#128 "Adulting" Advice For new Junior Officers in the Fleet | Reflections from my Navy Journey
The Academy is a controlled environment. The fleet is not. The day you commission, “adulting” stops being a meme and becomes the difference between a stressed-out junior officer and a steady leader your sailors can trust.
I riff on the lessons I wish every new Navy JO heard before reporting to a ship or submarine. We start with work, because leadership is not just being competent, it’s being a champion for your people. I break down what that looks like in real life: spending the extra hour to clean up a package, hand-walking paperwork up the chain of command, and showing up to the skipper with a plan so a sailor can get leave or training without the mission taking a hit.
I also challenge the question I hear all the time: “How do I be the #1 JO?” I explain why that framing can drift into self-centered thinking, and how a mission-first, team-first mindset tends to take care of your career anyway.
Then we go to a topic people avoid but everyone feels: officer privilege. Being in the know, having easier access to resources, a shorter chain of command, more privacy, and more benefit of the doubt are real advantages. I share why acknowledging that reality builds credibility, and how you can leverage your access to reduce friction for the sailors who don’t get the same ease.
On the life side, we hit practical deployment and personal finance habits like power of attorney, autopay, and finding a fee-based financial planner if money isn’t your thing. We also talk about relationships, loneliness, and why you have to be intentional about friendships once you’re no longer living down the hall from your best friends.
For any real estate questions, please text me at 650-282-1964.
The Vermeer Group is a residential real company matching military families with trusted real estate teams across the country. If you have any real estate questions at all, please text Grant at (650) 282-1964 or email [email protected]
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The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer, your host, is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country. Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.
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