We caught up with Jesse in between his Army National Guard duties to dive into a powerful conversation about ambition, resilience, and the power of community. Jesse shares how his drive, vision, and strong network helped him navigate the unique challenges of balancing military service with civilian life—challenges many of us rarely consider in our everyday career paths. We explore the behind-the-scenes planning, reflection, and foresight it takes to align personal goals with professional responsibilities—both in and out of uniform. Jesse brings to light how he created opportunities through preparation, perseverance, and a few tough life lessons. His upbeat, can-do mindset shines throughout, revealing why he continues to earn a seat at the table wherever he goes. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to harness their skills, rise to the occasion, and grow with gratitude for the people who help make it all possible. It’s an inspiring, energizing conversation you won’t want to miss! https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessedurrant/ https://www.oracle.com/veterans/ https://www.oracle.com/careers/ https://www.travismanion.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Episode Transcript:

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;35;10 Unknown You're listening to the Oracle Maven podcast, where we bring people together from the veteran affiliated community to highlight employees, partners, organizations and those who are continuing the mission to serve. Welcome to the Maven podcast. I'm your host, Chris Mansour, and in this episode I'm joined by Jesse Durant, Oracle senior site reliability developer and Army National Guard officer. We caught up with Jesse in between his Army National Guard duties to dive into a powerful conversation about ambition, resilience, and the power of community.

00;00;35;11 - 00;00;59;08 Unknown Jesse shares how his drive, vision and strong network helped him navigate the unique challenges of balancing military service with civilian life challenges many of us rarely consider in our everyday career paths. We explore the behind the scenes planning, reflection, and foresight. It takes to align personal goals with professional responsibilities both in and out of uniform. Jesse brings to light how we created opportunities through preparation, perseverance, and a few tough life lessons.

00;00;59;08 - 00;01;15;19 Unknown His upbeat, can-do mindset shines throughout, revealing why he continues to earn a seat at the table wherever he goes. This episode is a must listen for anyone looking to harness their skills, rise to the occasion, and grow with gratitude for the people who helped make it all possible. It's an inspiring and energizing conversation you won't want to miss.

00;01;15;21 - 00;01;34;16 Unknown We have all we need to become the person we want to be. So let's remember how to connect with others with sincerity and genuine intent. As we continue the mission to serve. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and please remember to check in on your buddies and family, Jesse's contact details in the podcast description, and you can always find me on LinkedIn.

00;01;34;18 - 00;01;52;28 Unknown Hey, Jesse, what's going on? Not too bad. Chris is here. Another day in the office, you know. Excited to be here. Thank you for having me on the podcast. Pretty impromptu, but I'm excited to be here. Sometimes it is last minute, but you know how it is when somebody has a good idea or what they believe to be a good idea.

00;01;53;04 - 00;02;11;12 Unknown We act on that. The worst that could happen is somebody says no and you did not. So thanks for accommodating being flexible. Typically where we start just a little bit about you and let's go with that. All right. So let's start out with where I'm at now. Currently I've been with Oracle for three years. Just hit my three year anniversary this month, so I'm excited.

00;02;11;12 - 00;02;32;12 Unknown I've been part of the team for three years now. I'm a senior site reliability engineer and on tour ops. My manager and Scott Paper, as you know him pretty well. Fantastic manager currently, as well as working for Oracle, I serve in the Army National Guard and I'm a tenant there for the engineer. So vehicle engineer is my main job there.

00;02;32;15 - 00;02;51;07 Unknown Anything that needs to be built from ground up. The guy Rhodes, demolition. I'm the guy. And then I'm an avid runner. Like to run? I'm part of several run club there in the Seattle area. So if you want to get out and network and meet other tech people, Come running. Got it. That's that's pretty good.

00;02;51;07 - 00;03;16;28 Unknown So. So you're you're from are you originally from Seattle? So I'm originally from Eastern Washington. I grew up in Tri-Cities, Washington, mostly known for the Hanford nuclear site, back during the Manhattan Project. So Pasco is a specific city. It's, I'd tell a small town, population wise, it's growing. It's becoming bigger and bigger. The main industry there is agricultural and, the nuclear site, Washingtonian my entire life, though.

00;03;17;01 - 00;03;30;20 Unknown Got it as you were growing up. What were some of the things that you were doing out in Eastern Washington? What was, what was a kid doing in a town like that? So there's a lot of, the Columbia River runs right through the cities. It splits it up. So there's a lot of swimming in the river.

00;03;30;23 - 00;03;50;15 Unknown Even though was down, downstream from the nuclear site, you know, it was deemed safe. So we swam there a lot. Worked a lot as a kid growing up helping my dad with his lawn care business, as well as just hanging out with friends. Played sports my entire life growing up. Whether it's from, team sports like baseball, basketball.

