What is Find Your Calling?
Ultimately, Find Your Calling helps you answer the question: What should I do next?
This is an online career transition course developed for the military by FourBlock and Columbia University, powered by T-Mobile. It features career guidance grounded on the latest career development research and delivered by industry experts, in order to equip service members for their military transition journey.
Whether it is life, your job in the military, finding a new job, finding out what your passion is – all of these things are incredibly difficult and incredibly complicated. You cannot do this alone. Asking for help is perhaps the greatest single thing anyone can ever learn.
Simon Sinek, New York Times Bestselling Author, TED Speaker
Developed With
T-Mobile
Columbia Business School
Columbia University
Columbia CTL
Why is This for Me?
The skills you learned in the military will go a long way toward helping you succeed in the civilian workforce, but if you’re looking for some extra guidance in figuring out what to do next – not just to find jobs after the military, but to pursue a career – and ultimately a new way to serve – you’ll find it in this course.
The culture of corporate America is different from the culture of the military, and we also know that one of the keys to integrating back home and excelling in the civilian workforce – especially for veterans – is learning to navigate these differences successfully, right from the very start.
While this course is open to everyone, the content has been tailored for military veterans, active duty service members who plan to transition into civilian employment, and professionals who work to support and hire veterans as they transition. If you’re ready to learn how to make your transition easier and more successful, then we hope you’ll join us.
To learn more, contact us at FourBlock or Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration.
Be choosy about choosing. The first choice you make should be ‘What choices are worth my time to make?
Sheena Iyengar, Columbia Business School, TED Speaker
What Will I Learn?
The most important thing that we have learned working with transitioning veterans is that if you do not think critically about who you are as a person, what you value, and what your ambitions are; and then sharpen these things with your tribe, you will not be able to perform the job search basics very well, like resume writing and interviewing.
As we explored the latest research and best practices in career transitions, we discovered that the most effective strategies are similar for all people across all ages seeking to change careers, not just veterans. For example, we read the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and found direct similarities between the virtues that Aurelius wrote about and the character strengths that are recommended by top career development experts today.
This course focuses first on developing those fundamental character strengths that veterans will need to make a successful career transition. Second, the course offers you practical strategies to ease your transition. This course looks beyond finding jobs for veterans and equips you to help you make better decisions for you and your family, and ultimately help you achieve your career goals and reach your potential.
There will be 6 lessons, each named after a character strength translated into Latin, emphasizing that these are timeless principles that have guided generations to live purpose driven lives. Each lesson has 4 sections: Getting Started, Core Concepts, Action Items, and Wrapping Up. The character strengths are:
- Pietas (Citizenship)
- Prudentia (Critical Thinking)
- Gravitas (Passion)
- Humanitas (Creativity and Choice)
- Veritas (Authenticity)
- Nosce Te Ipsum (Emotional Intelligence)
Furthermore, we provide a digital workbook that you can download that provides space to take notes and then reflect upon them later. Also, added throughout are:
- Polls so you can see where you stand in relation to other students;
- Discussion Threads so that other students can learn from your input and experiences;
- Feedback Surveys so that we can continue to refine and improve the curriculum; and
- Voices from real life industry experts and veterans in transition.
The curriculum does not need to be completed from start to finish. The material can be used continuously to reflect upon as you progress in your transition. The character strengths are blended together and not independent of one another. We hope you find this program meaningful and we look forward to working with you as you transition into a new phase of your life.
Your new job is to bring your wisdom from overseas back into this world. Create communities around you… reform your neighborhoods. This country has always depended on those close communal relations to survive and to thrive.
Sebastian Junger, New York Times Bestselling Author, Award-Winning Journalist
Course Instructors
By bringing subject experts from Columbia Business School, Columbia Business School Career Management Center, Harvard Business Review, TEDTalks, Yale University, and more, FourBlock Online provides veterans a look at today’s career landscape and the latest career development advice on a single learning platform. Instructors include:
You build and maintain relationships all the time. Now think of it in service of finding your next opportunity.
Lindsey Pollak, New York Times Bestselling Author, Multigenerational Workplace Expert
Our Career Readiness Program
Veterans who take FourBlock Online are also encouraged to continue their career development through our resident Career Readiness Program.
Each week, transitioning service members and veterans connect with a different host company to learn about the various companies and industries, develop and practice the technical competencies of a career search - and most importantly - gain access to and begin building relationships with the veterans and employers who work at these companies. We offer our program twice a year in major metropolitan cities across the country during each fall and spring academic semester, at no cost to veterans. Corporate hosts include Amazon, Coca-Cola, LinkedIn, PwC, T-Mobile, and many other industry-leading companies.
In addition to enrolling in Find Your Calling, check to see if our Career Readiness Program is offered near you.