E243: The JMO Job Market in 2026 (with CEO Chuck Alvarez)

Twice a year, Joel Junker sits down with our CEO, Chuck Alvarez, to talk about what’s actually happening in the business world and what it means for officers getting out. They’ll be discussing the JMO job market in 2026. Chuck leads the client side and has been doing this for more than 30 years. Joel leads the candidate side. This one covers a lot of ground. Chuck opens with the hard part. Geopolitical tension is as high as he’s seen in his lifetime, and that makes it difficult for companies to plan. But something has shifted. Nobody is holding their breath waiting for it to pass. Is this a good time to leave the military? For the right person, Chuck says it’s the best market he’s seen. Two things are driving it. The first is onshoring. He calls it one of the biggest 50-year trends in the US economy, and he’s never seen this level of capital investment in American infrastructure. The second is AI, and not the software side. The concrete, steel, power, and logistics it takes to build all of it. Both need leaders now. There’s a catch. Chuck calls it the great mismatch. Companies have openings. Strong candidates are out there. They keep passing each other in the night. Why doesn’t applying online work? AI screening tools were built for traditional hiring. A junior military officer is non-traditional by definition. You change your industry, your skill set, and your professional network all at once. Joel talks about officers who submit hundreds of applications and hear nothing. It feels productive. It isn’t. Chuck and Joel also get into the difference between a comfort path and an investment path, why every search needs a Plan B, and what Roger Cameron once told Roland Smith about maximizing opportunity instead of location. Chuck closes with the most useful thing in the episode. Companies want performance leadership now, not just people leadership. His challenge to anyone still in uniform: over the next 12 months, build five real examples of using technology to improve something in your unit. Maintenance. Training. Forecasting. Thinking about your own career transition? At Cameron-Brooks, we help junior military officers transition from the military into rewarding business careers. See what career fields our candidates move into. If you’re a company-grade or field-grade officer exploring what’s next, Joel, the entire Cameron-Brooks team, and I are here to help. Feel free to reach out below. We’re here to help and listen and see if this path could be right for you. Email: [email protected]  Call: 210-874-1500 Speak with a Coach

TALK WITH A COACH How can I go from junior military officer to the C-suite? In interviews, JMOs often get asked where they see themselves in ten or twenty years. The honest answer, the one most people keep to themselves, is often: running the place. Matt Beliveau actually did it. He got there by learning a new function from the ground up, staying long enough to build real depth, and understanding the difference between a mentor and a sponsor. Twenty-five years ago, Matt left the Army and started as an Associate Human Resources Manager at General Mills. Not a VP. Not on a fast track. Learning a brand new function from the ground up. He stayed at General Mills for 13 years. Then came CHRO roles at Morton Salt, Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, and Del Monte Foods. Today he is Chief Human Resources Officer at TreeHouse Foods. We’re bringing this conversation back because the lessons in it held up. What makes the JMO transition so hard? Matt is direct about this. It isn’t just finding a job in the right city with a good paycheck. Three things change at the same time. Your identity shifts from military officer to civilian. You learn an entirely new functional role. And you have to read a company culture nobody hands you a manual for. That’s a lot to carry in year one. How did he reach the C-suite? He managed his career on purpose. He found mentors. He also found sponsors, which is a different thing, and he explains why the difference matters more than most people realize. Matt talks about leading through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. He compared it to being on deployment. Success came down to staying agile, caring about people, and following through on commitments. Things good JMOs already know how to do. He also predicted, back then, that work was headed toward more flexibility and hybrid schedules for office roles. Five years later, he called it. Then Matt shares his leadership lessons, some of the best we’ve had on the show. Those are worth hearing in his own words. More from this episode: – Matt’s LinkedIn post on his first 20 years in Corporate America (worth three minutes of your time) – What makes Cameron-Brooks different from other transition options This episode was recorded while Matt was CHRO at Sara Lee Frozen Bakery. He has since led HR at Del Monte Foods and is now CHRO at TreeHouse Foods. At Cameron-Brooks, we help junior military officers transition from the military into rewarding business careers. Want to explore your options? See what career fields our candidates move into. Curious about your marketability? Let’s talk.  