00;03;50;15 - 00;04;10;22 Unknown Later on in life, I got into cross-country and track. More individualized, but still team aspect. So a lot of running, on the on my own funds try to enjoy the summer heat that we have down there compared to the West Coast. You know, 310 day, the sunshine. So significantly different than the West Coast. Oh, yeah, I bet, I bet, yeah.

00;04;10;22 - 00;04;31;15 Unknown The it's a little bit of trust going in that river, I guess. I mean, that's that's good. Yeah, definitely. So it was a lot of trail run or, street distance. What type of running? A mix of both. So, mostly street was in high school, and then later on I got into trail running, especially now that I moved to the west side of the state.

00;04;31;18 - 00;04;50;12 Unknown Been in the west side Seattle Bremerton area for the, since 2016. So that's where I fell in love with trail running. And, I really enjoyed that a lot easier on the body and, definitely more scenic. Yeah, I bet the scenery over there, I mean, I imagine both sides of the state is beautiful, but,

00;04;50;14 - 00;05;14;00 Unknown Yeah, very different on on the, Seattle side. Yeah, yeah, the east side. I like to say there's more tumbleweeds and there is trees. Oh. Got it. Yeah. All right. At least at least in the southeast part where I grew up. All right, so growing up in a town like that, at some point, did you did you get an itch and to feel like you were going to want to try to find something, something new to do?

00;05;14;02 - 00;05;35;01 Unknown Definitely. It being a bigger city population wise, it still didn't have the attractions and the job market that, you would be in for such a city population wise. And so I, I knew if I wanted to grow, expand my horizons, I would have to venture outside of the tri cities. Early on in life, I wanted to join a military.

00;05;35;02 - 00;05;53;19 Unknown I was like, at some point it wasn't a question if I was gonna join, but when and what branch? So senior year started talking to a recruiter, maybe recruiter, and start talking me out about the the Navy Seals training program they have. And, I was really excited about that. So senior year, like a month in or so.

00;05;53;20 - 00;06;13;20 Unknown I'm still 17, graduated early for, my age. I graduated 17, so speak to my parents. Hey, can you sign this waiver? It's a training program for, like, three months. Basically my entire senior year. And from there, they allowed me to go into maybe, maybe basic training and then into buds with an opportunity to, you know, try out for the seals.

00;06;13;22 - 00;06;32;22 Unknown And they said, no way. There's we're not going to put our son in danger. Right. So kind of put that on the backburner in high school as part of Deca, which is a business organization that's nationwide through high school and the collegiate level. And it learned a lot about business. So I was like, well, I can go to college, right?

00;06;32;23 - 00;06;50;23 Unknown I mean, that's a goal of mine as well, besides serving in the military. So I was awarded a one year scholarship from a construction class that was in high school my entire three years, where we did, we built a house every year from the ground up. So we fell back on my plan B for the moment, which was go to college.

00;06;50;29 - 00;07;08;20 Unknown After that first year of college, I realized how expensive college was, right? So I was like, ooh, how am I going to pay for this? I didn't come from, a very wealthy family, so I had to find a way to support myself through college. And I started thinking again about joining the military. How how can I get in?

00;07;08;23 - 00;07;25;23 Unknown How can I still join and serve my country? As patriotism was one of the main reasons for joining. And then later in life, I saw the benefits that came with it as well. So I decided to reach out to recruiters again. NASA. I had a buddy, one of my best friends in elementary school, all the way through high school.

00;07;25;24 - 00;07;44;26 Unknown His dad was a recruiter for the Oregon National Guard. He told me, you know, some tricks on how to get in to the military. Back in 2010, I did get approved by the my civilian doctors saying, hey, it should be fine because, I don't I had a longboarding accident my senior year right there in the middle of the year.

00;07;44;29 - 00;08;08;11 Unknown Had to overcome quite a bit. Was out of school for a little bit over a month. After that, my base was paralyzed for almost three months after that. So, that's kind of what made me put the military on the backburner again after that first time. The lieutenant's denying me, the approval to join. So that solidified my plan to backtrack and live by my plan to go to college for that year.

00;08;08;14 - 00;08;35;05 Unknown But after I found that, you know, I need some more funds. So from there, fast forward, I got a basic training and job, advanced individual training, which is your MOS. And so I was, the maintenance guy for a couple of years. And then as soon as I got back, I was like, back to school. And the guards, that's the benefit of the guard is being able to do serve your community and your nation as well as going to school.

00;08;35;08 - 00;09;01;26 Unknown Nice. What what part of maintenance were you? So the quartermaster, chemical repair, water pumps. I was part of a burn unit where our main mission within Washington state was the decontamination of any nuclear, any Cbrn, events or situations that happened within the state, like a train derailment or, or any sort of chemical spill. So I was the basically anything that was related to water pumps and water heaters.

