TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Being a member of the U.S. Military is different from most occupations. Members have a sense of fraternity and loyalty to their comrades and their service. In turn, the military looks to take care of those whom raised their right hand; even when a service member’s contract is coming to a close.
The Air Force has a transitional program known as the Career Skills Program, or CSP. The CSP itself allows Airmen within six months of separation or retirement to become unpaid interns at jobs either from an approved list or vetted through the program. The end goal being to obtain employment in the civilian market with little to no transition period.
Recently, Team Tyndall had its first applicant successfully placed. Former U.S. Air Force Capt. Eric Lundberg from the 337th Air Control Squadron began his journey of transitioning out of military service several months ago, and is happily working in his new occupation.
“It started off in May of 2017,” said Lundberg, now a Citrine Informatics security program manager. “I got an email from . He talked about the CSP and how I would be able to join a tech company while I was on active duty. After a series of interviews and having to route my package all the way up to the Air Force Personnel Center commander, I was able to head to the San Francisco Bay area.”
The email he received from his friend would send him on a journey to the life-changing decision of separating from the Air Force and making his way back into the civilian workforce.
As the first applicant at Tyndall in a relatively new program, he ran into a few obstacles, but his leadership and members of the 325th Force Support Squadron Force Development Center helped him along the way.
“[My leadership’s] biggest concern was, ‘Is this thing legal?’” Lundberg said speaking to the multitude of training hours and resources put into Air Battle Managers like himself. “Logically, it doesn’t make too much sense for the Air Force to willingly give up an Airman they’ve invested in, for two to six months. Once we were able to dig into the regulations, and talk about the benefit, I had to then trust my leadership. They were then able to approve it for me.”
Once an Airman is approved for the CSP, they will then go on a permissive Temporary Duty Assignment giving participants the chance to work with a company to see if they are a good fit.
For Airmen that are stepping out of their comfort zone and expertise, this may be something on their mind.
“The bigger daunting task for me was to go into a company, with no experience in software development or material science, and prove myself to a point where [the company] was willing to hire me,” Lundberg explained. “I got passed that by knowing what I’m good at, knowing what others struggle with, and volunteering for projects that showed my skills the way the company needed. I found that with information security.”
He further elaborated on the benefits coming from his time in the service and what he viewed as strengths that he brought with him.
“What I was going through as a captain and an air battle manager that transferred over very well are two things: communication and leadership,” Lundberg said. “When I was back at the squadron, I was responsible for communicating with aircraft in real-time, finding their needs, and applying quick thinking to bring in other resources to help them out.”
Lundberg went on to tout the program’s ability to get him into a new career field and be an asset to his new company. Just like his time in the military, he looks forward to the future and sharpening his skills to progress in his new life.
“Security management is not passion for me, but it is something I can contribute and add value to the company,” he said in a telephone interview from California. “They were able to recognize that. Going forward, the strategy is when they hire full-time security people, I can move around to a position I really want. Security got my foot in the door, but I can grow based on my own agenda from there.”
Lundberg closed with what he finds to be the greatest advantage the CSP gave to him as he switched one uniform for another.
“Credibility. Nobody looking at my resume would ever believe I would be fit for an engineering organization or tech start up using artificial intelligence,” he said. “It says nowhere on my resume that I would be remotely fit for it, and through this program I was able to get my foot in the door at a very low-risk basis, build my credibility and get a full-time position. That would have been impossible for me otherwise.”
For more information on the CSP and how to get involved contact the Force Development Center at 850-283-4285.