USMC How To: Succeed at Your First Job

Guided Discovery.

Artist: GP Photography

Suggested Reading

• MCTP 6-10A, Sustaining the Transformation

  • Pages 3-1 through 3-27 based on printed document (PDF pages 21-47)

  • Description of general responsibilities and expectations of Junior Enlisted Marines as they progress through the early stages of their careers

• Link to MCTP 6-10A on the US Marine Corps Publications Electronic Library

• This week’s Study: We’re Not Marines (But Copy Marines)

• All excerpts below are from MCTP 6-10A

Guided Discovery

Officially, MCTP 6-10A Sustaining the Transformation, is written as a companion to Marine Corp Warfighting Publication 6-10 Leading Marines. Its specific purpose is to provide information to leaders on guiding and caring for Marines through the transformative progression of a Marine Corps career.

Unofficially, it is a how-to manual for any career (or life). Composed for Marines, but applicable for everyone.

Early chapters set the Marine Corps context (and are interesting to read if you are so inclined), but Chapter 3 is where things start to get good. It focuses on junior enlisted Marines and the progression from success in recruit training to success in their first unit (i.e. a Marine’s first job).

The chapter could have just as easily been titled: How to Succeed in your First Job, Your New Job, and Your Next Job…and How to Help Your New Hires.

If recruit training (or basic training or boot camp or college or <pick a starting point>) is where a foundation is set, then the first job is both the initial stress test for the foundation as well as the earliest opportunity to begin to build on the foundation. To extend the construction metaphor, the first job might be the framing.

There is a natural (and frequently coached) tendency to treat a first professional job as a learning opportunity (which it is) and a bit of a throw-away experience (which it is not). Various estimates indicate that Americans change jobs between eight and twelve times over their professional career, though within this statistic the concept of ‘job’ is generally conflated with ‘employer.’ If you are constantly changing jobs, then why place too much emphasis on the first one?

Any Servicemember, Marine or otherwise, typically changes units every three to four years; in a full career dedicated to the military this will result in five to ten jobs with the same employer. Though many of the jobs might be significantly different from each other, though the technical requirements of the jobs will evolve, the process from day one when a Marine enters their first Fleet unit until the day they receive their DD-214 (Department of Defense discharge paperwork) is viewed as one continuous transformation.

Everything is a learning experience, however there is no allowance for throw-away roles, meaningless tests, or adoption of the attitude: ‘I don’t know, it’s a job’. Marines arrive to their first unit with nothing more than a foundation. The first things done with and added to the foundation are extremely important.

To be more pointed: what Marines do as 18 and 19-year-olds in their first unit is a critical influence on how their entire career will unfold. It is the same for a 22-year-old in their first post-college job. It is the same for your new job if you are switching employers. That’s not to say that mistakes do not happen or that recovery from bad situations is not possible…humans overcome bad starts, false starts, and poor choices all of the time. But on average, starting well vastly improves your chances of success.

Is your foundation solid?
Is the framing you are building (or have built) leading to the outcomes you want?

Marines arrive to their first job with a solid foundation. They are then expected to build on the foundation in six ways:

1. Build Belonging

2. Build Trust

3. Build Camaraderie and Unity

4. Build Fitness (Four Domains)

5. Build Muscle Memory

6. Build a Healthy Lifestyle

None of the above are related to technical or professional skills. Not because they are not important, but because continuing to develop role-relevant skills is a given. It’s an obvious requirement. If, however, all you do in a first job is further your technical or professional skills, then have you really progressed in a substantial, meaningful way?