April 17, 2017, by Amir Khan – Being in the military is one of the most honorable experiences to have. However, sooner or later, you have to quit it and go back to live a civilian life. Or if you are on a break, you need to do something during this time period. There are people who get adjusted easily while some people go through a hard time. In fact, people take long to get a good job because the time they spent during military services with continuous functional strength training has changed them enough. No matter how many benefits the veterans get by the government, many organizations don’t prefer to make the veterans their employees, but why? Don’t the veterans perform well as an employee? Or they are not punctual? To get the answers to your questions, look below for 10 job searching issues that many military veterans face today.
- Education – Most of the veterans do not own advanced qualifications or degrees which restrict them to have low position jobs. Veterans have to compete with civilians who have advanced degrees and they are also looking for a job and it is obvious that with higher education, civilians usually get the job.
- Mismatched Skills – When veterans take military trainings, they end up becoming a great leader. On the other hand, when these veterans become civilians, having a leadership skill is not enough to get the job. Organizations want more than this, they want someone who is experienced and skilled in more ways which veterans are not.
- Skills Translation – When it comes to translating their skills, veterans have a hard time. There are times when veterans have skills and potentials which firms are looking for but they are unable to translate their skills. Taking an example of lifesaving skills which was gained during combat experience but usually, veterans cannot translate it into what or how a civilian does.
- New Skills – During military services, veterans are given a predefined program which includes some physical work as well. On the other hand, veterans find it difficult to obtain new skills to get a certain job, this situation creates an issue for other employees as well. A company wants an employee who is flexible enough to change according to business needs and wants but veterans are too rigid for this.
- PTSD – PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which is a serious problem and many veterans go through this. During this trauma, a veteran gets flashbacks, nightmares, and sleeping disorders. It is important to note that this trauma goes away with time and not every veteran experiences it. However, one of the biggest reasons for not getting a job is the stereotype that all veterans have PSTD which is not true. This is why organizations avoid giving jobs to the veterans.
- Corporate Culture – There has been a conflict between military and corporate culture since forever. Corporate culture is the flexible kind of culture in which adjustments can be made and rules can be broken if necessary. The military people are exactly opposite to this culture and have a hard time in adapting it. In fact, they don’t prefer to adopt this culture at all.
- Rigidity – Military life makes them rigid and while they provide military services, nobody expects them to think out of the box. In fact, military people do as they are told. But, when it comes to civilian jobs, employees are expected to come up with something great and creative by using their mind. This is why firms prefer to have civilians, not veterans because they usually can’t have creative thoughts.
- Discipline – It is a major aspect of military life and veterans are the most disciplined people in the world. It is good to be disciplined in the military but when it comes to civilian jobs, being too much disciplined create problems for other employees. For example, if a veteran is a manager, other employees will have a hard time like taking a sick day or coming late to work. However, a non-military manager is lenient and understands such problems of other employees.
- Communication – Communication is an important key, most of the veterans find it difficult to interact with civilian co-workers due to their past employment nature. Same goes with the civilians workers because they find it difficult to cope up with veterans because of their rigid and disciplined nature.
- Future Deployments – Veterans have to get back to their military duties whenever they are ordered. Organizations want their employees to stay and benefit them but because of the risk losing they don’t prefer to have veteran employees.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, a military job is one of the most respected profession. Unfortunately, things that you learn during military training create trouble for you when you look for a job as a civilian. As mentioned above that being more rigid and disciplined of the veterans is not good for other employees. Veterans have to face a lot of issues and when they don’t have a job, they definitely go through financial crisis whether they live alone or with a family. Just like civilians, the veterans also want to save money. Money is needed to buy many necessary things such as food, clothes, and to pay bills. Luckily, you can use saving coupons to help yourself when you are trouble having a job. Coupons help you saving a major amount of money which you can use to buy other necessary stuff or simply save it for future.
About the Author: Amir Khan is a Managment and IT Professional who managed to gather graduate qualifications in Marketing Management along with certifications in Economics while pursuing different enjoyable careers options like being a business administrator of a manufacturing business, IT personnel, academic writer, student counselor and full-time blog writer of various authoritative blogs around among other things! For more updates follow him on Twitter.