Meet Karen Gibson…
From 3 Star General to Portfolio Career Master
We were fortunate to interview Karen Gibson, a retired three-star General in the Army who participated in Guided Career and Life Transitions twice – first when she was contemplating retirement and again when she launched her second career. We hope you enjoy these excerpts transcribed from her interview on December 14, 2020.
What are you doing now?
Things are constantly evolving for me. Currently, I am serving on the Biden-Harris transition team and will be teaching a national security course as an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown in January. I am speaking 2-5 times a month, which was one of my goals. I am also a part-time civilian at the Army War College and serve on several advisory boards and one corporate board. I am not writing yet but have made some contacts for it when I’m ready. My goal was to build a portfolio career instead of taking on a full-time position and so things are constantly evolving. It is a bit like water. I think that is the nature of portfolio work.
What have you learned?
Transition is a bit like going through adolescence. You have to go through every step. Even though people tell you what to expect, you still have to experience it and feel it for yourself. People will tell you that you are going to feel certain pressures, and yes, you feel the pressures. They tell you that you will feel way behind at times, and yes, you feel way behind at times. They tell you that you will need to say no to some things, and I have struggled with that. All the things people tell you about transition are true, but you don’t get to skip them just because you’ve been told them.
What has been challenging?
One thing that has been challenging for me is that throughout my military career I was always around people who held the position I hoped to hold in the future. By the time I got to the role, I had seen a lot of examples – good and bad. At every level, I was always watching and exposed to the next role. All of the sudden now, particularly in Covid, there is no one for me to observe.
One thing I want to do is serve on corporate boards, and I did accept one position but had to suspend all commercial activity while working on the Biden-Harris transition team. I am nervous though because I don’t know what is expected in this board role. It is like at the beginning of my career showing up for an early training brief having never seen one before. There is no opportunity to have witnessed the role in action. In some ways, retirement has been like this opaque wall, you can see the shadows on the other side, but you cannot always see exactly what is going on behind the wall. The challenge has been the inability to learn from observing examples in retirement.
Another key parallel that struck me early on was that transition is a little like dating when you are young. I don’t want to look desperate, but how do I signal I might be available and have certain standards? Will it look bad if I talk to a certain company? Am I good enough for another company? It felt very much like dating again.
One thing they caution you about when you retire from the military is not to spend too much time on ‘free’ work. I found that initially I had a really hard time saying no to people. I worried about how many other opportunities would be cut off if I said no to something. And this was a learning experience for me. I am much better at it now. I did accept a job in Saudi Arabia early on, however I did not end up going because of Covid. I was excited by the prospect for a while, but I accepted it in part because I wasn’t sure how to say no. Without something else lined up, you end up thinking, ‘should I do this?” Again, it is kind of like dating.
The money thing can be hard, too. I had no idea what my worth was or how much to charge per hour for services. I probably undercharge and wonder sometimes if I am getting taken advantage of – it might be a bit of a female thing.
How did you fuel your success?
One goal I initially set for myself, and I continue to do, is have three informational interviews week. I find networking to be very efficient on-line. One thing that tickles me is that I’ve been able to stay busy and very engaged in so many endeavors all from my living room. The key here though is network, network, network.
It is helpful to think of networking as informational interviews where you ask to hear their stories and share what interests you, then follow up with periodic emails to keep things from being transactional.
When I reach out to network with emails, I say that I am getting out of the military and would like to pick their brain and learn about their experiences. I do not ask for a job or connections. People want to help. They are friendly. It has been fascinating to see which connections paid off. I have learned something from every connection. And yet, it is not always the highest-ranking connections that have led to the most intriguing opportunities.
What have you noticed?
One of the things I have struggled with is how to define success for a second career. Is it salary or title or position? In the military success is clearly defined. But now out in the world, I have had to ask, “What does success look like?”
Many men leave the military and go to work for big defense companies. I think it is the comfort level and being around military people and military things. They spend their days much like they did before they left the military.
I have recently noticed that my daily routine now is very similar to my favorite jobs in the past. When I was on active duty, I would get up at 4:00 a.m. and with my cup of coffee, review all the classified information and events that had happened overnight in the Middle East. When I retired and started this second career, I found myself getting up early and spending an hour pouring over the Washington Post, highlight things and clipping articles, much like I had when I was reviewing the classified information.
While I did not take the route of many men retiring from the military, I have replicated patterns from my previous life – some good and others bad. The rhythm of my day mirrors my favorite jobs. Yet, I am working way too many hours and seven days a week. I tell myself when Covid has passed, I’ll do some other things. But my schedule has been on my terms, which I like. I have had the opportunity to build this portfolio of work that I can migrate with me to a home I am building in Montana, and I’ve been able to test pilot it during Covid. I found that I can do this work most anywhere.
It has been gratifying to know I can make my own way. I have the financial freedom to do that, and I know that is not the case for everyone. But to believe in yourself and persist has been empowering.
Your program was tremendously valuable, and I appreciate the opportunity to have gone through it twice. I still have all my materials in a three-ring binder, and in fact, I pulled it out two weeks ago while preparing for an interview.