00;09;01;29 - 00;09;22;21 Unknown I was the guy, but got roped into maintenance since I was the only one within my unit. So I hung out a lot with the mechanics. Got it. Yeah, I was a mechanic also, and so very familiar with with that team, where where I was stationed. Okay. Very nice. Any correlation between where you grew up and the fact that it was in that particular field?

00;09;22;24 - 00;09;43;23 Unknown It was, within a city about 30 minutes from the Hanford site. At the time, I never thought about it, if that, you know, strategically placed there in case of an incident. But, in hindsight, it looks like, it may have been for sure. Got it. It's a plan. It's always plan. Family. Yeah, there's always a bigger plan.

00;09;43;25 - 00;10;12;22 Unknown So that was what, 2010, 2011? 1111? Yep, yep. Okay, so then that you started out enlisted or was it because of college? Did you get in to be an officer? No, I started I enlisted, spent ten years enlisted. Okay. My military career has been, it's been a unique, a unique one, for sure. After basic training and I, I, I came back to college and I was like, well, maybe I'll look into being an officer.

00;10;12;22 - 00;10;33;03 Unknown Right? So I joined ROTC for a semester at the Washington State University in Pullman. And while I was there, I realized I'd been in at this point two years. And the program is self is basically self led among students. Students are all leadership. So we police each other with the advice and guidance from the active duty personnel.

00;10;33;06 - 00;10;58;21 Unknown And at that time, 2000, this is 2012. Now, the got phase was was big. If you're in the Army, you do have a patch. We used to call them just like fleets. You didn't have a patch. You were frowned upon, especially if you were an officer. So I decided I can't be one of those officers. Right. I I've been in two years when I got a deployment or need my belt before I contract in ROTC.

00;10;58;24 - 00;11;19;06 Unknown But college don't pause for the second time and decided to find a unit deploy with and of course my buddy Thad, who gave me the gold and answered, how do I know? I had friends in the Oregon National Guard were about to deploy mobilize in the Middle East. So he gave me some contact information, reached out to them fast.

00;11;19;08 - 00;11;41;07 Unknown For five months I had gone through my three class school. So now I'm a plumber. Pipefitter in a vertical contracting team, and I'm in the Middle East. So you were intentional. I like it taking initiative, doing all those things that we're known for. So how did that go? I mean, was it was it as you expected? Definitely. I learned a lot.

00;11;41;10 - 00;12;05;28 Unknown It was an experience for sure. The first month that I finally it's the interstate transfer is, when you move from state to state in the guard. So asked is the abbreviation. I said Oregon. At first, you already had to face adversity. The company commander was like, hey, deployment is canceled. I was like, hold up. I spent three months trying to get here.

00;12;06;04 - 00;12;23;23 Unknown Now that I'm here, and I put school on pause, I've been out of school also for three months. You're telling me it's canceled so that long? It was an eight hour drive. No drilling on the Oregon coast, seaside area. Camp Alia and I was going to school in Pullman, Washington. So that whole eight hours back home, me and my buddy, and he was making no money because of the commute.

00;12;23;26 - 00;12;46;22 Unknown We were just disbelief. It was be quite as right that I've ever had experience. So I was like, what? What do I what I do now, like my plan is gone, right? So one of my E-4 buddies at the time from the Oregon National Guard, organic, his dad was lieutenant colonel within the Engineer Battalion. He shot me a message a week later and say, hey, my dad said, relax, something's coming down the pipeline.

00;12;46;25 - 00;13;10;06 Unknown I was like, what are you talking about? The original mission was to go into Afghanistan and help, you know, a downgrade and, close up some bases. So within a month, we have a new mission. We're going to Kuwait to help the process, reconstructing and building more transient billeting. So I was like, well, not the deployment I wanted, not a true combat experience.

00;13;10;09 - 00;13;31;23 Unknown I took it for what it was. Again, I tell people all the time, deployment isn't all about combat. It's about how you can adapt to the adversity and the problems you faced while on deployment. So I was like that. This is a good second job. You know, option. And fast forward, I'm in Kuwait three months later in November, I'm in Iraq.

00;13;31;24 - 00;13;59;28 Unknown I'm one of the first hundred soldiers back into Iraq to help combat ISIS in 2014. So that was, that experience definitely learned a lot being the first hundred in compared to deployments nowadays where there's sirens and warm towers, allowing you to, you know, find deep cover, there's nothing of that. When I was there the first time, right, it was just, oh, I think that was, that was incoming.

