Stocking Freezers at 3 A.M. to Pentagon Recruiter: A Zero‑Excuses Transition

In this episode, we meet William “Jax” Jackson, a Navy and Air Force veteran who went from making six figures in Japan to being ghosted by employers and stocking freezers at Sam’s Club at 3 a.m., before becoming a Pentagon recruiter. Jax shares how a brutal first transition exposed the gaps in TAP, why most veterans still introduce themselves in ways recruiters forget, and how he rebuilt his approach with the hallway resonator, the 310 Method (three priorities, one objective, zero excuses), and his Zero Protocol for closing gaps without waiting for permission. His story is a candid look at what it really takes to stand out in a market flooded with AI‑generated resumes and why “What do you have for me?” is the wrong question to bring to a job fair.

Chapters

• 01:58 – Joining the Navy, Leaving Active Duty, and Joining the Air Force Reserve
• 03:38 – “My First Transition Was Brutal”: TAP, Degrees, and Still No Job
• 04:20 – From Six Figures in Japan to Stocking Freezers at Sam’s Club
• 05:55 – Learning to Translate Military Experience for Civilian Employers
• 06:08 – Personal Branding & the “Hallway Resonator”
• 08:22 – Talent Acquisition at Washington Headquarters Services
• 10:26 – “What Do You Have for Me?” vs. Bringing Real Value
• 11:00 – The Army Captain’s One‑Line Pitch That Stood Out
• 13:00 – AI Resumes: Perfect Grammar, Zero Personality
• 15:07 – The 310 Method: Three Priorities, One Objective, Zero Excuses
• 16:00 – The Zero Protocol: See the Gap, Close the Gap, Don’t Wait
• 17:03 – Start 12 Months Out: Runway, Target Lock, and Avoiding Panic Moves 

Key Takeaways

• Lead with a Hallway Resonator, Not a Job Title: When speaking with employers, saying “I’m a logistics manager” is forgettable. A line like “I manage men, equipment, and $20M in property—and I bring it all back” sticks. Think of what will resonate long after you’ve left the room.
• AI Can’t Tell Your Story: Recruiters can spot AI‑generated resumes fast. Use AI to clean up language, but you must provide the stories: the night everything went sideways and you held the team together, the mission you saved, the costs you cut...
• Live the 310 Method: Pick three priorities, commit to one must‑do each day, and give yourself zero excuses. Small, consistent action beats scattershot applications.
• Become a Force Multiplier: Don’t wait for HR or permission when you see a problem. See the gap, close it, and become a force multiplier in every room you walk into.

Follow us for more real veteran stories to guide your transition, and share this episode with someone who’s still asking, “What do you have for me?”—they may just need a hallway resonator and a zero‑excuses plan.

Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Exit Buddy: Veteran Voices, to stay updated and connect with other listeners and guests.

#VeteranStories #MilitaryTransition #ExitBuddy

Visit us at https://exitbuddy.buzzsprout.com to learn more about the show.

Have feedback or questions for us? Email us at ashleyjones.creative@gmail.com.

Transcript

William Jackson 00:00
I'm going to say 90% of veterans don't even know what they want to do when they get out. They always say, "What can I do?" or "What do you have for me?" You're going to be behind your peers and your civilian counterparts because they know what they want to do. So I want you to execute the 310 method every single day. You have to identify three priorities. You are going to execute on one of those. You have to—no excuses. You're going to write it down the night before. You're going to execute on that one priority, zero excuses.

Kathleen Smith 00:30
Welcome to Exit Buddy: Veteran Stories to Guide You. This podcast shines a light on real struggles and triumphs of veterans navigating life after the military.

Rachel Bozeman 00:40
In each episode, we dive into heartfelt stories of resilience, setbacks, a little humor, and growth as veterans transition and find new purpose in civilian life. And here for the journey, we're your hosts. I'm Rachel,

Kathleen Smith 00:53
and I'm Kathleen. If you're looking for inspiration, practical advice, or just a reminder that you're not alone in your transition, Exit Buddy is here to help you thrive beyond the uniform. Enjoy today's story from our next honorary exit buddy.

This is Kathleen. I'm so happy to be back in the studio, and I'm flying solo today, but that's quite all right. So today we're excited to welcome William Jackson, a Navy and Air Force veteran who has become a passionate advocate for military transitioning and personal branding. Welcome to the studio, Jax.

William Jackson 01:30
Thank you very much. I am so excited to be here. I love this podcast. I love what you're doing for the veteran community, and I'm just excited to be here. Thank you.