What Actually Happened at the June 2026 Career Conference Thirty-seven officers. Three hundred eighty-four interviews across two days. Every single officer pursued by an industry-leading company for the follow-up process. Two weeks later, most of the officers knew where they were launching their business careers. In this episode, Cameron-Brooks transition coach Brock Dudley sits down with two recent alums to talk through what the June conference was actually like and what they would tell an officer preparing for August. In this episode: – Why Jake went on five follow-up visits and received an offer from every one – How Xavier’s one location requirement nearly cut his options in half, and what changed his mind – What eleven interviews in two days actually feel like, and why they were conversations rather than tests – The number both officers say you should be comparing when you evaluate an offer, and it is not base salary – The two weeks after the conference, and the scheduling mistake to avoid Meet the panel: Xavier Mallet spent eight years in the Army as an engineer officer, leading a platoon in Hawaii and commanding a construction company in Germany. He is now a project manager at AMS Industrial in the Denver area. Jake Sidner served just about five years in the Marine Corps as an air defense control officer and left as a captain. He is now a go-to-market finance manager at Motorola Solutions in Chicago, where he grew up. If you’d like to learn more from other recent alums about their experience, you can listen to the following alumni roundtables: April 2026 Career Conference February 2026 Career Conference November 2025 Career Conference August 2025 Career Conference  If you have any questions, we’re happy to help. For those of you in our program, we know how daunting the process up the career conference can be. We are here for you and we’ve got your back. In the meantime, practice in your study groups, stay active in discord, and attend your interview workshops. And if you’re new to Cameron-Brooks and are looking to explore your transition to the business world, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.

In this episode, Joel Junker sits down with Saša Mirković, author of The Inspire Code, to talk about freedom, the importance of trust and conflict, and how leaders can build teams that can run without them. Saša’s story doesn’t start in the boardroom. It starts in Sarajevo. He survived the siege of the city in the 1990s, served two years in the military, and came to the United States after the war. In 1998, he applied to 385 jobs. He got one reply. He eventually landed at American Express Financial Advisors, worked his way up to VP, and in 2006 started his own practice. Today, the Inspire Confidence Group spans multiple offices, alongside a leadership company and a tax firm. But the most important lesson in this episode came from a failure. In 2018, Saša’s business partner left the firm. Eighty percent of the team walked out with him. That was the moment Saša realized he had been talking about leadership without actually building trust. Why does trust matter so much for a team? Trust is the currency of leadership. You can’t lead without it, the same way you can’t run a business without money. And Saša is clear on where it starts: the leader gives trust first. It’s planted, earned, and renewed every day. Trust is also what makes healthy conflict possible. Saša describes problems like a beach ball. You see one side. Your teammate sees another. Strong teams fight the problem together instead of fighting each other. Joel and Saša also get into Slack and Flow, Saša’s framework for working smarter: eliminate half of what you do, delegate the rest to technology and to people who love that work, and protect real thinking time every week. It’s how his team doubled the business without adding headcount. Whether you’re a junior military officer preparing for your transition or a leader building your first civilian team, this one is full of ideas you can use right away. Want to learn more? – The Inspire Code by Saša Mirković (Amazon bestseller! Hardcover now out) – The Nudge — Saša’s weekly two-minute leadership newsletter, Wednesdays at 5 a.m. ET – Inspire Network — white papers, Tug Cards, and a complimentary coaching session Thinking about your own career transition? At Cameron-Brooks, we help junior military officers transition from the military into rewarding business careers. See what career fields our candidates move into. If you’re a company-grade or field-grade officer exploring what’s next, Joel, the entire Cameron-Brooks team, and I are here to help. Feel free to reach out below. We’re here to help and listen and see if this path could be right for you. Email: [email protected]  Call: 210-874-1500 Speak with a Coach

