The following blog post is by Joe Vis, a Cameron-Brooks Alumnus who spent over one year in the Cameron-Brooks program. He recently attended the June 2012 Conference and accepted a position with Zoll Medical in Marketing.
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I have had the privilege and opportunity to lead a Cameron-Brooks study group in the Ft. Bragg area over the past 12 months and I wanted to share some of my experiences and let my fellow Cameron-Brooks candidates know a little bit about the value that this kind of group creates.
Interview preparation. I can’t begin to explain how practicing answers with 15 other candidates over the course of a year helped me at the Conference. I don’t think there is any other better venue to do this while preparing for a Career Conference and it was an opportunity to critique each other, learn from one another, and practice, practice, practice.
In addition to interview preparation, the group received first-hand feedback from at least six candidates that attended Conferences and accepted offers. Their feedback was invaluable and was also an opportunity to learn about Cameron-Brooks’ client companies and the opportunities at the Conference as I continued to keep in touch with alumni who have left the study group.
Networking. At one point, we had four officers from Ft. Bragg and three officers from around the country dialing in via Skype. The group created a small network from which we could help each other and practice answers from members of different branches of service – definitely forcing me to remove Army jargon from my vocabulary!
Most importantly, the group was a venue for my peers and fellow veterans to help each other over one last hurdle as we left the military – helping a candidate move furniture, an alum taking me out to dinner in Austin, TX after my Career Conference, an alum from the group coming back to interview candidates in Austin this past weekend, a candidate feeding me at his dinner table while I practiced answers with him and his wife. This is just a small picture of the connections and the relationships the study group built and it made the time investment worth every minute.
I highly encourage any candidate to get in touch with their recruiting team leader at Cameron-Brooks and start a study group in their area. I guarantee the benefits will far outweigh any cost in time and it will only make you that much more prepared to interview and make your career transition.
Joe Vis