00;14;00;02 - 00;14;25;09 Unknown Learned a lot. I was just Lauren listed E-4 at the time. The detachment I got pushed into Iraq, we were supporting the active duty training. The, local Iraqis to help fight ISIS. So we built everything from building, places for soldiers to live, like many soldiers as well of ourselves. Offices, shoot houses, silhouettes where they practice a train on, as well as anything that they can think of.

00;14;25;16 - 00;14;42;24 Unknown We were we were working as much as we could as long as we had daylight. We had a warehouse. We're able to build things, prefab things, because the easiest way to do, a lot of the operations. And how long do you end up staying? Total deployment was nine months. I spent about four months of it in Iraq.

00;14;42;26 - 00;15;06;15 Unknown We were able to reopen the airstrip. We bring in the Apaches and and drones to help out with the surveillance. So it was, great, great mission work there. A lot of great people, active duty and guard, met one of my future mentors on that deployment was actually an IPL. Now we're both officers and, we're essentially equals out and I seek them.

00;15;06;21 - 00;15;24;25 Unknown His name is Mark Mallow. A lot for for advice on how to progress my military career and, and his guidance in general. So then after that, you come back. That had to have been an ordeal, I would imagine. Then if you're if you're going from Washington to Oregon, try to find fulfill your goal that you're trying to achieve.

00;15;24;26 - 00;15;47;02 Unknown You know, it's nice to have the acquaintances. So how important was the networking? I mean, it was clear to me when you were talking about it, but did that give you an idea of how important networking really is? Yes. And of military civilian career just in your civilian life in general, networking is vital to being successful.

00;15;47;05 - 00;16;08;15 Unknown Just those opportunities that I've had all the opportunities and had throughout my military career has been due to networking. I tell people all the time, especially in the National Guard, since we are, I'd say, part time, right? For the most part, it's about driving your own career. No one's gonna help you meet the goals that you want as much as you are right?

00;16;08;18 - 00;16;32;05 Unknown If you want to transfer to a new unit, you want a different MOS, seek out those opportunities. Sometimes if your your lowest level is not helping you out, networking with the right people. Find a way to find those people right. Use that network that's built in the military and try to seek those opportunities, and then present a plan to your your team leader, to your leadership saying, hey, this is my goal.

00;16;32;05 - 00;17;07;21 Unknown This is where I want to go. And here's the contact information. I write down some of those first steps versus leaving it all in the hands of your leadership. Yeah, that's that's super sound advice. And I like how you weaved in. It's applicable anywhere, you know, not just in service but in life in general. The more that you can do on your own with diligence and, the research and the effort you put into it to help people not have to do it all, that's important because it can be, you know, we we often look at ourselves trying to help everybody, but we don't have enough time to be able to do that.

00;17;07;21 - 00;17;25;13 Unknown So it's it's it's critical that we can think about how we can nudge it along and do some of that pre-work ahead of time. So I like I like how you're setting that up. Did you stay with that unit as you came back or did you now switch? I did, so I'd stay with the unit for probably another six months.

00;17;25;13 - 00;17;55;00 Unknown That's where I finally, my, I became, a sergeant in the Army after Charlie. After that, the unit disbanded. They did a big reorg. So the reorg happened. We went from 150 plus soldiers down to 52. So we became a detachment, a utility detachment. So they gave me the option. Hey, did you want to, you know, go ahead and stay here during on the, on the Oregon coast, the commute was really long and I was like, oh, I'll hang out for a little bit.

00;17;55;03 - 00;18;20;29 Unknown But then they the opportunity arose for me to go to infantry school. So I was like, infantry. Oh, man. This this is it. All right. I'm I'm taking the opportunity. So now that follow me August. So about a year after I came back from that deployment, I went to the infantry school and then found a unit again, my readiness NCO at that time say, hey, here's a list of every infantry unit in Oregon.

00;18;21;01 - 00;18;41;25 Unknown Find a unit that has an opening and I'll facilitate the rest. So again, kind of did the legwork myself to find a unit that I felt comfortable with besides me, and thrown in to a random unit. And then at the right I replaced, I became an infantry man. How long that take that took the switching units within within the state?

00;18;41;25 - 00;18;58;14 Unknown It's relatively quick. It was about a month. Sometimes with the paperwork hasn't completed yet, you can simply just start drilling with them on the year. One week in a month. And, you're still on the books of your organic unit, but they allow you to split. Train is what they call it. The training was a different unit. I'm assuming.

00;18;58;14 - 00;19;20;22 Unknown Did you go? You didn't go back to boot camp. You went, but you went to ITE for infantry school. Yeah, so slightly different in the guard we have for class. We have our own, schoolhouses with some within the state, some, we had to go to other states. So Oregon actually has its own infantry school. It's an accelerated program for like, most MOS is, it's usually about two weeks long.

