This week your feed was probably full of Veterans Day posts (ours too). And don’t get us wrong, those thank-yous are all well deserved. But if you really want to honor veterans, give them a shot at their next career!
Every year, about 200,000 service members leave the military and enter civilian life, according to SHRM. That’s a huge and often overlooked talent pool, and hiring veterans should be part of your hiring strategy all year long.
This one is close to home for us. Mike Dixon, our President and COO, spent 12 years in the U.S. Army before moving into corporate HR and talent leadership. Along the way, he led a reconnaissance platoon in Kosovo, advised an Iraqi army battalion, and finished his service teaching and coaching at West Point. Our CSM and Recruiter, Jonathan Benavides, is an Army veteran too. He spent nearly 13 years in the Army, first as an infantry squad leader and then as an Army recruiter, and was inducted into the Sergeant Audie Murphy Club, a highly selective honor for enlisted leaders.
So we’ve seen firsthand what veterans bring to a team, and where companies miss out. Here’s why hiring veterans pays off, and how to do it well.
Why Hiring Veterans Pays Off
Believe it or not, a veteran in their late 20s may have more leadership experience than a lot of your managers.
On The Business Blueprint podcast W/ James May, Mike explained that within six months of joining the military, “you could be responsible for 25, 30, 35 people.” In his words, “you take somebody that’s been in the military for five, 10 years, it’s probably going to take 20 years to get that comparable level of management experience in a civilian corporate career.”
That’s a lot of leadership, built in a really organized, well-trained environment. And it’s the same leadership most companies are trying to hire for, just learned somewhere else. Pass on veterans, and you’re missing out on a ton of untapped potential.
Veterans tend to bring:
- Real leadership experience. They’ve led people, trained them, and been responsible for how they perform, often years before their civilian peers.
- Actual leadership training. As Mike puts it, “the military invests so much time and effort in developing leaders.” A lot of companies have gotten away from that.
- Problem-solving when things are unclear. Mike describes his time in Iraq as “Figuring out how to solve problems on your own and building trust with people.”
- The kind of culture you want more of. Loyalty, respect, accountability, and a real commitment to the team. Those are hard to find (and even harder to teach).
- Respect for safety and process. That’s a big deal in manufacturing, construction, healthcare, defense, and more, where the race for skilled talent keeps heating up.
- Experience working with all kinds of people. The military brings together people from every background, and veterans know how to make a team work no matter who’s on it.
- Practical, hands-on skills. Depending on their role, think project management, logistics, engineering, planning, training and coaching others, and managing equipment.
One of the most frustrating things we see is companies so set on hiring for “plug-and-play” experience only that they pass on people like this. Job experience is usually the easiest part to train. Leadership, work ethic, culture fit, and the right mindset are much harder to teach, and they’re what make someone stick around. Then those same companies wonder why their turnover is so high.
So Why Do So Many Companies Miss Out?
Most companies want to do it. In a SHRM survey, 90% of HR professionals said hiring veterans appeals to their organization, and 89% said they’ve hired from this talent pool. But only 31% said their organization is actually effective at it.
The biggest barriers they named:
- Veterans not self-identifying when they apply
- Not knowing where to post jobs to reach veterans
- Trouble connecting with local veteran talent
- Trouble matching military experience to civilian job requirements
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for veterans rose from 3.0% to 3.5% in 2025, according to BLS. The talent is there. Most of the time, the hiring process is what’s getting in the way.
6 Simple Moves to Hire Veterans Well
1. Translate the experience, not just the title
“Ground combat squad leader” might not mean much to a civilian hiring manager. In plain terms, that person was responsible for the training, performance, and well-being of a team, plus equipment worth over a million dollars. That’s people management, training, and asset accountability, all in one line. Yet only 2% of HR professionals say their organization uses military skills translation tools.
- Ask AI. Paste in a military title with responsibility details and ask what civilian experience it lines up with. Or paste in your job description and ask which of the candidate’s skills match it. Just remember, AI is a tool to understand experience, not a test to screen people out.
- Want an official match? The Department of Labor’s free O*NET Military Crosswalk matches military job codes to civilian roles.
