On a phone screen at 0900 I answered three questions with “copy” and almost asked about a chow window — recruiter paused, then we both laughed. Got any harmless slip-ups from resumes, job fairs, or that first week in a civilian office? Swapping these stories keeps the mood light while we plan the move and get comfortable on the civilian side.
MFN sinks more of my capital deals than auto‑renew — it’s like promising every kid they’re the favorite. I defuse it by scoping MFN to “apples-to-apples SKU match, same volume tier, same service level,” time‑boxed 12–18 months with GPO/pilot carve‑outs, and I trade that for a 60‑day auto‑renew opt‑out; curious whether your IDNs are hung up on systemwide parity or benchmark language?
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And > “copy” — did it in a panel; I slapped a sticky on my screen that said “say ‘sounds good’” and it broke the habit in a week. If I slip, I just grin and translate once (“roger = yes”) and keep moving — what phrase replaced your go‑tos?
Adding to @carlton58, I set phone text-replacements so ‘roger’ becomes ‘got it’ and ‘standby’ becomes ‘give me a sec,’ then skim that list before interviews — preflight for my mouth. Got any other phrases you’ve had to remap?
I run a 5-minute ‘language warm-up’ on my calendar before calls — answer three likely questions out loud in civilian phrasing — and it resets my radio brain for about an hour. If a ‘roger’ slips, I just translate once and keep moving; Toastmasters helped too (https://www.toastmasters.org/). Not a silver bullet, but the reps make the next call cleaner.
Flip your devices to 12-hour time on interview days and rehearse your opener once so ‘0900’ and ‘copy’ don’t auto-pop out — it’s like changing out of cammies, your brain follows the uniform. Caveat: if it’s healthcare/aviation, 24-hour is normal, so no sweat; ever run a quick Zoom test to catch slips before the real call?