Successful second acts

These 10 people from all walks of life have completely reinvented themselves - now have jobs they love.

Matt Morrone
Retired Army...now, private sector trainer
Matt Morrone
Not long before retiring, Matt Morrone had the ultimate Army job: Ranger School instructor. As a leader in the final phase of the grueling 63-day training course, Morrone directed students in mission planning and execution in the swamplands of Florida. He taught everything from small boat operations to raid and ambush techniques to handling of poisonous snakes.

It's no picnic - students get less than 2 hours of sleep each night in addition to the constant action - and 70% of all students fail. After four years of ranger instruction, Morrone settled into an assignment as an ROTC instructor before retiring in September 2006.

He was clear on what he wanted to do next: "I found a passion in teaching and training people," says Morrone, who is now a corporate trainer with Matco Tools in Stowe, Ohio. Morrone teaches a 10-day course where franchisees learn the basics, along with the company's proprietary systems - everything they need to get out on their trucks and be familiar with the tools they'll be marketing and the software they'll use. The skills he used in the military easily transferred to his job as a trainer.

"You have to take information, decipher it and put it out in a format people can understand," says Morrone. "And you have to be a leader and be able to influence people (while teaching)." He loves the job--and his new career--so much he's beginning to study for a master's degree in corporate instruction.

Morrone has a few words of advice for would-be veterans looking to make a fresh start: "You really have to translate military words and certificates and learn to speak civilianese. It took practice. So start early. It takes some time to sit down and write and effective resume; military people don't have resumes." Morrone says a friend with a civilian job helped him wade through the process.

Susan Rubin

Todd Cox

AC Warden

Joel Schlotz

Catherine Meloy

Beverly Israely

Roberta Hurtig

Marc Guertin

Matt Morrone

Kim Culligan
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.