VIEWPOINTS : Is Military Service Relevant to Future Business Careers? : The Dan Quayle Debate Brings Old Question Back Up

F or political candidates, military experience is a crucial part of the resume. The controversy over Dan Quayle’s National Guard duty is only the latest case in point. For job candidates in the business world, however, is military service an important factor? Is it good preparation for a business career? Free-lance writer Meredith F. Chen raised the question with various authorities, and excerpts from those interviews follow:

H. Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems:

“It (military experience) is something I look for. The principal advantage is the leadership training and leadership experience and the responsibility for others at a very early age.

“Our country cries for leaders. At our leading colleges and universities and top business schools, there is no leadership training. Most of our companies with training programs offer no leadership training.

“A perfect scenario for a young person would be to finish college, go into the armed forces and get major responsibility at a very young age, come out, go to work and get experience in business, then go to business school.”

Joan Bavaria, president of Franklin Research and Development, a financial advisory firm that specializes in what it calls socially responsible investing:

“A military background on a resume would not cause me to hire one person over someone else. Absolutely not.

“If there is any trait that I would say runs through military people in general, it’s an ability to be an organization person and to conform to rules and structure. At the same time, you might sacrifice a little bit of the creativity that they might have had pounded out of them in the military.

“I think that the issue with somebody like a Dan Quayle is that his experience in the military doesn’t qualify him for anything in my mind, anymore than it would with anyone else who applied here. I think the hypocrisy around his position as a supporter of the war and yet not willing to participate in it is significant, probably as a negative.”

William C. Norris, founder and chairman emeritus of Control Data of Minneapolis and currently chairman of the William C. Norris Institute:

“There is no question that military experience gives almost any young person more responsibility at an earlier time in their lives than they would get in the business world. Most young people experience congregate living for the first time in the service, and the rough edges get knocked off in their ability to learn to get along with other people, and that, of course, is a very essential attribute for a person’s success in business.

“Furthermore, and this is more true today than when I was in the service, being subjected to discipline at a young age is very important and seeing a reason for discipline, and how an organization can work only with basic discipline.

“When I get into discussions with people who are in business and who have children and who’ve served in the military, there’s unanimity in the belief that any time in the military, or if for some reason they’re anti-military, the Peace Corps or VISTA, is extremely beneficial.

“Experiencing life is important in business. A lot of people who go to business school wind up with a green eyeshade because they don’t understand living or getting along.

“I was in the Navy for six years and I wouldn’t trade anything for the experience. I came out and started a small company, and the people I just dearly loved to hire were those people who had been in the military as electronic technicians. They not only had the discipline, but they could get along with people and they knew what life was all about.

Robert F. McDermott, former dean of the Air Force Academy, a retired Air Force brigadier general and currently president of the insurance company USAA in San Antonio:

“A leader will, whether it’s time of war or peace, come to the top of a military or business organization. There are many former officers at the top of corporate America today.

“There is a willingness to take responsibility among the officer corps. There is a desire to be in charge and a willingness not to shake off responsibility but to take it. There is a sensitivity to ethics and honor that you get from serving your country.

“Military people tend to have a lot of systematic planning experience, and they are oriented for long-range planning and bring that kind of experience to business.”

Stan Silverstein, vice president of the recruiting firm Robert Half:

“A lot of the jobs that we get are really specific, and clients want people coming out of specific industries. Sometimes people coming out of the military don’t have that. The biggest area where it could be useful would probably be in the defense contracting industry, where people already have security clearances.

“Joining the military could be a tremendous benefit for somebody graduating from high school who needs financial help to finish their education. Somebody who doesn’t require the funding to complete college or business school on their own might be better off going into the business world.

“I don’t think companies necessarily look for military experience as a general rule. In the 15 years that I’ve been here, I’ve never had anybody ask me about somebody’s military service if it’s not on their resume.”

Roger Staubach, a former Navy officer and quarterback with the Dallas Cowboys who is now president of a commercial real estate firm in Dallas:

“Personally, I think the experience has been extremely helpful. You know, business is a thought process, and I think most people in the military have had to think on their feet, and they’ve had leadership roles.

“I learned a lot about perseverance in the service. You have mortar attacks in life, and the tough times hit. The ability to handle the difficult times are very important to a businessman.”

Ann Morrison, director of the Center for Creative Leadership and co-author of “Breaking the Glass Ceiling”:

“A lot of men have been through military assignments and have a feel for the kinds of adversity that people face when they are in the military. If they saw military service on a resume of a woman or a man, they might take that person more seriously because they have something in common. . . . It can add substantially to a woman’s credibility.

“On the other hand, women still are expected to retain their femininity. . . . They need to have tough assignments, be very credible, have mainstream jobs, but they need to still be feminine. A military background might cause some other executives to view a woman a little skeptically. . . . Overall, I would guess that (military service) might be a slight edge to women who are going into business, particularly manufacturing or a business that deals with government or military agencies.”

Tom Schlesinger, author of “Our Own Worst Enemy: The Impact of Military Production on the Upper South” and a staffer at the Highlander Research and Education Center:

“I always got the impression that the most honorable military people felt there was a real gulf between their values and ethics and practices and those of the corporate side. They weren’t disdainful, they weren’t looking down in a moralizing way on their corporate counterparts, but I think they saw a distinction.

“The notion of service and duty that is very much embodied in an idealized way in the military has a lot more going for it than the best values you could assign to corporate life. . . . The research we do at Highlander (is critical) of a lot of military practices and policies, but I really did come away from three years of intensive research with respect for the best military people that I encountered.

“(Would I want to hire someone with military experience?) “It wouldn’t help or hurt. It wouldn’t be the feather that tipped our scale.”