“It's kind of scary when you first get out, because all of a sudden everything about your career is dependent upon you. You're in the driver's seat now; you don't have HRC, the Pentagon to call to ask where you're going next. Where you're going next is where you decide to drive that car. And so, while it might seem like a lot of weight on your shoulders, and something that's a little bit scary, it's also something super exciting because it means you can take yourself wherever you'd like to go, and it's not up to anybody else." – Sarah Travaglio

Sarah works at LinkedIn, where she is the Senior Manager, Head of Media Account Management for the Americas. She started out at West Point, after which she served in the Army for five years as a Company Commander and Assistant Battalion Operation Officer. While on active duty she obtained her Masters in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma, and after her transition from the Army she worked at Asurion in Customer Experience positions, before moving on to Accenture. She then moved to LinkedIn, where she has worked for the last three years.

The top three reasons to listen to today’s show are:

1. Firecracker - Sarah is awesome; she is exceptionally efficient in her advice, the ratio of quality advice per sentence is extremely high, and I think she is spot on in her perspective on the pros & cons of recruiters, remote working, education on active duty, and more
2. Process improvements - Sarah found her first job, which lead her to consulting and then LinkedIn. She fell in love with the field of process improvements, and it’s a great career options that other vets may want to consider. More than just an overview of the role, Sarah’s passion for it comes through loud and clear
3. LinkedIn - Sarah works there and has great advice on how to use LinkedIn and other great resources veterans can use in their civilian career

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Selected Links

• Cameron Brooks - helped Sarah get her first job at Asurion and had a very positive experience with Cameron Brooks as she conducted her first job search.
• Asurion - Sarah’s first job experience; she speaks really highly of them as an organization in this interview
• Accenture - although Accenture is known for consulting, Sarah didn't work as a consultant with Accenture but as a Global Candidate Experience Channel Manager
• NPS (Net Promoter Score or Net Promoter) - a very common term in business to measure satisfaction with a company, product, service, etc.
• Recommended Resources
  • veterans.linkedin.com - FREE LinkedIn resources for veterans, access to learning courses (Lynda.com), free upgrades for profile, library of resources to have access to
  • Alumni Facebook Groups, Facebook Women's Group (West Point)
  • LinkedIn - the most VALUABLE free resource available - your network, your profile, everything you need

Show Notes

• 2:05 - Sarah's background at LinkedIn
• 2:41 - How Sarah decided to leave the Army and how she approached this decision
• 4:24 - Sarah obtained her master's degree while on Active Duty, and she has a lot of great advice to those on Active Duty on how to best take advantage of this
• 6:55 - Sarah's experience at Asurion - how she found her way there and what her experience was like
• 11:00 - Sarah worked with Cameron Brooks as part of her job search and she talks about what this experience was like
• 14:51 - What lead Sarah from Asurion to Accenture
• 16:50 - What Sarah's day-to-day life looked like while she was at Asurion
• 19:40 - Sarah describes what it's like working remotely (rather than in an office) and the pros and cons of each
• 21:33 - How Sarah made the transition to LinkedIn
• 24:47 - What Media Account Management, Sarah's role at LinkedIn, is and what life looks like in this role
• 27:22 - What Sarah's day-to-day life looks like at LinkedIn
• 31:30 - Resources that Sarah would recommend to other veterans that have helped her in her career
• 38:22 - Sarah's advice for how veterans can craft an effective LinkedIn profile
• 39:05 - One of the biggest surprises Sarah faced when she left the military
• 42:48 - One of the biggest mistakes that Sarah made when she left the military and what she learned from it
• 49:08 - Sarah's final words of wisdom