and I sold furniture,'' said Brown, a former Miss Portsmouth. ``And I knew I didn't want to do any of that. I learned that your career starts with planning; you need to figure out what you're good at, then do something with it.'' MEMO: Connie Sloane Brown will talk about her book at Barnes & Noble
Booksellers in Virginia Beach at 2 p.m. Jan. 21. She begins a tour of
military exchanges Feb. 5.
Brown will present onetime seminars on ``How to Write and Publish
Books That Sell'' at the Virginia Beach Central Library throughout
January. The first seminar is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Saturday. The $25 cost includes materials. For details, call
471-6523. ILLUSTRATION: onnie Sloane Brown will discuss her book at Barnes & Noble
Booksellers in Virginia Beach at 2 p.m. Jan. 21
Photo of book cover
by CNB