The Big Four - Education

Greetings, again. The final of the "Big Four" in the Personnel Manual's chapter on personnel boards is Education. Education is a little different from the other three: performance, professionalism and leadership. First off, you won't really find a dimension on education in the OER. You may sneak a reference to some college courses you are taking in the initiative block, but there is no section where you can be graded on going to school. Second, the term education makes you automatically think only being in school will satisfy this dimension. The Commandant, in his Guidance to Boards and Panels, calls the term "life-long learning". What he and Boards are looking for is innovation, smarter better ways of doing things and accomplishing the mission, and officers who will continue to improve themselves, to help improve the Coast Guard.

For all the junior officers out there, the fourth dimension is applied differently for you than it is at more senior boards. Before the junior boards, the Coast Guard expects you to establish yourself as an expert in some officer specialty, preferrably an operational specialty. You should put the majority of your effort into learning your craft, whatever that is. There is nothing wrong with getting some additional college under your belt as an O-1 or O-2, but don't sacrifice learning your specialty for getting more college just for the sake of it. The ideal scenario is where you can align the needs of the Service with your own personal goals and desires. Taking a course on database management and using your skills to better track progress at your unit is a great example of this. You get to do something you are passionate about, and it benefits the Service.

At more senior boards, you could sum it up as "can this old dog learn and use new tricks"? Where most of the candidates have extremely strong performance, professionalism and leadership, education can be the tie breaker that puts them over the top. A prevalent question from officers before they go before O-4 and O-5 boards seems to be, if I don't have a masters degree, am I doomed to be non-selected? It doesn't work that way...again getting back to my mental model of managing weakness, if you are an extremely strong performer, the paragon of professionalism and a skilled leader, your lack of an advanced degree will not necessarily doom you. But say your OERs have been more to the center, you have had brushes with the weight program and you have stayed in the same geographic area for 3 full tours, AND you don't have an advanced degree. You can see how this second hypothetical board candidate is at greater risk before a board. For the first one who is hitting all her marks, I say enroll in a masters program, or get some technical certification, or acquire a new technical skill - 2-3 years BEFORE you come into zone. Remember - you aren't doing this to maximize your OER - you are doing it to improve yourself and thus improve the Coast Guard. Is it more work? You bet. But boards consistently reward hard work. Hard work demonstrates a commitment, and when combined with productive results, that shows a readiness to perform at the next higher paygrade. But if you are going to do it, you might as well get it in your OER, AND on your CG-4082. So start early enough to show results before the board. For the second officer, identify the source of weakness and correct it ASAP. Get alignment with your supervisor...ask for pointed feedback, and take decisive action. If you do get non-selected, don't assume it was your lack of an advanced degree that doomed you. Look at yourself holistically, be ruthlessly objective and determine to make improvements.

A quick plug for Direct-Access. Education has been one of the most difficult things for Boards to decipher. Does this candidate have any education, what was this masters degree for, what school? Do me and your boards a huge favor...get your transcript in your record, and ensure your SPO enters your degree or coursework in Direct-Access. To see if your degree info is up to date, log into D-A and go to Self-Service > Employee > View > Member Info Additional and click on the text that says View All. If you don't see all your degree info, bring your transcript or diploma to your SPO or Admin Support and ask them to get it up to date. If that doesn't work, call your detailer, Career Counselor or me and send a copy of the transcript or diploma - we'd prefer for your SPO to do it - it is their job, but the important thing is that it gets done!

As always - let me know if you have any questions and keep chargin! ~ jea