Kathleen Smith 01:40
Wonderful. So we start every story with your military journey and what it was like, why you wanted to be in the military, and what your career was like, so that people can sort of feel who you are and what you're about, and how your story may or may not match theirs.

William Jackson 01:58
So I'm going to take it back to the essence. I'm from New York. I joined the Navy back in 1999. I was in my 20s when I joined. I was around 24, so I was a late bloomer to the military scene, but I come from a military background, so I was very familiar. My brother served at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn. I used to go there with him. When I joined the Navy, I joined as an operations specialist. I worked in the combat information center—that's the CIC. My first ship was the USS Radford. We were on a submarine hunt. I was a young 25-year-old standing watch, advising officers, doing something I never dreamt I could do—making a lot of tactical decisions that affected the ship and all lives on board. Real-time threat assessments. I was coordinating with other vessels, NATO—really making calls that mattered. And a lot of veterans should resonate with that.

And to close on that, that's the kind of leadership that civilians don't see on a resume, and a lot of veterans don't know how to articulate. I did that for 13 years. I got off active duty in 2012, and then in 2013 I joined the Air Force Reserves, and I retired as a senior master sergeant.

Kathleen Smith 03:08
How wonderful. So you're right—a lot of people don't realize, a lot of our veterans don't realize that they have leadership skills, just because that is how you work every day. You have some kind of leadership decision you make, and you carry that into the civilian world. Let's talk a little bit about your transition, because that's what we're doing here. We're sort of looking back on transitions and what it was like. So I understand you weren't too excited about your transition.

William Jackson 03:38
That's exactly right. So this is what created my passion. I don't think a lot of veterans can even imagine the concept of leaving a traditional environment that is well-structured to going out into what I call the wild. So my first transition was brutal. I thought TAP was nice, and they gave us some basic concepts, but they really didn't teach me how to swim. They checked the boxes, but it didn't prepare me for literally anything. I remember fighting really hard to finish up a master's degree. I got my degree in business. I had 13 years of experience and also had my security clearance, and I couldn't get hired.

I remember building my resume for the first time. In TAP they said, "Hey, be careful with the military jargon," but at the same time they didn't exactly tell me how to sell myself, how to be the product that companies were actually looking for. I remember putting "I conducted PMS." I remember saying that I was in charge of Comsec, but all this stuff really means nothing to a civilian employer. So I sent out all these applications. Silence. Nothing. No callbacks, no interviews—literally silence. What they call ghosted, right? I had no money. I had no network. My relationship with my wife was strained. I had just left Japan making six figures, and then I wound up working at Sam's Club.

So I went from stocking freezers at Sam's Club at 3 a.m. to recruiting for the Pentagon. The difference wasn't luck at this point. There was a system that I was able to create, and that's what I like to teach now.

Kathleen Smith 05:17
I hear your story, and I really respect you for sharing it, because a lot of our veterans are in that same place where they think that TAP is going to be that silver bullet that's going to give them all of the tactics. And we have to say overall TAP is meant to do one thing, but at the same time it really depends on the people who are on the ground deploying the TAP. One TAP class is not the same as the other. I've sat through plenty of employer panels. I've taught many a TAP class. I've taught many an ACAP and other transition classes for different agencies, and everyone's different. Everyone who teaches those classes is very different.

But let's talk about one specific component. Let's talk about personal branding, and you talk about the hallway resonator. Let's talk a little bit about that. What's that?

William Jackson 06:08
I'm glad you asked that. That's one that's really important. So let me tell you where the concept originated. The job landscape is changing and being a little bit different. From a personal perspective, because of the government shutdown and the implementation of AI, I said, okay, something has to change. There's been a change in the landscape. The traditional thought process of finding a job, getting a job, maintaining and keeping a job has changed, but we haven't changed. The veteran hasn't changed. We still have the same story. We're still going after the same opportunities, and I'm going to say that has changed.

So the hallway resonator—that is what people say when you're not in the room. I have an elevated pitch, and I perfected my elevated pitch. I'm going to say the elevated pitch does okay in articulating what I want to say, but there's an easier way. There's a better way. Most veterans introduce themselves like this: "I'm a logistics manager." And so I'm going to say something like, okay, cool. So are 10,000 other people. You're still invisible. You still have not created that brand or told the hiring manager what makes you different.

A strong hallway resonator sounds like this: "She saves companies millions by fixing supply chains before they break." See the difference? You said something that's memorable. You said something that someone is going to remember you by, so that person's going to remember you when you leave the room.

