Sarahritchie17 This summer I’m celebrating 7 years of active duty service to the U.S. Coast Guard. While I still have a ways to go and a lot more to do in this profession, I’ve already learned so much along the way. Here’s 7 tips that have helped me succeed.
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1. Ask all the questions
In the Coast Guard, you’re always learning and always teaching. As soon as you get qualified, you’re expected to teach the next people. As an Ensign on a ship, I didn’t ask enough questions because I didn’t want to sound stupid. The next year, new people were asking me questions I didn’t always know the answers to, and that felt more embarrassing.
Ask the questions now while there are people around with more/different experiences than you. Before you know it, the people ahead of you transfer to new duty stations or retire, and their knowledge and experience is taken with them. In most cases you can still reach out, but of course that’s different from having them physically around to have an in-person conversation.
2. Advocate for what you want
This tip goes for a lot of things…
First, most people senior to you will tell you what they think you should do with your career or what they wish they would have done with theirs. It can be valuable advice, but remember that you are on your own path. Your path may look different and that’s okay. What worked for someone 10 years ago may not be what works today.
Second, you will need to advocate for yourself by maintaining your administrative record and ensuring that your medical record is complete before getting out of the military.
Third, when people tell you no. Instead of walking away, ask what it’ll take to get to yes and then do the research and work to get there. I was told that I was medically disqualified from aviation three times before my flight physical went through (with no waivers). There were mistakes in interpreting policy and in the measurements they took. I got referrals and dug into the aeromedical manual and advocated for myself to just get to the starting line of my aviation career.
Fourth, but just as important, advocate for your people. When you feel like someone is deserving of an award, don’t hesitate to write it. It makes a huge difference when people see that you’re a leader who cares about recognizing hard work.
3. Find mentors and connections at all levels
You need to connect with people senior to you, people junior to you, and your peers. The people senior to you can give you career advice and be a great sounding board when you find yourself in sticky situations that they might have previous experience with. The people junior to you are the best evaluators of how you are as a leader, and their advice and feedback will keep you in tune to what the most junior people in the workforce are concerned with. Your peers are your support network; they are the ones in the trenches with you and will be the ones you study with, cry with, and celebrate with.
Build a network that you can leverage not just now but in the future. Focus on real connections, not just business transactions. Take time to actually check in with people instead of just saying “how’s it going” and not sticking around for an answer or just asking for favors when you need them. It’s hard to make the time when you always feel busy, but finding time to connect pays dividends in the long-term.
4. The modern military needs your unique talents
The Coast Guard is having major retention and recruiting issues, and the ways we’ve been doing things need to adapt to attract and retain new generations.
I’ve always been passionate about marketing, and I advocated for the Coast Guard Academy to get on social media in 2016. It took at least a year after my graduation for them to create an Instagram account. In 2018, crew members found out I did yoga and asked me to teach them. This year, the Executive Officer at Airstation Miami asked me to promote my yoga classes to the whole base of over 300 people as a resiliency tool. These are skills that I thought had no nexus to the military but have become important solutions to big Coast Guard issues. It still surprises me sometimes that there is so much support and need for creativity in the military.
5. Take the leave
It’s easy to get caught up thinking you are critical to operations and never take time off, but the fact is, you’re replaceable. The service will replace you every time they move you to a new unit and again when you retire. You are not the only person who can do your job, and you taking a few days off probably isn’t going to have much of an impact on operations. The worst that your chain of command can do is say no, but there are also policies that protect people’s leave; there are only certain circumstances where they can deny leave.
You need to take time for yourself to be able to do your best work. Don’t wait until you reach burnout to put in your leave requests.
I understand saving up for terminal leave, but early in your career you don’t need to worry about that yet. You’ll end up with too many days and either have to burn them down a the end of each year or lose them from your balance.
6. Set boundaries
Find work-life balance and then protect it. It may look different from season to season and even day to day. It most likely will not be 50/50. Find what it takes for you to feel like you can manage your work responsibilities, home responsibilities, relationships, and rest. Learn your limits of how much you can take on at one time, and learn to say no to the rest. Figure out what initiatives you want to prioritize and which ones you want to stay on the sideline for.
7. Take advantage of the benefits
There are tons of benefits available to active duty service members. From tuition assistance and credentialing programs to access to all military exchanges for tax-free shopping to the Amex Platinum credit card annual fee waiver, there are so many military perks. Find out about them and use them. Not using all your benefits is leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table, if not more.
Bonus Tip: Take pictures
This is the adventure of your life. Take the pictures when you can. I’m a big photo person, and I’m so glad I have pictures from my time on my ship even though I would happily never do another tour underway. I’ve heard multiple other people regret that they didn’t take pictures early on because they only have their memories of that time now. You might not be thinking about it yet, but those might be the photos you pass along to your kids one day.
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