We are bringing you a special encore episode following a truly historic time in America: our 250th birthday. In honor of this milestone, we thought we would talk about another type of founding: the founding of Cameron-Brooks. In this episode, you will hear from our very own Mary Lou White. She is one of the founding members of Cameron-Brooks and has been helping Junior Military Officers transition from the military to Corporate America for over 50 years. Here she will talk about Cameron-Brooks’ history and the history of the military-to-business industry. A California native, Mary Lou met Roger Cameron and Rene Brooks. Roger and Rene were both working for a company named Career Seminars at that time. The company worked with JMOs but also did other types of recruiting. After Career Seminars underwent a restructuring, Roger and Rene decided to build their own company focused on helping military officers transition to the business world. The rest, as they say, is military-to-corporate history. Mary Lou takes us on a journey from the early days of Cameron-Brooks, life before technology, and the way things “used to be.” One key takeaway: although processes, technology, and people have changed along the way, the core mission of Cameron-Brooks has never wavered. Our goal is to change people’s lives by helping them reach their professional goals and dreams. Thank you, Mary Lou, for your warmth, commitment, and servant’s heart! You have made a tremendous impact on many thousands of officers and their families. We are proud of the role we’ve played in military-to-corporate history. Contact us if you’re interested in learning more about your transition options. You can also check out our Transition Guide on “3 Game-Changing Strategies for JMOs Making the Jump to Business” for additional transition tips. We recommend subscribing to our YouTube channel and following us on LinkedIn to stay connected.

In this episode, Lauren Kordzik sits down with Cameron-Brooks alum George Pesansky to discuss what his 30 years of hiring and building teams taught him about JMOs, and why the best companies keep coming back to hire these great leaders. George Pesansky came through Cameron-Brooks in 1996 as an Army officer. He didn’t know exactly what was next. He just knew he was ready for something new. Thirty years later, he’s built a company, hired JMOs, and coached leaders inside some of the most complex manufacturing operations in the world. He wrote a book about it. And he still comes back to the same idea when someone asks what separates good leaders from great ones. We Before Me We before me. It sounds simple. But George will tell you, it’s actually rare. Most organizations, at some point, start optimizing for individuals. Career paths, visibility, personal outcomes. It’s subtle. But over time, it shapes how decisions get made and how teams show up. JMOs come from a different culture entirely. The mission is the priority. The team is what matters. Candor isn’t a personality trait; it’s expected. That doesn’t disappear when someone transitions out of the military. It comes with them. George also pushes back on one of the most common reasons companies hesitate to hire JMOs: they don’t have industry experience. His take? There’s a difference between knowledge and skill. Knowledge (a product, a process, a system) can be learned in weeks. Skill (real leadership, the ability to drive results through people, the discipline to do the hard thing) takes years to build. JMOs already have it. Hiring managers sometimes get those two things mixed up. When you get that hiring decision right, the return isn’t just one good hire. It’s a stronger team. Fewer people walking out the door. A culture people want to stay in. George saw it firsthand. And he’s watched it play out over and over again in the organizations he’s worked with since. Work with Cameron-Brooks If you’re looking to hire a JMO for your team, we would love to connect. Feel free to contact us to learn more about attending a Cameron-Brooks Hiring Conference. Or feel free to email Lauren Kordzik at [email protected]. For any JMOs thinking the transition? We’re here to help.

It’s a tale as old as time. You launch your Zoom interview, you’re looking sharp, and you see the hiring mangers on the screen in front of you. And after some brief small talk, the interviewer looks at you and asks, “So, tell me about yourself.” This deceptively simple question can be a make or break to your interview. It sets the tone and helps build that first impression. So, where do you start? Do you share everything about your background? Should I start with childhood? Just focus on your military accomplishments? Encore of Episode 87: Tell Me About Yourself In this podcast, Joel Junker shares his insight on how to answer this very important interview question: “Tell Me About Yourself.” For this podcast episode, we are doing an encore series where we release original episodes of the PCS to Corporate America podcast to bring them to our new audience. And this episode, just happens to be the most listened to episode in the podcast’s history. IMPORTANT NOTE: This podcast episode was launched December 30, 2019, pre-pandemic. While the nature of interview and the Cameron-Brooks conferences have changed (read: Zoom for first interviews, instead of in-person), the essence of this interview answer framework stays the same. Why is this important? If you were ever going to rank people who give interview advice, Joel should be at the very top of your list. Not only did he transition as a JMO and have an outstanding Career Conference, but he also has over 26 years of experience helping literally thousands of military officers transition to Corporate America. As Career Conference interviews continue to trend toward being more conversational in nature, this podcast will help you develop an effective response when a hiring manager presents you with the interview question “Tell me about yourself.” We dive into why the question is important, the component parts of the answer, tailoring the answer to be specific to different career fields and some do’s and don’ts. Want more specific advice? Sign up for a free coaching call with Joel himself. Our archived blog posts are chocked full of other interview advice. You can find a few of our favorites here, here, here and here. To learn more about turning your JMO leadership skills into a successful transition and business success with Cameron-Brooks, visit our website and check out PCS to Corporate America. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  