So I'm going to drop one in. I help veterans translate military chaos into civilian clarity. Because I managed 50% logistics operations on hostile fire means nothing to HR. But if you say this: "I reduce supply chain costs by 30% while maintaining 99% readiness," that's going to be a big difference. So that's going to be something that's going to resonate with the person. That's why I call it the hallway resonator—because it's going to resonate. It's something that they're going to remember you by.

Kathleen Smith 08:02
Absolutely wonderful. So I understand you have an example of someone who has a really good pitch that they really nailed it.

William Jackson 08:11
Oh yes, absolutely. So I do a lot of job fairs because I represent 27 different organizations. We're very, very popular, so I can pretty much find a job or match for just about anyone.

Kathleen Smith 08:22
Actually, before you go into that, let's talk a little bit more about what you do now, because I know that—because you and I have talked before—but we haven't really talked about what your role is right now. So explain a little bit more what you do for Washington Headquarters Services.

William Jackson 08:37
Absolutely. So my official title is HR specialist. We're a team of two. Typically when you think about HR specialists in the government, you're thinking about staffing specialists or training or classification. When I was hired for this role, I was hired as a staffing specialist, but I was quickly able to change my role to talent acquisition. So I actually do talent acquisition. Most of my experience goes back to my experience with defense contracting. I worked for Amazon. I learned a lot of great things there—really learned about building and searching that real candidate engagement type of work.

So I am an HR specialist doing talent acquisition. I do real talent acquisition: the whole candidate engagement, job boards, marketing, putting your resume in front of the hiring manager. I do it all. But I am actively looking at those resumes. I'm actively reaching out. And even a lot of candidates, I'm telling them, "Hey, I need you to update that resume to make you a better fit. I see your experience, but now I need you to update that resume and make it more targeted."

So in a nutshell, that's what I do. I'm an HR specialist with Washington Headquarters Services. We're like the logistics arm for the Department of Defense. We do HR, we do legal, we do facilities—which is the Pentagon, FSD, Joint Service—driving graphics. We are the support arm for the Department of Defense, including real-time research, weapons, logistics—you name it, we do it. So we are the support arm for the Department of Defense.

Kathleen Smith 10:16
And why I wanted to go into all that is why you're going to so many job fairs. So now share with us how someone you met at a job fair really had their pitch down great.

William Jackson 10:26
Like I said, I have 27 organizations. OGC is one of those. FSD is another one—that's Facilities Services Directorate in the Pentagon. We have all these different organizations that are reaching out to us, and they need these roles filled. Many times they're looking for junior officers, sometimes senior NCOs, sometimes junior folks. Like, we still are in need of a ton of drivers right now. We need those roles. I have those roles embedded in my brain, and I have them on spreadsheet.

So when I go to a job fair, those are the targeted roles that I'm looking to fill. When you come up to my table and you go, "Hey, Jax, how are you? Nice to meet you. What do you have?" I'm taken aback by that, because even though I have a candidate-facing side where I want to get you a job, I still want to be sold. I still want you to give me that quick pitch, that hallway resonator of what makes you important, what makes you special.

So your goal should be to match or provide product and value to that role to that recruiter, and you should have already done your homework before you came to my desk. So I'm always taken aback by that question. But there was this one Army captain. I was at a recruiting fair in December. I'm ready to like tear it all down. I'm getting ready for the holidays, spend some time with the family. An Army captain walks up to my table and I said, "Hey, nice to meet you. What do you do?" And he said succinctly, "I manage men, equipment, and over 20 million of property. And I bring it all back."

Literally a week prior to that, I had a meeting with one of the hiring managers who said, "Jax, I need a logistics management officer." It snapped. And he literally just said that. I didn't need to know anything else about him. He said it all with just that. So he was a product and he was value. He was a zero. And I'll talk a little bit more about the zero protocol in a few minutes.

Kathleen Smith 12:13
Sounds great. It was something that—as you know, I've sort of been in the industry for eons and decades, and we won't go into how many gray hairs I have—but it's really interesting that it is branding. It is not selling your resume, not telling everyone your life story. It's catching their attention and saying this is why I'm important. You have literally seven to 10 seconds on your resume, but you also have only seven to 10 seconds when you meet someone face to face. Why you have what they need.

So being a recruiter taking on a lot of positions, I understand you have a few bits of advice concerning what's happening with AI in the current landscape for job seekers.

William Jackson 13:00
Oh yeah, absolutely, and it's probably one of the most important. I'm not an economist, I'm not a politician, and I'm not a naysayer. The goal here is so that you can look in the mirror and say, "Hey, I can take control and take charge of my future." And like you, I got some gray hairs. I remember when 2000 was going to hit and they said the computers and everything was going to blow up, and we didn't know what to do. So I think this is similar, but I think this is even more important because it has changed the landscape.

