Service members preparing to leave the military are inundated with advice about how to land their first civilian job.
Build a personal brand. Translate your military skills. Make sure your résumé gets past artificial intelligence. And, after years of military service, don’t settle for a job that doesn’t pay what you’re worth.
Tim Best has spent decades watching veterans make the jump into civilian careers, and he says some of the conventional wisdom can actually make the transition harder.
Best, CEO of RecruitMilitary and a former Army special operations helicopter pilot, recently sat down with Military.com to discuss what he is seeing in the veteran job market, where transitioning service members are going wrong and some of the biggest misconceptions they carry into civilian employment.
Here are three myths he says veterans should reconsider.
Myth 1: You Already Know What You Want to Do
One of the first mistakes, Best said, is assuming military experience has given service members a clear picture of the civilian employment landscape.
“We think we know what we want to do,” Best told Military.com.
That doesn’t mean nobody leaves the military knowing exactly what comes next. Some do. But Best said many service members would benefit from approaching transition with a much wider aperture. Part of the problem is familiarity.
A service member might recognize a company because he or she buys its products, drives past its stores or sees its advertising. That doesn’t mean the person understands the careers available inside the company or what the company culture is like.
“You don’t know that brand other than as a consumer,” Best said, “which likely has nothing to do with that brand of an employer.”
The same problem applies to entire career fields.
Best pointed to business-to-business sales as an example. Service members may hear “sales” and picture selling directly to consumers. They may never consider that their ability to brief senior leaders, build relationships, influence decisions and navigate consequential conversations could translate into sophisticated and potentially lucrative B2B sales roles.
“I see senior leaders getting out and moving into very lucrative B2B sales roles when they open their mind to the idea that oh, I’ve got a lot of credibility in my background; I’m comfortable dealing with very important conversations; I know how to add polish; I know how to present; I know how to influence,” Best said.
His advice is straightforward: Don’t eliminate industries, companies or occupations based on what you think you know about them.
“You know a lot, but you may not know hardly anything about the employment arena out there,” Best said. “Open your mind to everything.”
Myth 2: AI Is Rejecting All Your Job Applications
For veterans who have submitted dozens, or even hundreds, of applications and received little response, artificial intelligence can be an obvious villain.
Best said he regularly hears some version of the belief that an algorithm is automatically rejecting qualified applicants before a person ever gets a chance to see them.
“Another myth is that AI is ruling out all of my applications and resumes,” Best said.
He said AI can play a role in how employers process and present applications, but pushed back on the idea that artificial intelligence is simply making hiring decisions on its own.
“AI does help us work through applications and things more quickly, but we make decisions on those things,” Best said.
For veterans, Best believes the more significant long-term effect of AI may actually be the opposite: It could help civilian employers understand military experience they previously overlooked.
Consider a Navy machinist’s mate. A civilian recruiter looking for someone to supervise technicians with experience in hydraulics, pumps and compressors might see “machinist’s mate” and assume the candidate’s background involves machining metal.
But, as Best noted, many machinist’s mates work extensively with pumps, valves, compressors and hydraulic systems, potentially making them exactly the candidate the employer needs.
“Why would I talk to a machinist mate from the Navy? You know, I don’t need a machinist. I’m not looking for a metal worker,” Best said.
AI can potentially connect the military title with the underlying skills.
“If a recruiter didn’t know that, they would bypass that person because the way recruiting works today is job description, job title, resume,” Best said. “We don’t have the same job titles in the military that civilians do.”
Best believes increasingly sophisticated technology could make those connections easier rather than harder.
“The AI tools that are in the space now and that continue to be developed are going to be good for job seekers long term when they embrace them,” he said.
Myth 3: The Best Civilian Job Is the One That Pays the Most
For a service member leaving a steady military paycheck, compensation understandably matters.
But Best said equating the highest salary with the best transition can lead veterans toward the wrong first job.
“The myth is that, ‘ Hey, I’m earning a certain amount. The best job means I’m going to be earning something more,” Best said. “That’s not always true.”
The better opportunity, he said, could initially pay less but put the veteran inside the right company, working for the right leader or on a career path with substantially greater long-term potential.
That is also why Best encourages service members to prepare financially for transition well before they leave uniform. Greater financial flexibility can give a family more freedom to choose the opportunity that makes the most sense over the long term instead of being forced to maximize the first paycheck.
“I’m not suggesting they take jobs where they’re not valued,” Best said.
Instead, he posed a hypothetical: What if someone had the opportunity to work for an exceptional company and leader on the career path they wanted, but the available position required temporarily taking a financial step backward?
“What a shame if they couldn’t take it,” Best said.
He believes veterans should think beyond the immediate salary and consider who they will work for, what they will learn and where the position could take them.
“This myth that somehow pay is the only representation of value is a big mistake,” Best said.
Best gives similar advice to his own children and young people he mentors.
“The best first job you can take is the one with the most amazing leader who can put you on a trajectory,” he said.
For veterans accustomed to a military system in which rank, time in service and pay tables provide a relatively predictable progression, civilian careers can require a different calculation.
Best’s larger message is that veterans shouldn’t undervalue what they bring to the civilian workforce. But they also shouldn’t allow assumptions about industries, technology or an initial paycheck to unnecessarily limit what comes next.
“If you’ve been a high-performing, truly high-performing service member, keep betting on yourself,” Best said, “because what made you high-performing there is going to work.”