The April 2026 Cameron-Brooks Career Conference has officially come to a close. We had 48 interviews, 51 companies, and 540 interviews over two days. Every single candidate was pursued. Every single candidate who entered the follow-up process received an offer. In this episode of the Cameron-Brooks podcast, Brock Dudley sits down with three recent alums to talk through what actually happened at conference and what they’d do differently if they were starting over. Learn how these three officers navigated their transitions from business In this episode, you’ll hear: – How Ryan Smith accepted an offer in a location that wasn’t listed originally on the job description, and why that happened – How Scott Hicks honed his ability to answer interview questions confidently without sounding robotic – Why David Tierney (an art major) ended up in financial services and what being “open” really means in practice – What all three wish they had done earlier in their preparation Meet the panel: – Ryan Smith, former Navy officer, now in medical device sales at Boston Scientific CRM in Jacksonville, FL – Scott Hicks, former Army officer, now in medical device sales at Zoll in Atlanta, GA – David Tierney, Army officer, now heading into financial services at Horace Mann If you’d like to learn more from other recent alums about their experience, you can listen to the following alumni roundtables: February 2026 Career Conference November 2025 Career Conference August 2025 Career Conference  If you have any questions, we’re happy to help! For those of you in our program, we know how daunting the process up the career conference can be. We are here for you and we’ve got your back. In the meantime, practice in your study groups, stay active in discord, and attend your interview workshops. And if you’re new to Cameron-Brooks and are looking to explore your transition to the business world, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.

30 Years of Conferences: What Michelle and Candy Want Every Officer to Know For more than 30 years at Cameron-Brooks, Michelle Spisak and Candy Belcik have worked with thousands of military officers navigating the transition from active duty to corporate America. In this mini episode of PCS to Corporate America, they share the honest, practical advice they wish every officer heard before starting their transition. Here are the key takeaways: 1. Lead with your leadership. Your degree matters less than you think. Companies hiring through Cameron-Brooks are looking for your leadership experience first. That is your strongest asset and the thing that sets you apart. 2. Going it alone means going through filters. When you apply online you are competing against hundreds of applicants and may never reach a hiring manager. Cameron-Brooks removes those filters and gets you in front of 8 to 12 hiring managers in two days at our career conference. 3. The conference has changed but the support has not. Since the pandemic, Cameron-Brooks moved to a fully virtual conference model, which actually aligns with how most companies now conduct first round interviews. The format is different but the experience, the coaching, and the care behind the scenes is the same. 4. Start early. Not for Cameron-Brooks. For you. The more time you give yourself in the program, the more you will get out of it. Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at cameron-brooks.com. And if you’d like to speak with a career coach, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.

Tom Morin went from Army Infantry Captain to the Leadership Program at Extant Aerospace. Matt Horsley went from Marine Corps Logistics Officer to Financial Leadership Program at BD. Josh Klimek went from Army Infantry Captain to Operations at Macerich. Three incredible officers. Three success stories. All Cameron-Brooks, Inc. alums. These are just three of the officers are launching their business careers after our conference. On average, each officer had ~11 interviews. Most officers accepted offers after ~14 days. This isn’t just about landing a job. It’s about building a long-term leadership career. For more than 50 years, Cameron-Brooks has helped JMOs do exactly that. If you are considering your next move, learn from others who have been in your shoes. Listen to what these three officers learned from their successful military to business transitions. If you’d like to learn more from other recent alums about their experience, you can listen to the alumni roundtables from after the November 2025 Career Conference and the August 2025 Career Conference.  And if you’d like to speak with a career coach, we’re happy to talk. Follow Cameron-Brooks on LinkedIn.