As a Pentagon recruiter, I can spot an AI-generated resume in 10 seconds. Why? Because this is what I do. Perfect grammar, zero personality. It tells me what you did, but it does not tell me who you are. And I think that's a problem, because everyone is using AI now. So everyone is just going to sound the same.

And here's the problem with that. The competition is brutal. I mean, we're talking about one to 200 candidates per opening. I don't even get through the first 50 resumes before I found probably the right person at that point, and I'm just shutting down the application process. I just can't. I don't have the bandwidth to look through any additional resumes. So you're competing laterally with your peers. You're competing from below with people who are younger, cheaper, and willing to take entry-level roles. On top of that, entry pathways are closing. Think about the PMF program—it was a program that I applied to. I didn't get in, but I applied to it, and it was an amazing program. It was closed by executive order in February of 2025. Gone. Training billets are getting cut. The landscape is tougher, and entry-level roles are going away as well.

Remember, AI can write your resume, but AI cannot tell the story of the night you held your team together when everything went sideways. It just can't do that. So you have to be able to manage the AI, tell your stories, insert your stories, and then get the grammar right.

Kathleen Smith 15:07
So I understand you have a 310 method. Tell us about the 310 method. I think they're going back to the zero that you mentioned earlier.

William Jackson 15:15
Oh yeah, yes. So the 310 method becomes critical because you have to outwork the noise. Every day you're going to have three priorities, one objective, and then I call it zero excuses. So that's how you're going to cut through some of the AI-generated noise.

I'm just going to sneak this in. I am writing a book. It's called Zero Fluff: Lock On, Execute and Win. And in Chapter 22 of the book, it was so powerful to me. It talks about being a zero as being a force multiplier. So the zero protocol is simple: you see a gap, you close the gap, you don't wait for permission, you move first. That's how you're going to stand out in the market flooded with AI resumes. You become the person who executes while everyone else is still asking for approval.

An integer is going to complain about it in the break room. They're going to wait for HR to fix it, and they're going to say "that's not my job," or they're going to ask for permission to do something. Let me tell you what the zero does. The zero is going to see a gap, close the gap, spend a weekend creating an onboarding checklist. A weekend—my day off. Yep, that's when you'll be doing it. Share it on the following Monday. You're going to see what works, and if it works, you're going to share it with the team.

So the point here is you are always creating action. You are always creating value. You multiply people in the room, not add to the room, but multiply those that are in the room. That's what being a zero is. Hopefully that answers the question.

Kathleen Smith 16:46
That does answer the question, especially since I have a mathematics background. I know exactly what you're talking about. Awesome, awesome. So let's bring this home. What is your one big piece of advice to our folks in the military who are transitioning?

William Jackson 17:03
Oh, absolutely. This is the most important. All right, so I don't want you to be me back in 2012. I just knew that I had to go to every job fair that had "veteran" written on it because I thought that was going to be my way in. This is what you need to do. You need to start 12 months out, not six, not three. Do you have six months of financial runway? Do you have a target lock?

Most veterans—and I'm going to say 90% of veterans—don't even know what they want to do when they get out. They always say, "What can I do?" or "What do you have for me?" You're going to be behind your peers and your civilian counterparts because they know what they want to do. So I want you to execute the 310 method every single day. You have to identify three priorities. You are going to execute on one of those. You have to—no excuses. You're going to write it down the night before. You're going to execute on that one priority, zero excuses.

So as you can see, going back to the zero excuses, right? And the zero protocol makes you the multiplier in the room as well. So in closing, I talked a little bit about the hallway resonator—that's what people are saying when you're not in the room. We talked about the 310 method. You have to be acting. We talked about the zero protocol. And I just like to close with: lock on, execute, and win. We're in this together.

Kathleen Smith 18:25
Awesome. Thank you so much for your time today. Really inspiring. Thank you.

William Jackson 18:29
Thank you. I appreciate it, Kathleen.

Kathleen Smith 18:31
It was great talking to my friend Jax about his transition and some of the things that resonated with him. Transition is never fun. You don't quite know what you're going to do next, and as he pointed out, many folks don't know what they're going to do next. So it's really good advice about starting 12 months ahead of time, making sure you have six months of salary ready to go, and really starting to focus on an action plan that's going to tell you what you want to do next and how to sell yourself.

So I love hearing these stories of people inspiring others and inspiring themselves. Please follow us for more episodes of great stories that can help you through your transition. And remember, subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Exit Buddy Veteran Voices, because that's a really great way to follow up on this information, but also to connect with our guests. You'll find a link in our show notes. For now, bye.