00;19;20;24 - 00;19;41;27 Unknown So I went to Eastern Oregon real close to home. And you went to LA or, until Oregon with the old Chemical depot, down in that area. Spent two weeks there in the middle of August, 100 plus degrees, walk in the lanes, surviving the heat, sweating constantly. Had people heat carry carrying regularly just because of the heat.

00;19;41;29 - 00;20;05;05 Unknown They weren't used to it. So because we not only do they train National Guard, but those National Guard school houses also had the ability to train Active-duty personnel as well. So we had a slight mix of in-state, out of state and active duty personnel going to that school house. Got it with yours that that puts me at 20 right around 2016 2016.

00;20;05;08 - 00;20;33;11 Unknown Okay. Yeah. From from there. So now you've got basically three or more choices that you've been in. Correct. And so how does that work now that you've got those skills developed. And then what what do you what do you do with that as an E-5. So I think not in just not just in the military, but being well-rounded and knowing different aspects of the organization on how they all, intertwine and work together is a huge benefit.

00;20;33;14 - 00;21;09;17 Unknown If you look at most leaders throughout any corporation, they weren't siloed into one department the entire time rank. They were those who saw the opportunities in different aspects, right? Whether it be, you know, med suite with Oracle or OCI with Oracle. Right. They they or the medical side now, they branched out. They've learned a lot. So that benefited me a lot within, you know, being a new E-5 because when it comes to planning things, not only do you have the mindset or did I have the mindset of infantrymen, but I also had the mindset of, okay, if something breaks down right, how do we fix it?

00;21;09;17 - 00;21;32;17 Unknown How do I get the maintenance people here? I already know kind of what the main insight is thinking about how to do that when on a construction side, we need, I think, Bill, I'm your guy. I can help you build whatever you need built or I know people because within the state we all work together. So when it comes to annual training, there will be times that we have the engineers embedded with us or multiple different maintenance platoons embedded with us.

00;21;32;17 - 00;22;04;15 Unknown So again, tying back in that networking, networking is huge. In the guard. I've been in so many units in the Oregon Guard that every time I go to a big gathering, I was like, oh my gosh, I haven't seen this guy in four years. But here we are again. It's it's been, it's very beneficial. And I say not just military but civilian side as well to, to keep that network open and to if you have the opportunity to try different fields out within, within your organization, be open to new opportunities.

00;22;04;18 - 00;22;26;06 Unknown Yeah. Well said. And you're right. And that is the nice thing about it also is the camaraderie. It's developed over the years. And so you you have those connections and relationships from the past. And to see somebody that you haven't seen in a while, it's a good feeling. Right? Definitely. And, the main reason why I've been in for so long, some people are jaded, even the National Guard.

00;22;26;06 - 00;22;43;10 Unknown It's when we get them on two weeks a year. They say two weeks a year. It's never two weeks a year. It's usually more than that, with schooling and progression, career progression. But the main reason I say is to the people, every, every unit I go, I meet someone that I know I will probably be in contact with the rest of my life.

00;22;43;13 - 00;23;07;00 Unknown That's awesome. At which point now at 2016, you're in E-5, you got a couple of mosses, you got the network down, you're going around to different units. What happens the next several years that get that gets you to I don't know, come to Oracle. Let's backtrack just slightly. I was, after that first placement went back to Scott College right about a year and a half left.

00;23;07;02 - 00;23;30;05 Unknown Due to that ROTC down lineup, graduation wise. You know, I graduated early from ROTC or graduate early from the university. I was like, well, I would just but after, if I still have the urge to become an officer of the OCS. So 2016, I graduate, I get my first civilian career working for the Department Navy there in key, Port Washington, just next to the Bangor Naval Base.

00;23;30;07 - 00;23;49;15 Unknown The database administrator there, went to school for management, for making systems. So sorry. Working there. I seem to have pride myself in both my student career and military career towards a bigger cause which is supporting the military in some sort of facet. Or the government even at Oracle and part of answer ops, which is the government cloud.

00;23;49;15 - 00;24;14;21 Unknown So, you know, always looking to support the bigger cause. So do that for a couple of years. Enjoy my time there. But there's a saying the government work can be slow depending on what department you're in. Right. And that was true. I was on a project. It was where it's basically their justification site for the Navy and Marines, specifically aviation, but expanded to other facets of the Navy and Marines.

00;24;14;24 - 00;24;35;25 Unknown I was there and we were just sustainment. We weren't developing anything new. So database administrator, just maintaining that human eye going. And I graduated college wanting to change the world. I was like, well, this isn't what I, you know, expected, but it's a good career we're now. They had perks as well, being government. They assisted my, progression into getting my masters.

