Why do people struggle to find civilian jobs after being in the military for years with plenty of accomplishments in their service?
Why do people struggle to find civilian jobs after being in the military for years with plenty of accomplishments in their service?
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Because while those in the military are generally well-trained, they’re trained for a very specific kind of work in a very specific culture.
So for new work, military folks often need to be trained from scratch, compared to someone their age who already has experience specific to that job. That is unappealing for some employers. And sometimes military folks struggle to adapt to the new culture of a non-military job. That’s difficult for both employers and the ex-military folks.
Some of those skills just don’t translate to civilian jobs.
Short answer. I think civilian employers, and even civilian educational institutions, generally do not value military training or military service. Additionally, I think there is an unacknowledged stigma against veterans during the Global War on Terror (although other generations, like the Vietnam era experienced this as well) that makes employers not want to hire them. Like, there is a notion that we are all disabled or have PTSD and will be problematic in the work force.
For example, I was a Licensed Practical Nurse in the Army (68C) and wanted to get my RN in my state. I already have a Bachelor’s degree and 10 years of nursing experience. My state’s board of nursing does not value my military nursing education or experience despite the fact I basically worked as a cheap RN in the Army. Specifically, all Army education is pass/fail, but my state absolutely requires a letter grade to count towards credits. So, I got out of nursing, a job I enjoyed and was good at, entirely despite the fact that we have a huge nursing shortage in my state. Our program specifically excludes veterans in many ways because of the way the Army nursing course is structured and arbitrary rules of the board of nursing.
I think there is a severe undervaluation of the “soft” skills that military folks bring with them. No, you’re not going to get a civvie job in ordinance handling, but employers silently value a lot of the things that veterans have. They just don’t realize it.
This is part of a broader shift in how higher education works and what it’s for. We look at it now as “job training” and while there are fields where that’s true, it is far from universal. We denigrate and mock liberal arts degrees in spite of the fact that huge numbers of highly successful people have them. “You were a history major but you don’t have a job as a historian or history teacher, what use was your degree?”
Navy veteran here. There’s a few reasons.
A lot of military jobs have no civilian counterpart. I was an electronics technician/nuclear reactor operator. I was able to find jobs pretty easily. My shipmate who was a torpedoman? My buddy from high school who was light infantry in the Army? Not so much.
Civilians don’t quite understand how the military works. They generally think management works like “scream at people who have to follow orders or else”. So applying for a management role as a former E-7 or above is not necessarily going to impress anyone.
There’s sometimes the impression that former military lack empathy, flexibility, humor, etc. and will be hard to work with. I’ve been able to subvert that during the interview process, but it’s still a hump to get over, and one that might keep your resume from being considered.
To that point, I know former soldiers and Marines who still cling to the military mindset and generally comment that civilians are lazy, “weak”, too sensitive, etc. If they carry that into an interview, they’re not going to get hired.
A lot of people in the military do indeed like being told what to do every day. These sorts don’t know what to do when given the liberty of the civilian world.
Because doing nothing in the military is easy. Show up, do the minimum, go home. People make entire careers of scraping by until they are forced out. Then you try to apply to jobs with 0 accomplishments and barely doing your old work
Turns out blowing shit up and illegally invading people isn’t that useful in civilian life
Working on a tank doesn’t mean you can work on a car
In my mind anyone who was willing to join the military has already demonstrated terrible decision making. When I was a hiring manager I would toss veterans resumes immediately. I don’t want to work with anyone like that.
For my brother on of his biggest problems was he had spent years being told when to eat when to sleep and everything, as soon as he got out of the military if someone didn’t tell him to do something he just kind of didn’t think about it on his own. I don’t know how common something like this is but it took a long time for him to remember the things that needed done for himself.
It depends on the individual really. As folks stated here, some skills and jobs in the military don’t exactly translate well into civilian work.
My brother for example, he was infantry during the Iraq war. After that he used the military benefits and GI bill to go to school and become a nurse.
One of my friends who was in the navy used his benefits and is currently taking classes for engineering.
To sum it up: Skills don’t translate well into civilian work, and people either forget or don’t take advantage of the benefits and resources provided in order to help them acquire skills for civilian work.
I was a combat engineer with expertise in field construction, heavy equipment, and demolitions. Got dozens of certifications, licences, thousands of hours of on-job training and an entire portfolio of work.
Applied to dozens of geo-tech, construction, equipment operation, demolition, and even a few just simple skilled trades. Every single one denied me outright for not having 4+ year degrees, civilian certification, or civilian commercial licenses.
Its entirely a liability and insurance issue for the majority of careers with legitimate transferable skills.
I’m about 12 years in. It depends on when they left. Usually, Officers and Staff NCOs don’t have much trouble. Most civilian positions value the leadership experience from the military.
The higher ranking you get the more you are groomed into positions and you get hookups. I would say LtCols and above, GySgts and above typically are set up with a nice DOD position(on the civilian side) or hooked up with a defense contractor.
I think the difficulty is our junior marines, soldiers, airmen, and sailors. They typically don’t have time to build up a strong resume, or usually have burnt some bridges and leave with a bad taste.
They do have options, but are too young and don’t really pay attention enough to the programs that are offered to take advantage of them and set them up for success.
I’ll give you an example, the military has a program called skillbridge that has a 88 percent employment rate. Essentially, the military will send you to a civilian job for roughly 3-6 months before you get out to work for them. Completely free to the company, and it helps set you up for success. Most enlisted service members don’t use this.
Another example, someone mentioned skills not translating to civilian work. The VA offers an additional “GI bill” specifically for this situation. The service member that can’t get employed because the skills don’t translate. So a service member can technically go to school for nearly 8 years, well receiving a salary(actually a housing allowance) and getting their tuition paid for by the government. There are more programs and options, but those are to name a few.
My personal opinion the service really tries to set up the service members for success when they get out. Unfortunately, service members don’t always fully understand what is being given to them or always have the aptitude to take advantage of it. There is a fault to a degree on the leadership, because the military can be a paperwork nightmare and it’s intimating dealing with it if you get no guidance, help, or you don’t know what to ask or how to ask for it.
No company wants to pay your healthcare and college just to be their bitch.