Career transition: another uphill battle for military personnel
Our research on the career transition of military personnel (64 interviews) reveals that it is difficult to leave a profession that demands personal qualities and a strong commitment—qualities that shape the “unique status ” of military personnel, to use the terminology of the High Committee for the Evaluation of Military Conditions.
Dominique Lecerf, University of Montpellier; Anne Loubès, University of Montpellier and Claude Fabre, University of Montpellier
However, professional specificity is not a concept reserved solely for the military; according to the German sociologist Max Weber, it is the result of “any organization or institution with its own specific purpose.”
Approximately 16,000 people leave the military each year. The Defense Transition Agency assists 62% of them in finding employment, but securing long-term stability in these jobs proves challenging. Ultimately, only 37% of those leaving are able to retain the jobs they found with institutional support. The imperative of a rapid return to work and the pressure associated with reemployment rates lead service providers to prioritize employability and technical skills. As a result, the individual is constrained—or even essentially reduced—to a portfolio of transferable skills.
Whether it’s involuntary or by choice, losing a job affects a person as a whole, not just in their professional role. Change means taking a step into the unknown, and it brings doubt, questions, and fears; the mindset and resources needed to navigate it are unique.
By examining the core of military transition, this study highlights the need for identity exploration and support throughout the transition process. It underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive approach that simultaneously leverages both the technical and psychological aspects of transition. The goal is to enable individuals to quickly take charge of their own career transition by understanding who they are, so they can accept and decide who they want to become.
Before: a soldier, but not just that…
A person’s identity is multifaceted. It rests on three dynamic pillars: personal identity (both innate and acquired), role identities within their socio-professional mosaic, and, finally, group identities. This gives rise to an identity for oneself and an identity for others.
List of authors
The unique nature of the military stems from a very specific role identity—giving and receiving death in the service of arms; a strong attachment to the group—soldiers refer to one another as brothers in arms; and the institution itself— grounded in a system of values. The demands of service can lead to self-sacrifice, to a “blurring” of the personal and the professional, to family “sacrifices”… all of which are summed up in Alfred de Vigny’s maxim: “Military servitude and grandeur.” The difficulty of detaching oneself from a professional and group identity with a strong influence is a reality found in many fields, notably industry, healthcare, education, and labor unions…
Diagram by the authors
First, job loss leads to a “loss of self,” to borrow the phrase coined by sociologist Danièle Linhart. This change plunges the service member into a state of marginalization—known as the liminal zone—which brings chaos, suddenly intrudes upon their life story, and disrupts its narrative structure, its heroes, and the imagined “resolution.” The anxiety that sets in thus triggers a spiral of doubt similar to the grieving process—a term frequently mentioned by those interviewed, for whom denial, anger, bargaining, and depression lead to the final stage of acceptance: a fresh start.
A former soldier recounts:
“I’d wanted to be in the military ever since I was a kid, so I’d lived out my lifelong dream in my career. My life could have ended right then.”
How can we cope with this anxiety? A process of personalization, based on identity work and the development of a plural identity, can facilitate this transition. It is, in fact, a process of re-personalization, a return to the foundation of one’s identity. This process of self-reflection would, in particular, allow for an adjustment of interpersonal relationships and personalcoping strategies to deal with threats, and enable the realization of one’s vision for a new social and professional life.
Identity-based distancing
This step back is all the more necessary given the profound nature of the military’s transition, as one interviewee explains:
“When a soldier transitions to civilian life, their relationship with the world changes; it’s not just a change of job, it’s a complete change of life. In fact, you go from giving your life to giving your arm; my contribution is to offer my arms, which is very different from giving your life.”
If the influence of the group one has left proves to be overwhelming, the process of identity formation is disrupted and threatened. Distancing oneself from it facilitates the completion of this identity-building process, in which the individual’s search for meaning drives their actions and serves as the key to their career transition. A former military member confirms the importance of this step:
“I had to figure out how to adapt my military skills to fit the job requirements […] but the challenge was to build something that made sense.”
In other words, military personnel must focus more on who they are than on what they are. At the time of the study, the Army’s recruitment office was promoting its slogan, “Become yourself ”! All the more so, at the time of departure, staying, becoming, or becoming again are part of the imperative “maintenance of self, ” not only to achieve the necessary detachment, but also and above all to preserve a sense of identity and provide a foundation for the new endeavor. The professional transition indeed creates a shifting context where one’s self-identity adjusts to one’s identity in the eyes of others, through a degree of detachment from the group left behind that facilitates the process of integrating into a new group. Knowing how to become, therefore, constitutes a key skill to develop.
A former soldier sums up this conclusion:
“You have to take charge of your own career transition and not wait for others to do the work for you.”
The Alternative of Learning to Be
But we only come into our own within a specific ecosystemic environment. When environmental reference points change, we must continue to find our true selves! For a smooth career transition, it is essential that the person making the move understand the need to re-situate their personal identity— who they are —within their evolving, multifaceted identity— what they are.
To prevent the process of self-definition from stalling, the individual must step back from the group they have left, which continues to shape their identity for others: through its modes of operation, its value system, the roles the individual holds or has held within it, the assets to which they have contributed, and the collective narrative they helped shape, within which their own narrative has found a place.
A healthy degree of emotional detachment must make way for the writing of a new chapter in one’s multifaceted identity. Our findings thus show that the polarization of individual identity by collective identity appears to hinder a rapid return to sustainable employment: of those who left under these circumstances, only 20% retained the job they had initially secured. This trend lessens three years after leaving. In fact, the process of intentional identity distancing ultimately offered a 50% higher chance of securing long-term employment.
However, this does not mean making a clean break with the past, but rather “sorting” between the temporary aspects of one’s identity as perceived by others and the permanent aspects of one’s identity as perceived by oneself. This implies that for some, the transition is a complete career change, while for others it is merely a shift, or even a continuation of their former profession: the value system associated with the image that has shaped the individual; their normative framework and the resulting habits.
A low-cost, digital psychological support “module” focused on identity development and personal growth would be a start and a minimum requirement. For the careful management of people undergoing change—who are striving to maintain their sense of self through a project-oriented approach—requires a profound shift in the economic logic underpinning support systems.
“ “Focusing on people,” as is often emphasized, means placing the individual and their career goals at the center of these programs, tailoring services and the duration of support to each person’s needs, and giving psychological support and consultants the necessary space and autonomy. This requires revising service providers’ terms of reference and the way their results are measured, looking beyond mere reemployment rates.
For example, an individual’s level of acceptance of the new project, the implementation rate of an approved project, or a return to long-term employment would provide new grounds for support and evaluation.
Unrealistic given the state of the job market? Too costly for the community? How can we address these questions without resorting to inaction or denial? It all comes down to priorities!
This article is based on the dissertation titled “Breaking Free from a Strongly Influential Group Identity to Succeed in a Career Transition: The Case of Military Personnel’s Career Transition,” by Dominique Lecerf, supervised by Anne Loubès, defended on October 30, 2020.
Dominique Lecerf, Research Associate at the MRM/GRH Laboratory, University of Montpellier; Anne Loubès, University Professor, Director of IAE Montpellier, University of Montpellier and Claude Fabre, Associate Professor of Management Sciences (specializing in human resources), University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.