00;24;35;25 - 00;25;00;05 Unknown So I got my MBA while working for them. And then other right between the MBA period when I got accepted to the program, I thought about becoming an officer and the Oregon National Guard again, so that that urge to serve in a at a greater aspect was reinvested into my life and decided to look at my options. And OCS was the quickest way to commission.

00;25;00;08 - 00;25;23;03 Unknown So commission. And then a year later, I'm at I'm still at the I'm in the Navy working there for me on that. See, that's underneath the department Navy and decided I'm a master's now looking into managerial positions both in my civilian career and my military career. How do I line those so that I'm in management in both of aspects?

00;25;23;06 - 00;25;42;27 Unknown And I looked at my career trajectory within the DoD and the Department Navy and realized that it's a slow process, especially on the West Coast. We don't have the benefit of, you know, an enormous amount the managerial positions, as they do on the East Coast. So I was like, well, let me see what the public sector has.

00;25;43;00 - 00;26;00;19 Unknown And I'm at this point about five years in to working for the department, Navy. And, you know, you got the pension lined up, you have everything lined up ready and all your ducks in a row looking at potential retirement and the benefits of it. And I was like, well, civilian life seems okay. Let me, let me like it.

00;26;00;20 - 00;26;19;24 Unknown Let me reach out to some recruiters. And in that process, one of the managers from Oracle reached out to me. But hey, your your resume, your LinkedIn profile seems to see what we're looking for. Would you be interested in interviewing at this point? I'd been through a lot of interviews, turned down a few offers, just that it wasn't what I was looking for.

00;26;19;26 - 00;26;37;11 Unknown And, talking more to the Oracle recruiter and the manager and learning about the the part of Oracle that was going to be working for, which was on tour ops, and supporting the military and the government in some facet say, okay, this is kind of closely aligned to what I do now. I think I can behind this mission.

00;26;37;11 - 00;27;00;20 Unknown So I understood the mission little bit and, and how, I impacted that and allowed troops and government personnel and entities to still do their, their job full time. It's like I think I think I can do this. Then I interviewed with some of the employees that were there still are Oracle, and a lot of them came from military background, which I know was another perk for me.

00;27;00;20 - 00;27;23;12 Unknown Right. Having that, similar mindset and similar experience creates those bonds. And the transfer. I figured the transfer would not be as drastic going from, you know, the DoD Department, Navy and military experience to the corporate world. If a lot of my coworkers had a similar experience, so on through UPS was a really good fit for me. And a good home.

00;27;23;14 - 00;27;48;19 Unknown And that's when I joined to in 20th April 2022, as I finally made it to our goal site Reliability engineer. That's a good story. You did a lot in between 2016 and 2022. Yeah, I again, I try to take advantage of everything. I've always been pretty strategic with my my progression. While at the Department of Navy, I also was in a one year long leadership program for next generation leadership.

00;27;48;21 - 00;28;11;24 Unknown Just trying to advance myself and gain those skills, put those skills in my, my, my toolbox. But that day that I do become a manager, that I am ready to to lead and serve those that are part of my team well. And that tracks because early on, that's what you were you were trying to do is, is commit to something that's going to give you the opportunity for growth and career development and things, those types of things.

00;28;11;24 - 00;28;31;23 Unknown And so I think at this point, if I'm doing the math right, so over the course of a good ten years, give or take years, probably more close to 11, you were sniffing out the opportunities early on. Not only what was in front of you, but you were trying to identify a pathway that allows you to see a couple moves ahead that you can grow into.

00;28;31;24 - 00;28;58;23 Unknown Is that pretty accurate? Definitely. Yep. Every every time I made it to that next, the next step where I met my next goal, I was looking forward to the next time. Some people say 2020. The Covid year was a really bad year for a lot of people. I like to say that's probably one of my favorite years because I was tackling working full time, 40 hours plus a week, doing that, extensive leadership program through work, and graduated from OCS all at the same time.

00;28;58;25 - 00;29;15;28 Unknown So to me, December of 2020 was one of the best moments of my life. I had my freedom back. I was able to relax, something to do things on the weekends, the limited things that we were able to do because of the Covid. Yeah, it was it was a good year for me and then it opened up a lot of doors after that.

00;29;16;01 - 00;29;41;24 Unknown Yeah, it sounds like it. And congratulations on that, man. I, I appreciate the tenacity that you have in the drive and then putting it into action. I mean, that's obviously is one of the qualities that is common amongst, our community. But it you still appreciate it when you see it. Thank you. Yeah, you bet up to that point and, you know, maybe a couple weeks or a couple months inside of Oracle, you know, I'm making an assumption.

