U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Henry Villarama. March 6, 2019
There are several points in an officer’s career where the possibility exists for individuals to pursue broadening opportunities. These broadening experiences are probably the most sought after and least understood opportunities available for officers. The three primary windows for such opportunities open immediately following basic branch qualification or company command, key and developmental field grade positions, or battalion-level command and key billets. While not all Army career fields or branches are the same, Army Regulation 600-3, Officer Professional Development and Career Management, highlights that basic branch and functional area officer development models share a generally accepted or standard path of professional progression associated with success.
These experiences vary greatly. They can be one-year internships focused on a specific technical experience or long duration advanced civil-schooling programs resulting in doctoral degrees. While an officer on a broadening experience may be off at university reading by night and skiing by day or wearing civilian clothes and using only first names, it’s worth remembering that the Army expects you to pay it forward when called upon for those tough assignments requiring the unique skills developed in a broadening tour.
Generally, following these important career milestones, officers will be assigned to higher level service specific staffs or units, such as Forces Command or the Army Staff, or to organizations that hone the Army’s readiness and lethality, such as recruiting command and combat training centers. Officers seeking to step out of their normal developmental track should closely evaluate which opportunity is right for them. Diverse broadening experiences offer distinct benefits and risks to the individual officer. This article seeks to provide a framework for exploring if such opportunities are right for you given performance, career goals, and professional timelines. Three critical questions to ask before pursuing a broadening experience are: Why am I pursuing this track (why should the Army support?); Which opportunity is best for me (and the Army), and what do I (and the Army) expect to get in return.
In AR 600-3, the Army defines broadening experiences as, “purposeful expansion of a leader’s capabilities and understanding provided through opportunities internal and external to the Army.” These opportunities are offered through four primary avenues: functional or institutional, academia and civilian enterprise, joint or multinational, and interagency or intergovernmental. These four tracks provide specific learning experiences to build a cohort of officers with resident capabilities the Army can subsequently employ. The underlying purpose of all broadening experiences is to improve the human capital of the Army. Understanding the intent of the programs can help officers navigate the decision-making process regarding whether or not to pursue these opportunities.
Recently, the service established Army Futures Command to assist with constituting connections to civil society and its expertise. Many of the Army’s touchpoints with such groups are via the many officers undergoing broadening experiences in think tanks, industry, and others. Broadening experiences represent alternate avenues for outreach and strategic communications with civil society and the general population.
Broadening opportunities require a rigorous selection process because the Army wants to ensure that the most qualified officers are the ones offered such experiences. Officers pursuing broadening experiences should call their career manager to evaluate if they meet the minimum performance and potential requirements to apply for particular opportunities. Additionally, officers who wish to pursue a broadening experience should conduct a professional self-evaluation and converse with mentors and leaders to help evaluate why they want to pursue such an experience and what type of opportunity to pursue.
An officer should ask why a particular opportunity appeals to them. Personal motivation or choice should play a role in career decision-making, such as a chance to live near family. However, if you are choosing a broadening experience solely to distinguish yourself from your peers, this is likely the wrong motivation. There is professional objective risk associated with pursuing a broadening experience. Leadership may have a different vision of how you can best serve the Army or advance your career. Proposing alternatives to that vision can require frank conversations with leaders or mentors. Are you prepared to defend your choices? Is the experience itself, obtaining an advanced degree, working with foreign allies, or training with industry the desired outcome, or are you basing choices off some perceived career benefit after the fact?
Once an officer has evaluated why they seek to pursue a broadening experience, he or she must determine which opportunity is right for their career and the Army. Officers interested in specific broadening opportunities should be able to answer the “so what” associated with their goals. If an officer seeks to participate in the Army Congressional Fellowship Program, what skills do they need to refine or develop to be competitive and which skills will the experience provide? Does the cumulative experience of the officer provide them the proper foundation to excel in a specific broadening experience? If not, does the desired opportunity provide training or education that can help an officer develop additional skills that will benefit the individual and the Army? After the broadening tour, the Army will most likely continue to employ the officer in a way that maximizes the return on investment of the newly acquired skills and experience.
One of the author’s mentors, a retired lieutenant general, advises that officers should pursue those professional opportunities that are personally motivating. For example, officers seeking exposure to the national-strategic level should pursue opportunities at the Pentagon or Combatant Commands. Hopefully, such decisions maximize the intrinsic experiential nature of the opportunity itself and minimize assumed career enhancing benefits.
It is possible for hard charging up-and-coming officers to self-select off of the pathway to success. Ensuring that your motivations for pursuing a broadening experience are the right ones can ameliorate such potential drawbacks. Conversely, officers with broadening experiences must mentor those coming behind; especially to counter the narrative that broadening can be a “career killer.” The Army must have future BCT commanders with a deep sense of the battlefield and the broad wisdom that comes from robust tactical experience. However, just as importantly, the Army needs some of the same officers, in command track and functional areas, whose experience has provided them with an expanded set of capabilities and experiences valued by the Army.
It is not accidental that opportunities for broadening experiences coincide with specific points in the career timeline. These moments are precisely when officers are making deliberate personal choices about their Army career. Carefully evaluating what you, and the Army, will get in return from participation in a broadening experience can help determine which opportunity fits your personal and professional goals. Many broadening experiences require significant additional service obligations due to educational requirements. These factors must be considered prior to committing to any specific course of action. Does your manner of performance, interest in selfless service, and desire to shape the institution match available opportunities?
Asking the Army to invest additional resources into your professional development requires a deliberate vision of how your broadening experience will shape your continued service. If an officer feels stifled and frustrated at every level, and they think more rank and expertise is the key to breaking free, perhaps that officer is not the best applicant. When the Army sends a talented officer to a broadening experience, the Army expects that the investment will serve the institution upon that officer’s return to service.
Specialized opportunities, education, and experiences provide the Army an officer who can repeatedly serve the institution in varying capacities to achieve a specific effect over time. Opting into a broadening experience often marks an officer for repeated assignments that build upon these newly learned skills at future ranks and positions. With a deep bench of developed expertise, the Army can smartly apply different tools to existing problem sets, while disproving the old adage that all problems look like nails when you only have a hammer. These opportunities may limit other career outlooks, but if you define career success as personal satisfaction coupled with an opportunity to serve the needs of the institution, a broadening experience can synergize personal and professional goals towards a shared objective.
Colonel Brad Nicholson is a foreign area officer and currently serves as the Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché at US Embassy Nigeria. He previously participated in two broadening experiences; the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff Internship Program and the Advanced Strategic Planning and Policy Program. Colonel Nicholson’s next assignment is to Headquarters, US Army Europe as Director, Security Cooperation Division.