foreign the oldest podcast is brought to you by all this International supplying your expert Ai and digital transformation staffing needs across the U.S and Europe today you are listening to our servicenow Series where we interview the best and brightest of the industry to share their story advice and views on the exciting world of servicenow and digital transformation [Music] welcome everybody it's Mark Kelly field customer officer co-founder of all this today all this service Now podcast series I'm very very happy to welcome herb Thompson herb is a senior project manager looking out to the platform programs at servicenow herb thank you very much for joining us on the show today uh good morning Mark I'm happy good afternoon whatever time it is wherever anyone's listening I'm happy to have this conversation looking forward to it or before we jump into your role it'd be amazing just to share your background and how you came into the world of service now because there's a lot of interesting folks in servicenow ecosystem your background is definitely unique yeah I'll go back to I joined the U.S military the Army at an early age of 17 straight out of high school served 20 plus years I was the Army's drill CERN of the Year 15 years ago long before this hair uh was all here and then uh when Special Forces finished out my second half of my career Special Forces otherwise known as the Green Berets and they said hey it's time for me to hang it up what's gonna be my next career what's gonna be my next life and I didn't really know so I let a goal of hey let me attend an elite University I end up doing my MBA through Cornell University working at accentures and do a management consulting and then I found the opportunity to come here to servicenow and hopped all over it because I felt like this role specifically but also the company it was a match made in heaven tell us a little bit about your role in service that what does that increase so in the US we have a skillbridge programs with our Department of Defense people in their last you know six months of service can go do internships essentially on the job training with a company or a training program like we do here at servicenow here servicenow we run cohorts so we bring in 50 60 transitioning service members including a few that have been out for a while or military spouses we allow them to join to come through a really a boot camp but it's more than a boot camp it's 16 weeks of intense service now learning to upskill them so they can then have their next career out in the service dog ecosystem before actually we go further into that I think it's actually pretty really helpful to share what you did because you created your own book kind of chartering your your story about kind of making that transition from the military into the world of you know the corporates and you know what that Journey was like but then also offering tips and advice to orders to help them on that journey and I think this is a fantastic example of how you're applying those learns to help people to me uh I had failed 9th grade English class in high school so I had never really thought I was going to write a book however I just realized I was helping so many I was I was talking with others helping helping them share sharing my insights what I was learning from transition to I was coming home from the spine surgeon and a veteran had hit me up and we talked and I was like wow I need to help more because we had talked for like a whole hour so I got home and I sat down and kind of missed your mindset that I started typing in you know about 48 hours later I had 75 pages of a book done and then said hey let me finish this out let me get it now hey how do we publish a book because I have never done that so I had to go figure that out and really it was it was my way of helping others at scale because I just couldn't have as many conversations but I could put it in a book and it's it's very unique the transition from the military is very unique everyone's a little bit different but it's it's not just a new job it's usually in most case a change in a way of life because it's a it's a 24 7 thing like for me I didn't have hobbies when I was in the military everything was either was focused on work preparing to whether I was working out exercising doing study learning before I was with my family there was no hobbies and stuff so it was all encompassing and then it it gave me a purpose it gave me a t it gave me an identity I knew who I was and then when we leave the military all that kind of goes away for most people and and they'll have everyone at different stages so that my book was a way to like how can I help my brothers and sisters how can I help share what I've learned and not to say I know everything is just like hey here's a way to get started here's a little um a little small book you know you can put in your pocket and take out write notes in ETC or you know read it on your Kindle so that was my approach to it yeah fantastic I love that what a really good foundation just to start your world and your journey so tell us a little bit about the programs that you run in general and we're going to kind of focus a little bit more in the skill bridge program at a service that was offering it and and you know how do people get involved in this so I've kind of given you her I'm giving you kind of four or five questions on at once I'll let you unless you're going to work through that through that sequence yeah there there's multiple opportunities to get involved we have Global programs so let's start there we have I'll just focus on our next gen team that's the team I'm a part of we are focused on serving under supported under uh served communities whether that is you know a community of color refugees veterans different uh programs so we have programs uh in Europe we have programs in Asia down in Australia and then programs here in the US we have the one that we've spoke about skill bridge that focuses on U.S service members transitioning them into you know Tech careers on the server style ecosystem we have similar programs in Europe in the US and then uh Australia for for non-veterans so maybe it's a lot of refugees that could join truly anyone who you know has a hard time breaking into Tech based on the background or career we can support so we've launched a hybrid program to a 10-week hybrid program people can do in the evenings and on their own free time so I they attend a couple instructor-led courses during the evenings Monday and Wednesday and then the rest of the time it's on their own to do some on-demand training but our intent is to grow the ecosystem and to provide a pathway and break down barriers for people who traditionally couldn't couldn't break into Tech and you know you kind of mentioned that kind of after hours and setting setting those kind of modules to work to work true how important was it to make it accessible on demand and kind of work around people's schedule very important for us to recognize that Mark because we did do in-house programs so like our skill bridge is still in-house that's but those people are still in most cases getting paid by you know United States military so they they don't have as many life challenges of hey how am I going to put food on the table today how am I you're going to take care of my family where our other programs were doing the same model of In-House but people can't afford to take off 10 weeks just to learn uh while they're not getting paid so for us it's really a shift to reach more people that we want to serve and to get higher quality candidates in the program uh because hey if you're working out there as a teacher or you know for in the Professional Services and you're like hey I just want something different kind of like I did I took my college classes in the evenings and at nights hey I could do this servicenow