00;29;41;24 - 00;30;03;28 Unknown But did anything appear to be uniquely different than any place that you've been before? And as you, as you started to to learn more about the team you were on here, definitely coming over to Oracle the first few months, there's a lot of new technologies that I had to learn. I had been with the department maybe for quite some time and nothing real cutting edge at that time.

00;30;03;28 - 00;30;27;23 Unknown So I had a lot. Is is the big learning curve technically, especially with migrating to the cloud. When I first graduated college, the cloud was still relatively new. I've heard it at AWS, but at that point, Oracle Cloud was in a in its infancy. So it was a good learning curve. But I came in, I try to network with all my colleagues, had been there for a while.

00;30;27;26 - 00;30;46;16 Unknown I'd come in and, I got the moment I got access to the skiff. I was in there trying to learn what they're doing, looking like looking over the shoulder, just trying to grasp as much as I can grasp. Become a sponge, as they say. I just want to know how everything work and what I can do to get to be better and more prepared.

00;30;46;16 - 00;31;09;01 Unknown Once my clearance was fully approved and I can get hands on keyboard, was there, was there any concerns from your side on going into a full time role here and still serving in the guard a little bit? I did some research. Of course. That's one of the big things I did when I was looking to go into the surveying world is the military benefits.

00;31;09;03 - 00;31;37;00 Unknown And surprisingly, Oracle has one of the better programs for military personnel that are currently serving in the guard reserve. They allow us to do our annual training. Downy hiccup I've been since my time with Oracle. I've actually been away quite a bit for the military. I had to go to Basic Ops, the leadership course for the engineers, which was roughly six months, as well as some additional training, and they've been more than accepting and willing to work with me.

00;31;37;03 - 00;32;15;05 Unknown They understand the difficulties. And again, being part of on tour ops, where most people are, most managers are prior service. So I've worked with people for fire service. They know the the process, right. They know that sometimes they're called upon to do something greater than yourself. That you have no control over. You know, they're always there to help facilitate that and help me out with any of the HR issues that I that that arise from being, you know, acclimated to put on to the bench and then coming back in and being reintegrated into the corporation more than willing to work with me, around my schedule within the military.

00;32;15;08 - 00;32;53;16 Unknown And again, I just let them know ahead of time what, what my yearbooks like and if any of those dates will impact my my time in office. Yeah. I mean, sounds like a strong team that that not only is aware through. Well, one understanding what, what, the, the support that's in place that Oracle provides, but also just the, the firsthand understanding of what it's like to to hold the obligation of service and then merging the two together, the knowledge of the processes and the policies as well as the, the the process of what it's what what happens when a unit is needing to call you, either for your training or any other

00;32;53;16 - 00;33;11;00 Unknown deployments that may come up. That's that's great to hear. So after that, because now it's, it's three years still the same. You still have the same feeling as when you started. Do you talk a little bit about being activated and, then short notice of things right within the military that, everyone who served is familiar with.

00;33;11;03 - 00;33;27;24 Unknown I wanted to give Scott a shout out the first. You know, I broke the bad news to him. Hey, there's some training that's coming up that I have to go away for a little bit. I was just informed, you know, with less than a month notice, and the first thing wasn't. Hey, out, like, man, it's a bummer.

00;33;27;24 - 00;33;49;04 Unknown We're going to. We really need you here. It was. Hey, how's how's the family taking it? Right? He empathize with the situation and as good leaders do, I really appreciated that. And I just wanted to thank him for that. And then we kind of talked about how that's going to affect my time at Oracle. And then, what the next steps are for me coming back.

00;33;49;06 - 00;34;07;20 Unknown That's solid. I mean, that should be, you know, you'd like to believe that everybody's going to be able to have that type of response where puts the concern back on you and, and the care that needs to happen from that. Get your mind right, taking care of the the priorities in your life. And of course, the company is a concern.

00;34;07;20 - 00;34;34;11 Unknown And the obviously the customers and what we have to do here. But there's a balance in the prioritization comes through the the initial response. And so I'm glad to hear that that was the case. Yeah. And then to touch back to do I still have the same billing I do. Oracle's been very helpful throughout this process, allowing me to serve both sides and progress in both my career, military and civilian, with Oracle.

00;34;34;13 - 00;34;55;21 Unknown And, yeah, I still get Scott reaching out occasionally. Hey, does want to make sure everything's going good with the service as well as here at Oracle and making sure that I have a plan to progress. And three years and still loving it. And you're listening. I know you can't see it, but he's got a smile, Jesse smiling when he says this.

00;34;55;21 - 00;35;21;16 Unknown You can kind of just you can feel it as you're as you're listening to it. So I believe it. What now? You're three years in, you're always looking ahead for something else that allows you to know what are you going to be on for growth? What what aspirations do you have at this point? So within Oracle, the goal would be eventually to land a managerial position.

