Rob Campbell is a New
Product Deployment Program Manager, Switching Products, for Alcatel,
a global leader in next generation networks that deliver integrated end-to-end
voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as
well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. Within Alcatel's Networking
Services Division, Campbell is responsible for developing, deploying, testing,
and coordinating training for the company's next generation switching products
and services at customer sites.
Prior to joining Alcatel, Campbell spent more than 10 years with the Army.
He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Signal Corps from the
Virginia Military Institute. During his career, he served in a variety of
assignments throughout Germany and the United States, including three Command
positions within the Army Signal Command, the US Army Special Operations
Command and the US Army Recruiting Command.
Q: How did you go about searching for
a job outside of the military? And, why did you choose Alcatel?
I did a lot of research about companies
that I wanted to work for, Alcatel being one of them. I had several friends
who I served with in the military already working at Alcatel. Seeing how
easy it was for them to make the transition and meeting the people at the
company, I saw it was a definite fit.
I feel comfortable working in a large environment where I can make a positive
impact. I liked the fact that Alcatel was a worldwide company — another
key interest. I had heard that the corporate or commercial way of doing
business can be a difficult one, but I knew with my background and my personality
that I would be able to forge results in a new environment.
Q: What areas of the corporate world
do you feel military personnel fit best?
The thing that helped most with my transition
from the military is the immediate appreciation and respect for you and
your skills by your new team.
If you've been in the military a number of years, you're used to moving
around and changing jobs and meeting new people and having new assignments.
Those are things that really help to make the transition easy. With a company
like Alcatel, the transition for me couldn't have been any easier. There
was nothing that I had to do to enter the role for which I wasn't already
trained. The key things I needed to have to come on board were a technical
background, an understanding of the equipment, the terminology, but not
necessarily to the detail of being a technician. I needed to understand
a program, to understand a project, and how to develop a team. I also needed
to know how to put the resources together to ensure that we're ready to
support a product when it goes out to the new customers. These are the key
skills that I learned in the military that are allowing me to be successful
at Alcatel.
Q: What skills from the military do you
see as being the most transferable?
The military is a great place to learn.
It's a great place to grow. You learn a lot about yourself. Military members
also tend to learn something that's key and that is not to say "no."
Also, in the military everything is a mission, and all missions need to
be accomplished. You learn to handle all tasks and accomplish the goals
no matter what the challenge is. Granted, you still have to look at risk
management. You're focused and have already learned the teamwork and discipline.
Those are all key to making a great contribution to society and an organization.
One of the things that I learned at the Virginia Military Institute was
the essence of the citizen soldier. You can be a soldier, but you also have
to be a good citizen. These are some of the things you can transfer from
the military to the civilian sector.
Q: What can other employees learn from
former military personnel?
Folks from the service tend to be active
participants. They will see something that needs to be updated or changed
or enhanced and they'll take the initiative to try to make things better
— to make the environment better and more productive.
Military folks are very resourceful and they like to look at cost reduction
and process improvement issues. The military is used to doing more with
less. You have a lot more people out there as valuable resources who say,
"How well can we get this done with what we have? We don't have the resources,
we don't have the budget, how can we get it done?"
People with a military background tend to take a look at their job and their
assignment differently than the corporate career person. Military people
look at how they can make things better — not reinvent the wheel, but
how can they increase effectiveness and productivity through gradual, incremental
or managed change.
Q: What other skills or traits learned
in the military should a person making the transition leverage in the corporate
or commercial world?
Leadership, flexibility and adaptability
are key.
Everyone gets some leadership responsibilities in the military. There are
no positions in the armed services where you don't apply leadership principles.
Even in a staff role, you still have to have the essence of leadership to
accomplish the mission. At Alcatel, I have to be a leader and develop a
cohesive team in order to accomplish our objective. If you don't fully understand
leadership, then you can't realistically understand teamwork, and will have
a difficult time being successful in the corporate or commercial world.
A leader is able to forge a team and produce results, while maximizing people's
abilities. Flexibility and adaptability to an ever-changing environment
are also critical to success. Opportunities exist everywhere within companies.
Being flexible and adaptable to the various opportunities within a company
can mean the difference between making the successful transition and not.
|