thing for 10 weeks I will continue learning more servicenow because I'll have access to non-learning I'll continue down a career journey and then after a period of time with some other careers skills thrown in I'll be able to get a job in the ecosystem and really shift careers and it does take that commitment and focus because as you said like life happens there's so many different distractions so you really need to be in that mindset to say I'm going to commit to this so I'm going to make that decision you know decision comes from the from Latin the course so you're actually making that decision I'm going to commit to this but then once you could do it one of the opportunities I always look at like what are what are you willing to sacrifice and what are your motivations because that that's how you'll get to your sacrifice and and it could be a micro level of am I pay attention to class right now because hey let's be real it's all virtual or am I have Netflix on over here and I'm watching Netflix while I'm learning because I'm not fully engaged at that point I'm not probably fully soaking in the learning to a macro level of hey am I willing to do this sacrifice and maybe get a little bit less sleep or when I um you know maybe unfortunately sorry I have to tell my kid I can't play with them right now I'll play you know in that half hour or something and people you you mentioned about me writing the book I was I wrote the book I was going to Cornell at nights and weekends for my MBA and I was working full-time at Accenture doing a management consulting and people are like how'd you do that I was like I made time right I just had to make time and prioritize my schedule but yeah it comes how much do you want it and and the reward is hey here's a here's a rewarding long-term career in the servicenow ecosystem yes it can pay well but the security that hey this is not just another job it's a career I can be in the next 10 15 20 30 years in the servicenow ecosystem the the risk you know is minimal the reward is great when it comes to the programs yeah and when you eat over the veterans you know which we know are going to be fantastic problem solvers resilience you know these These are the foundations that are going to come from the military but there also is that imposter syndrome that we all experience not just in this situation everybody I know that I've interviewed well over 450 people in the world of artificial intelligence a digital transformation and they all know that there's some element that they're a little bit vulnerable on or whatever it might be how to help them true down imposter syndrome to you know make that leap because it's something pretty profound that you guys take very very seriously to to overcome that's a common problem right just yesterday my you know my buddy started a new role has a and he's pretty senior and pretty pretty well known experience in the ecosystem imposter syndrome right so it happens to all of us just belief in reality like what are your actual skill sets uh we can always get in our own head but say hey look this is how I've been successful before am I you know am I doing some of the same things while I'm adapting to it but I can look in the back and go I was successful or hey a lot of people you know coming to our programs have doubt the Imposter syndrome and then like hey you're you're in week 10 and you're still surviving right you're not only surviving you're thriving like there's no imposter syndrome it is you know what you're talking about you know your material you know your skill sets sometimes it's just we have to believe in ourselves and really that's that's part of what we do in the program is get people that believe in themselves that they can do it and then just show them through their actual actions it's minimally on us through their actions of actually learning and applying they're proven to themselves they can do this so sometimes we just need to remind people that hey what's real versus kind of what's in our own heads they think of successes and I know there's a wealth of successes but it only successes stand out to you that that are generated from the the program that you'd like to share that is the the awesomeness of my job I guess is there's lots of successes right it's it's well earned by the participants and I get messages of you know hey I I was a mechanic uh working on airplanes war on vehicles tanks six months ago I didn't know about servicenow now now I have a whole new career working in the servicenow ecosystem and I'm loving it uh I get messages back from you know someone who you know no i t no kind of tech background you know shifted out of the military after about 10 years and then you know now they're like hey now I'm a technical consultant and I love this thank you for uh allowing this to happen I'm like hey I didn't do anything you all did the hard work it's we just enabled you give you the kind of the Arena to work and hone your skills to then you know go out into the ecosystem so there's countless stories some of my favorite ones are probably one couples because when one person commits to the program from a family that that's that's pretty awesome when both a husband and wife commit that is like hey the family's all in right so there's one for the end fingers Jeremy came through the program Navy veteran he got hired as a senior platform architect his serviced now because he worked as uh you know what off to learn servicenow and to network and talk with people but his wife with a non-it tech background uh got hired as a developer at one of our um Partners out in the ecosystem so that to me is is one of my favorite stories it's just both the husband and wife came through they helped each other get through it but then both both are successful one here serves down one out at a partner in the ecosystem yeah that's a fantastic example and you know all the statistics show that if you've got your partners vote on the same pod every your decision is going to be a lot more straightforward within that in a final question herb what advice would you share to people who are on the fence we're kind of making this transition in but don't quite I don't quite taken action yet I always say it's got It's not a mantra it's how I live my life is own your journey um do you want something given to you or do you want to come earn something uh there there's a great opportunity to come in here learn you're given the freedom to learn the freedom to grow but also get connected into a community who cares to servicenow ecosystem you know across our partners and our company very collaborative very supportive if you reach out and you want help and you're working hard people will help you so do you want to be a part of that Community for your future career and you can do it you can believe in yourself we have people that were you know Administration flew airplanes bartenders teachers we have all kinds of people who are able to make the shift over here so you can do it if you're willing to work hard and willing to learn and grow you can do it I always just tell people to own their Journey it's not it's on them they have to do it but we're going to give them the platform to be able to do it it's great advice herb Thompson senior project manager looking after the veterans program at servicenow thank you very much for your time today I appreciate Mark always a pleasure uh happy to hop on anytime and chat with you foreign thanks for listening to this episode of the oldest podcast if you enjoyed today's episode don't forget to subscribe rate and review we are available on Apple podcasts Spotify and any Android podcast of choice you can also head over to our website www.aldis.com to listen to more podcasts view our open roles and stay up to date with industry news thanks for listening and stay tuned for more great episodes coming very soon [Music]