00;35;21;18 - 00;35;39;21 Unknown And that's that's been kind of my dream for the last couple of years on the human side. Got my MBA thinking about how the system, you know, the progression naturally there's there may be some opportunities in the near future. I do express my, you know, my wants. So I know it's been it's been heard and people are listening.

00;35;39;21 - 00;36;03;22 Unknown So one day I'll be there. And then on the military side, I'm looking at company command here within the next year. So that's that's another big step. And any officers, especially army officers time is, leading an entire company, planning the future for that company. What what training looks like, if there's any missions coming up, as in the guard we have, you know, we serve two missions.

00;36;03;22 - 00;36;30;17 Unknown We serve our state and our and our nation. And, we are frequently called upon for both. So making sure that we're ready to assist in both facets, whether it's national level, overseas deployment or within the state, because the Oregon and Washington, whatever island fires. So that comes about every year yet to maintain that certification and, and, make sure you're ready to answer any sort of natural disaster or any state need.

00;36;30;20 - 00;36;51;27 Unknown And so which state is the unit in that you're serving now? So I'm still in the Oregon National Guard. Again, I touched a base earlier about people right. Me being in the Oregon Guard for that deployment, I met a lot of people. And after we were dismantled, we we all went in different ways, different units. And I come back to running into them occasionally.

00;36;52;00 - 00;37;11;12 Unknown They're all the other units that I've been a part of. And the reason I'm still in the Oregon garden, commuting up to six hours once a month for drill is the people you know, I've made those bonds, and that's why I'm still driving to get down there and to work with those people and, good rapport. So I'm out of Oregon.

00;37;11;14 - 00;37;38;20 Unknown Got it solid team. Right team. Yes. Devin. All right. Jesse, any any final thoughts for anybody listening that you want anybody to hear if you're a service member and you're not part of Maven, come join Maven. Maven doing great things. Just, one big thing that I love Maven does. I love being physical. Physical activity is one of my hobbies.

00;37;38;23 - 00;37;59;03 Unknown So the Travis Manning Foundation right to the 29 was the chat as many and what I was, a gym host here recently. So I got a bunch of my military buddies, over the weekend, and, we had a good turnout, and we supported the Manning Foundation also back in, for 911, they did. The Rock also had a group of military people, and I, we can do that.

00;37;59;03 - 00;38;26;00 Unknown So, there's a lot of opportunities within Maven at Oracle to progress the career network. Again. Networking. Right. It's been the underlying theme of this, this interview. So consider network whether it's within Maven or just in Oracle itself, if you're a reservist in the National Guard and you're worried about your career progression, both, an oracle and a military, I'd say don't be too, too worried about it.

00;38;26;02 - 00;38;49;11 Unknown Oracle has a good program in place to assist us to move forward in both sides. Just make sure you talk to both leadership, military and civilian, to get a better understanding of how that looks so they can assist you in any way that's needed. And if you're a veteran who is no longer serving here at in Oracle and part of Maven, and you're interested in joining the Oregon National Guard, let me know.

00;38;49;14 - 00;39;09;09 Unknown We have, low recruitment numbers at this time, but we do this cool of being called guard for a day where you come out and relive your experience as a service member. And usually we make sure those days are when you do something fun, like white wine, helicopter style. All right. I'm not even mad at you. That was that was not shameless at all.

00;39;09;09 - 00;39;25;24 Unknown And for for the Maven plug. I didn't ask him to do it. He did it on his own. And then again, he's smiling. You can. You can feel the smile through years as you're listening. All right, Jesse, well appreciate you. Thanks for taking a minute. I know it was last minute and you made it happen. Very grateful for you and your service.

00;39;25;24 - 00;39;47;16 Unknown And I speak on behalf of all of us. We are thankful for everything that you're doing and anybody else that's out there in the reserve guard serving and going on your temporary duty, whatever. It's a deployment or training or anything like that, you know, always keep moving forward. So appreciate you. We'll look forward to seeing you soon. And next time we're in Seattle, we'll get together and have some coffee and maybe go for a run.

00;39;47;18 - 00;40;08;04 Unknown Definitely, yeah. Do you have any? If anyone has questions about how the, you know, being activated and working at Oracle, you know, feel free to reach out to me on, on the Oracle email and then, LinkedIn, if they want to talk about how reservists and guard life interacts with Oracle. Absolutely. So I'll put their contact information for our LinkedIn.

00;40;08;04 - 00;40;23;15 Unknown And then any other information you want to share offline, you can send it over and I'll put it in the podcast description so they can reach out if there's any more questions Chris. All righty one. Keep moving forward.