These are excellent points! I was thinking inside the house (literally)!

Overlaying family goals onto the discussion of finances and transitioning from a student to an officer is really important. I think this can range from married to a civilian, stay-at-home spouse, dual career, dual military, not to mention what goals or plans of children…[Read more]

@kamalu76 — Though you speak about living conditions, you’ll need to actually get there first :-), so here are a couple JO Forum discussions that might be of interest to you as well:

Do It Yourself Move

First Move

Great topic, wanted to add some input. I am currently mid-stride of my post-command broadening opportunity…

Pursue broadening opportunities! Pursue broadening opportunities!

You will struggle to find mentors that can advise you on broadening opportunities because broadening assignments are by their very nature unique. So, most mentors have…[Read more]

Almost a year after the first question… the discussion continues, here:

Student to Lieutenant pt.5

See you there!

~Jeff

@falcon6 – thanks for your input! I think we should spread the good word about JO Forum.

How long have you been in command?

Do you have Ft. Hood’s commanders course POC? I would love to reach out to them!

Here’s an old conversation from last year about finances that also ties into balancing large purchases: https://juniorofficer.army.mil/discussion/living-conditions/#post-793

Here’s my take on your categories:
Kitchen –
CrockPot v2 – InstaPot or a digital crockpot. DO NOT get an IoT pot, it’s not worth the security issue and you’ll be too busy to…[Read more]

1) Broadening Opportunities – I will say that overall, I suggest that Broadening is being seen as not a deviation as the next step after KD. Go ahead a check out the Smartbook PAM 600-3 (via MilSuite, under S1Net) and you’ll see that is expressed under your branch’s career chart (possibly called the Talent Management Career Timeline now). I will…[Read more]

Michael,

Welcome back from the field.  I love a point that you made, their success directly contributed to my team’s success.  Such a crucial concept that gets missed in too many leadership books.  We are only as successful as we allow our teams to be.

As to logistics, I think a key to success is understanding if I don’t have it, where can I ge…[Read more]

@brittany.rodriguez – tracking the thread. Awesome question, Brittney. I’m going to have to wrack my brain and consult some resources, so hang tight for a few days and early next week I should be able to post some resources. I admit that I’ve only worked with officers going the other way (RA to USAR), and while USAR is also controlled by HRC,…[Read more]

Paul, great questions. I was in your shoes a couple of years ago and asked numerous leaders the same question. Here are my thoughts.

1)  Yes, broadening opportunities are seen as detours but some say not anymore. In my opinion, as deployments have decreased and new challenges arise (cyber, China, Russia, etc), the importance of broadening and…[Read more]

@pstofan – this is a great question! Moving this to a new discussion.