Meet veterans driving military healthcare solutions at J&J

Learn how two military veterans and colleagues at Johnson & Johnson are delivering innovative solutions to the Military Health System and Veterans Health Administration—and how you can join them.

“How do your military skills translate to a business setting?” It's a question military veterans often face when transitioning to the civilian workforce. But here's a different question: What if you could apply your military background daily and continue to serve the military-connected community directly in a private-sector role?

Eamon and Joel, colleagues at Johnson & Johnson and highly experienced military veterans, are doing exactly that, and the three things that define their work—mission, service, values—could be useful career guideposts for transitioning veterans at large. 

1. Mission: Leverage your military experience to advance the continuum of care

Just to help orient you to the scale and complexity of the military healthcare system

• The Veterans Health Administration is the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system.
• The Military Health System is global in scope, providing healthcare services to servicemembers, military retirees and family members both domestically and abroad.

To impact such a system, you have to understand it inside and out.

“I’m leveraging my background and experience in the U.S. Air Force on a regular basis,” Eamon says. “For example, if I’m engaging with the Military Health System, I’ll have a fairly clear idea of who we need to connect with to open a dialogue and advance a proposal. I’ll understand what their evolving regional and situational needs are, and how they approach these challenges. It’ll allow me to serve them more effectively, which means we can expedite relevant solutions.” 

Joel agrees.

“After 30 years in the Army, this is a space that I’m comfortable in, one that allows me to leverage my diverse experiences. There are numerous unique aspects to the federal channel, and my experience allows me to be proactive and take a more ‘capabilities-based approach.’ We have such enormous capabilities at J&J that part of the challenge is narrowing down which capabilities to leverage, or which stakeholders to partner with, to deliver impactful healthcare solutions and shift timelines to the left.”

Military experience isn’t incidental to the job description for Eamon and Joel, in other words, but integral to the mission.

“Being able to look at the health system from the outside, while also having interacted with it from within, is really valuable—it’s a key component to how we’re advancing the continuum of care,” Eamon says. “We’re putting innovative healthcare treatment options on the table that simply weren’t there before, and that means working with government affairs, oversight committees, congressional leaders and others with a focus on educating them about unique military-connected healthcare needs, challenges and treatment options.”

2. Service: Reciprocate the trust of men and women in uniform

The impact that Eamon and Joel are making in the military-connected community, even after having transitioned to the civillian workforce, adds a special layer of meaning to their mission right now.

“All patients are important to us at J&J going back to Our Credo,” Joel says. “But there’s no denying that I feel a very special sense of connection with the community that I serve. It’s part of the reason I bring so much passion and motivation to this work. I’m honored by the purpose and the mission.”

Eamon sees it in similar terms, framing his work as the fulfillment of a reciprocal trust or obligation.

“When young men and women put on the uniform and serve, there’s a sense in which they’re putting their trust in us. They’re doing their part, and they count on us to do ours,” he says.

3. Values: Navigate your career transition with shared values as the north star

Mission and service are major components of successful career transitions, according to Eamon and Joel. But equally important may be the context in which they play out: the unique culture of each organization, and the values on which it’s built.

“Culture is an undeniable factor,” Joel says. “If you look at military performance evaluations, for example, there are aspects of character incorporated into your evaluation. So values really are part of the fabric of the military. And I think it would be difficult not to have that as the north star, in the way that Our Credo is at J&J, when you’re transitioning.”

No surprise, then, that more direct forms of guidance, similarly anchored in shared values, have helped Eamon and Joel flourish at J&J. Participating in the Veterans Leadership Council (VLC), our award-winning employee resource group for the military-connected community, is a notable example.

“The VLC creates opportunities to build authentic connections—you’ll meet people from similar backgrounds, or with whom you’ve had shared military experiences,” Eamon says. “But it’s also about creating broad connections across J&J.”

He continues, “It’s a place where over time you’re going to find commonalities, form connections with mentors and have chances to support and mentor your colleagues in turn. The power of the VLC is in facilitating those connections and uncovering opportunities that enable you to grow and make a greater impact.”

Next steps: Join forces with Johnson & Johnson

Innovative thinking. The ability to achieve outcomes when faced with complexity. Resilience and fortitude to overcome adversity. Descriptors like these, which apply to Eamon and Joel equally, are part of the reason they thrived in the military—and why they’re thriving in civilian careers on our team today.

Ready to join them? Here are a few ways to get started:

• Learn more about career paths for the military-connected community—and check out the tool we built to help translate military skills into healthcare careers.
• Explore and apply for jobs at Johnson & Johnson.
• Sign up for our global talent community. It’s an easy way to ensure that you’re on the radar of our recruiters, plus you can register to receive updates about jobs that might interest you in the future.