Shirt’s corner: planning your career

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Patrick Piazza
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  From the time a new Airman arrives at the Air Force Academy, Basic Military Training, Officer Training School or Reserve Officers' Training Corps, they are told what to do and when to do it. This lasts, for the most part, all the way through technical training or the equivalent. Then they arrive at their first duty station and their first sergeant or commanding officer stands in front of them and says everything about your career now comes down to personal responsibility. In an instant, they are expected to know when their enlisted performance report is due, when they are eligible to reenlist, when they are due to change station and any number of other processes they aren't an expert on. When one couples this with all of the other things they are tasked with during the duty day, it can seem like more than the average person can handle. However, as our traffic management office chief says, "No one ever said being an adult was easy."

What can seem overwhelming at first will become second nature with a little due diligence and research. In the time it takes you to shop on the internet, play a video game, or go out for dinner, you can write down every date you need to take control of your own career and be successful. You will never have to rely on someone else to tell you what is coming up; feel that sense of panic when you realize you just lost out on an assignment because you don't have enough retainability; you missed your chance at promotion because you didn't know the date or time of your Weighted Airman Promotion System test; or you are standing in your first sergeant telling him or her about a crisis because you didn't know what was going on with your own career.

Take the time today to research and write down all of the dates that are pertinent to your career. Make sure you are ready to put yourself in a position to take advantage of all of the great things the Air Force has to offer. We have so many opportunities, but you have to be ready now, and in the future, to take advantage of them.

Of course we did not become the greatest Air Force in the world by not sharing. We can still use our teamwork and the wingman concept to help each other. There is nothing wrong with talking to your subordinates, supervisors, co-workers or anyone about what is important. If you are thinking about what is going on in your career, chances are your coworkers are thinking the same thing. Every once in a while you should take a break from talking about stuff that will be forgotten in the next 15 minutes to focus on something that can make a difference to your future.

I believe the difference between those who are successful and those or are not is work ethic. All of us have the cognitive ability to be here or we wouldn't have been accepted. So what makes the difference in how well we do as Airmen? As my mom has told me my whole life, "Patrick, success is a relative term. We need people to flip burgers, take out the trash, and clean up behind people for a living. If that is your idea of success then you can achieve it. On the other hand, if you want something bigger in life, you can have that too - it just depends on how bad you want it." How bad do you want it?