David Williams: Head of Retail Store Operations, Google

The Old Grad Story: 

David served in the Field Artillery for four years, before exiting the Army to work in automotive. Realizing that his passions were elsewhere, David used his Georgetown MBA to pivot into retail at GAP and Banana Republic. He then leveraged his experience into retail roles at Apple and eventually Google, where he currently leads direct-to-consumer hardware product retail.

Old Grad Knowledge:

As a leader in a tech company, it’s important to provide your team guidelines, directives and intent, but still give them the space to develop creative solutions on their own. In the Army, leaders are often responsible for defining solutions; in tech, solutions often come from the team.

Positioning Yourself to Break into Tech After the Army

• Tech companies look for grit, ownership, the abilities to thrive in ambiguity and “wear many hats.” Veterans should emphasize stories that showcase these skills!

• Understand how your background is similar to the role-related knowledge requirements of the job you’re interested in. Emphasize these points on your resume and in your interview!

• Embrace the culture of debate! Successful tech leaders focus on developing clear problem statements but give their team a strong voice in creating the solution(s).

• Read the job descriptions, understand what the “hard” skill requirements are, and make a plan for meeting these before you transition.

• Veterans can struggle with “general cognitive assessment” questions during interviews, due to their open-ended ambiguity. Use structured thinking and logical frameworks to understand these questions and organize your responses.

The book, Case in Point, offers a great methodology for your prep!