- Lean on the veterans already on your team. They can help you read a military resume and spot strong candidates.
2. Rethink your requirements
If your job post asks for a degree or a set number of years in a civilian role, a lot of great veterans get screened out before anyone talks to them. On The Fluent Conversation, Mike put it simply: “Good leaders are willing to underwrite different talent.”
- Ask for skills and results instead of credentials, like “experience leading a team of 10+” instead of “5 years of corporate management.”
- Say veterans are welcome. A simple “veterans encouraged to apply” line in your post helps.
- Make it easy to self-identify. Add an optional question to your application so you know who’s applying.
We share more on loosening rigid requirements in our blog on balancing speed and quality in hiring.
3. Post where veterans actually look
Not knowing where to post was one of the biggest barriers in SHRM’s survey. The good news? Some of the best options are free.
- Connect with your local American Job Center. Their Business Services team can help you post your jobs on the state job bank and find qualified veteran candidates.
- Host a SkillBridge intern. With DoD SkillBridge, service members can work with you for up to 180 days before they leave the military, and the Department of Defense keeps paying them.
- Host a Hiring Our Heroes fellow. Hiring Our Heroes places transitioning service members and military spouses in fellowships, at no cost to employers.
- Reach out to a nearby military base. Their transition office works with service members getting ready to leave the military.
- Ask the veterans on your team for referrals. They know people, and they know who’d be a great fit.
(P.S. There are paid veteran job boards out there too. But if you’d rather not manage all of this yourself, that’s what we’re here for. Hoops can help find, post, and recruit for your roles, so you get great veteran candidates without the extra legwork!)
4. Interview for what they’ve actually done
Swap a couple of generic questions for real situations: a team they led, a mission that went sideways, a problem they had to solve with no playbook. Not sure what to ask? Have AI help draft a few situation-based questions from your job description.
Mike’s advice to transitioning veterans is to “be really clear about how you can create value,” so help them get there by asking what they’d bring to this role.
5. Put a simple plan in place
It doesn’t need to be complicated, but it helps a lot. In SHRM’s survey, 65% of HR professionals at organizations with formal veteran hiring programs said they’re effective at hiring veterans, compared to just 21% at organizations without one. Name one point person, pick one or two places to post starting out, and keep track of who you hire.
6. Give them a real runway
Any career change comes with a learning curve, and going from the military to civilian work is no different. Usually it’s the business side that’s new, like budgets, pricing, and how the company actually makes money.
Mike’s been there. When he left the Army, the best advice he got was to dig into the financials and learn how to price things out. He went on to earn his MBA at NYU on nights and weekends, which he says “set me up for outstanding transitional success.”
That’s where what Mike calls “tactical patience” comes in. You “need to have the patience to let the situation develop and to let the people on the ground, the people closest to the action, figure it out and take advantage of it.”
- Pair them with a mentor who can explain the business side, like how you make money and how decisions get made.
- Have a simple first-90-days plan ready, with clear expectations and one point person. Our blog on why nearly half of senior hires fail shows what that looks like.
- Check in at 30, 60, and 90 days to catch problems while they’re still easy to fix.
Don’t Forget Military Spouses and Families
Military spouses and family members are some of the most overlooked talent out there. They move often with their service member, which can mean resume gaps or short stints that have nothing to do with their ability.
- Don’t penalize the moves. Ask about gaps instead of assuming the worst.
- Offer flexibility where you can. Remote or hybrid roles let them keep their careers through a move.
- Look into the Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Fellowship, which places military spouses with employers at no cost.
Make It More Than One Day a Year
A thank-you on Veterans Day is a great start. A real plan for hiring veterans, military spouses, and their families is how you show up for them the other 364 days.
And you don’t have to do it all at once. Start small this week: add “veterans encouraged to apply” to your next job post, post it on your state job bank, and use AI to translate the next military resume that comes in.
If you’d like help building a hiring plan that reaches veterans, or finding great people for your hardest-to-fill roles, that’s exactly what we do.
Let’s talk: Schedule a Free Discovery Call with Hoops
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