Whats the Deal with Job Postings that only want former Submariners, SF or Aviators?

The Weekly Sitrep

Happy Sunday Weekly Sitreps Readers!

Two things. Sometimes there are moments that remind me of both how far I have come (career wise) and also how foreign the private market can be to someone in the military. This week was one of those. I’ve always seen ads from military vet recruiters where they have a job listing that is for submariners, SF or aviators. I have known why they do these ads for a while, and decided to poke fun at it because its always kinda bugged me. So watching the comments and interactions convinced me that there should be some education as to why some employers (generally private equity firms) want this kind of background.

So for this weeks topic, I wanted to discuss the below

• Why do some job postings list former Submariners, SF or Aviators as a job requirement?

Also, if you don’t know, me and my new business partner have re-launched the podcast “The Weekly Sitrep”. This resurrects the podcast for those who used to listen to it. The podcast is not about actionable career advice, but rather about whats going on in the private sector, the global security landscape, econ and some political talk. You will learn a lot I promise, I bring a great economic/military take on a lot of issues and transitioning military can get a great schema on how to analyze the impact of geo-political events on business. Also! We will also have Sonny “professional linked troll” Tai for his cringe LinkedIn take of the week.

News articles that I found interesting this past week

WSJ - The Money and Drugs that Tie Elon Musk to Some Tesla Directors (this story is truly outta pocket)

WSJ - A 3% Mortgage Sounds Too Good to Be True. In Many Cases It Is.

The Points Guy - Delta Amex changes in 2024: Higher annual fees, new and enhanced perks

Yahoo News - How the British Army lost its way

Washington Post - Apple’s Vision Pro is ‘spatial computing.’ Nobody knows what it means.

MarketWatch - Soft landing for the economy? How about no landing? The U.S. is still growing fast.

Why do some job postings list former Submariners, SF or Aviators as a job requirement?

You might have noticed over the past few days that I have been on a poking fun about job postings that list “Former Submariners, SF or Aviators” as a job requirement. I figured the Weekly Sitrep would be a good spot to talk about why some job postings have this requirement, why I disagree with it and how to navigate these requirements if you still want that type of job or career. Below is a job posting from the milvet (a mil to civilian job recruiter) that was sent to me by a few followers. Now, the milvet isn’t alone in posting jobs like this, I see plenty of other recruiting services posting roles (usually something involving PE portfolio company operations) with requirements like this. So why do companies list jobs like this?

First, and I would be willing to bet a large sum of money on this, is that 99% of job postings with these requirements are for Private Equity Portfolio Company Operations. What exactly is that anyway? Let’s do a quick overview of what private equity does and then talk about the role portco ops plays in the deal lifecycle, who these people are and why put requirements like this in their job postings.

What does Private Equity do?

Straight from Investopedia….

Private equity describes investment partnerships that buy and manage companies before selling them. Private equity firms operate these investment funds on behalf of institutional and accredited investors.

Private equity funds may acquire private companies or public ones in their entirety, or invest in such buyouts as part of a consortium. They typically do not hold stakes in companies that remain listed on a stock exchange.

Private equity is often grouped with venture capital and hedge funds as an alternative investment. Investors in this asset class are usually required to commit significant capital for years, which is why access to such investments is limited to institutions and individuals with high net worth.

In contrast with venture capital, most private equity firms and funds invest in mature companies rather than startups. They manage their portfolio companies to increase their worth or to extract value before exiting the investment years later.

So what the hell does all that mean? It means this.