BROADCASTS.com

Back in 2001, the new finance recruits roaming the corridors of General Electric Company prodded themselves along as they confronted the everyday challenges of orienting themselves inside GE\u2019s hard-shell corporate culture. This was perhaps especially true for financial analyst Ken Bowles, whose cultural trial was somewhat more daunting, considering whence he had come.

Turn back the clock only a year or two, and you would have found Bowles based in South Korea as a member of the U.S. Army\u2019s 177th Finance Battalion, which was tasked with supporting the army\u2019s 2nd Infantry Division.  

\u201cIt\u2019s always a shock when you go from the military into a corporate job\u2014anyone who talks to you about it will tell you that there\u2019s definitely a transition,\u201d explains Bowles, who during his 5-year stint with the military served within the Army\u2019s Finance Corps, a combat service and support branch that at the time was made of only about 300 officers.

During his college years, Bowles had completed the U.S. Army\u2019s ROTC program with distinction, which allowed him to choose from a menu of branch options upon graduation. Thus, with an undergraduate degree in hand, he enrolled in the United States Army Financial Management School at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Using his stateside time wisely, Bowles enrolled at the University of South Carolina, where he was able to allot some of his off-base hours to completing an MBA. Along the way, came a deployment to South Korea.

\u201cWe were there to support the organization and the base by doing any number of typical finance activities, such as all of the funding and budgeting and payroll and allocations,\u201d recalls Bowles, whose transition to corporate life appears to have been a success by any measure when you consider that his GE career would span 15 years and include multiple unit CFO roles.

Still, Bowles points out that the transition challenge for former military members often begins on Day One of their job search.  

\u201cWhen you\u2019re going out to try to find a new opportunity, the transition can be difficult because a lot of the skills that you learn in the military don\u2019t seem as though they\u2019re transferable,\u201d remarks Bowles, who notes that during his initial transition period he was fortunate enough to be able to engage with a GE unit CFO who was \u201cwilling to take a chance\u201d on him. \u201cSo, you have to do a lot of explaining with regard to exactly what you did in the service and how it can be applied to different types of jobs\u2014and this is particularly true when you get into something like finance.\u201d

Of course, while most of the skills and experience of finance professionals are transferrable, Bowles doesn\u2019t hesitate to point out that certain management practices are not.  

Outside the military, he says, \u201cyou have to ask people to do things, not tell them.\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney