How Being a Resident Advisor Jumped Started My Career

I was recently asked by a new college graduate how I started my career. The question startled me given that I had never ever thought about it before. Frankly, when I graduated from Madison College in 1973 I had no idea of what I was going to do.

My final two years at MC were focused on two things. The first was trying to be admitted to a law school. I took a number of courses with Judge John Paul. It took a little getting used to since he would arrive to class at 8:00am, never take off his trench coat, light up a Kent cigarette, and start lecturing. I learned a lot from him from constitutional law to environmental law. I even did an internship at his office.

I also started studying terrorism and guerrilla warfare. There were no classes but I would use assignments to work that into classes I was taking. I even did an independent study one semester on the subject. I learned a lot in relation to the Irish Republican Army, Palestinian groups, and the Chinese. It seemed like it had a future.

My senior year I was also chosen to be a Resident Advisor in the dorms. Housing was experimenting with dorms that catered to interests. My first dorm was for music majors and the second for the studious types.

As background, it was a time of turmoil. Vietnam, the economy, politics, and even a new MC president, Dr. Ron Carrier. But the small classes and great teachers smoothed out many of the ups and downs.

Plan A, law school, did not pan out. While I was getting A's in my classes I was a poor standardized test taker. Judge Paul did his best to try and get me into Washington and Lee Law School. But that did not happen.

Plan B, terrorism ended when I graduated.

There I was in June of 1973 with what felt like no future. Well, more than felt, there was no future.

I took a job at Baby Products Incorporated in Arlington, VA. I sold and delivered cribs and play pens. At least I was making some money.

My father suggested that I take some courses in the evening. I went to American University to sign up for a class. While there I stopped by the Housing Office asking about the need for any RA's. They were full for the upcoming semester but I left my phone number.

Back to cribs and play pens. But I signed up for a graduate course in public administration.

A few weeks later I got a call from the housing office asking if I was still available to be an RA. The only stipulation was that I had to be at AU tomorrow.

I got into graduate school because I had been an RA at MC. Full tuition and board. No GMAT.

Part of the MPA program was to do an internship. Most of the other students did there's with special interest groups. Essentially they were gofers running stuff up to Capitol Hill. I didn't want that so I called the White House and asked to intern there. They told me to be at the Old Executive Office building to meet with this person. I did so and was told to be at this building in January. I showed up and people were wondering who I was. But I was accepted and got to work with the group planning a gas rationing plan given the oil embargo. The small group were top executives on detail for this very quiet assignment.

I learned much and met some top government executives. We all wondered if the building was CIA given the sound proofing on the walls and that it was across from the Russian Embassy. At the end of the semester one of the executives got me a job at the Environmental Protection Agency.

I worked there 18 months but because I was not a veteran, I could not be brought on given no preference points.

Back to cribs and play pens?

While working on some noise regulations I met a contractor that told me to call his company. The company was a subsidiary of Science Applications International Corporation. Lo and behold I got a job there and wrote the 1975 National Cancer Institute's Operational Plan. I never heard of all these cancers much less the fight over what caused it; virus, environment, genes, and a host of other theories in search of the silver bullet.

I stayed at SAIC for 43 years. I worked on many public policy issues. I grew from a research assistant to a Senior Vice President and Group Manager. I saw many highs and lows. One low was one of our employees being an expert witness against Hooker Chemical in relation to Love Canal. He lied on the stand saying he had a PH.D. If you want to know where educational checks started there it was at a cost of $1million to the company.

But the company also gave the internet email addresses. SAIC managed those for the first five years of the internet.

I worked on many projects and met many smart people. I got to lead a mental health program for DoD dependents overseas. As an Army brat the program took me full circle to my birthplace in Japan and my middle school years in Germany. That program took me around the world. Many times.

It even got me into a situation where I had to smuggle money into Panama during the Noriega riots. Every two weeks I took thousands of dollars of cash to my staff given that Noriega had frozen bank accounts including my staffs. The founder of SAIC heard of this and wondered "what the hell are you doing." It was crazy with me carrying all that money in and then threading my way through riots to the military bases. Dr. Beyster then assigned the just retired head of the Special Operations Command and a former commander of Delta Force to watch over me. They assured me they could get me out of any jams. Good guys.

So my advice to the new graduate. Take on opportunities where you are not where you want to be. That RA position at MC jumped started my career. You never know where things may lead. Don't be afraid to call the White House. It took me weeks to pick up the phone and call. Another jump start. What looked like defeats, law school, cribs and play pens, were just pings getting me to new places for new opportunities. Don't sit and wait. Take on responsibility wherever you are.

…

Short Strokes: Fate

Fate: I thought fate had more for me in this lifetime. Closing in on 75, I guess not.

Maybe Epiitetus had a better view: Remember that you are an actor in a play, of such a kind as the author chooses; if short, then in a short one; if long, in a long one. If he wishes you to act the part of a beggar, of a cripple, of a ruler, or of a private person, see that you act it well. For this is your business, to act your role well. That is enough.

Being Your Own Hero: Trust

Trust is a basic tenant…

…in the military world. As an Army brat, I learned this through constant relocations. Each move was a crash course in rebuilding trust from scratch.

New friends, new teachers, new communities. But what I didn't understand until much later was how this continuous cycle of building and rebuilding trust was preparing me for something bigger. 

The real revelation about trust came years into my professional life, through an unexpected lesson from the DoD mental health program. What started as a crisis management situation evolved into a profound understanding about the nature of institutional trust.

The rough start of the program led to fix it or die moment. Initially, I focused solely on operational fixes—righting the ship, meeting metrics, delivering services. Like most contractors, I saw trust purely in terms of execution: deliver what you promised, when you promised it.

But years later…

…I realized something deeper in the client's words when she said she trusted me. Her trust wasn't just about believing I could fix the program—it was about sharing her vision.

She had fought hard in the Pentagon to get the program approved and dollars to establish it. Not everyone above her supported her efforts to establish the program. In fact, there were people on the medical side of the military that constantly tried to get the program killed given it was not under their domain.

Her trust in me…

…was an investment in her own legacy. She needed the program to succeed not just for the military families it served, but to validate her fight for its existence. This revelation transformed how I viewed my role—I wasn't just a contractor executing a program, I was a guardian of someone else's vision and career capital.

This lesson has profound implications in today's contracting-heavy world. True trust isn't just about delivering on specifications—it's about understanding and protecting the stakes others hold in your success. When someone says "I trust you," they're often entrusting you with more than just a task or project. They're sharing their reputation, their dreams, sometimes their entire career trajectory. 

It's a lesson…

…that brings me full circle to those early Army brat days. Each move taught me to read the subtle languages of trust. Now, in the corporate world, that skill has become invaluable—not just in building trust, but in understanding the full weight of what it means when someone places their trust in you.