ARMY ENGINEER, 2006-2014 — The job interview that changed my mind about civilian life

I separated as a staff sergeant in 2014. Combat engineer, two tours, the second one bad enough that I came home with a diagnosis I didn't want to talk about for three years. First civilian interview was at a construction firm in Phoenix. The hiring manager spent twenty minutes asking me what my MOS meant. Not in a curious way. In a 'translate this for me, ground-up' way. I left convinced I wasn't going to make it. Second interview, two weeks later, was at a smaller outfit. Veteran-owned. The owner shook my hand, looked at my resume, and said: 'Your platoon ran a vertical-construction job in Helmand under contact for nine months. I don't need you to translate that. I need you to run my night crew.' I worked there four years. I'm still in touch with him. The thing that changed my mind wasn't that civilians wouldn't get me. It was finding one who did and realizing there were more of him than I'd assumed.