No veteran plans to quit their first civilian job in a year. Your plan is to nail that job offer, land with a great team, then succeed and succeed and succeed. Veterans like you plan to stay.
Sure, your Transition Assistance Program (TAP) instructor probably warned you about that off-cited 2016 D'Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) study that revealed 44% of veterans leave their first civilian job in the first year and between 66%-80% depart by the second year.
But that is not going to happen to you. That is a statistic for other people. That is a statistic for the uncool, the unfocused, the undisciplined, the uninformed. Not for you.
Until it is you. Then it is devastating.
Why Is Veteran Retention So Hard?
As the transition master coach for Military.com's Veteran Employment Project, I wonder about this persistent phenomenon around retention every time I hear about it from a veteran, a spouse, an employer or a recruiter.
These people tell me veterans quit because of the money, a better offer, the brutal commute, the travel, a lack of leadership, a desire for remote work, etc. Still, there seems to be something lost in transition. I mean, translation.
That is why I was so glad to meet Rob Sarver and Alex Gendzier, authors of "Warrior to Civilian: The Field Manual for the Hero's Journey". Their focus is not on maximizing the impact of your LinkedIn profile, writing a checklist resume or any of the other steps you take to start your transition in 2025.
They focus instead on the whole invisible journey of the warfighter and spouse during transition, learned from more than 200 interviews with veterans, spouses and experts and five years of research and collection of data. This isn't just a to-do list. It is a “to-be” list and a “to work on forever” list.
"The emotional and psychological aspects of your transition are critical," Sarver, a former Navy SEAL, said in a recent interview. "You are guided by things that are unseen, of which you are not always aware."
Those unseen factors are exactly what lead veterans to quit their first job. Here are five factors that Sarver and Gendzier identified to explain many veterans’ difficulty in transitioning to civilian jobs.
1. Preparation Gap
When active-duty military members are told to start their transition two years before they leave the service, they think this means that they need to get their Department of Veterans Affairs claim complete, put together a resume and get started with job searches on CareerBuilder, Indeed and LinkedIn. That is not the preparation required to make a good transition.
Instead, you need to train for getting out of the military with the same intensity you trained to get into the military. You need to train to be a civilian. You need to train to lead civilians. This can't be learned by scrolling online. Mentors, models and coaches are needed to identify skill gaps and the way forward. It may take 100 cups of coffee with those who have made the transition to get your bearings.
2. Transferable Skills Trap
Veterans are told they have transferable skills that employers want. According to multiple studies, this is true. "Veterans constitute a proven pool of talent, with track records of success and a list of skills and talents that can be harnessed for companies, such as leadership, bias for action responsibility and accountability and many others -- unlike most other job applicants," said Gendzier, co-author and a partner in a top law firm involved in veterans affairs.
Yet when hiring occurs, veteran job recruiters are focused on speed, not fit. "They seek to place veterans into jobs quickly, paying insufficient attention to actual transferable skills and how they can be harnessed better with proper training and coaching," Gendzier said. "This lack of integration often means veterans suffer higher turnover rates and companies suffer other hidden costs."
So what's the fix? Veterans who get coaching about their skills and experience often have a smoother landing and find a more fulfilling job.
3. Job Expectations Gap
Veterans often have an unrealistic expectation about what it means to work in a civilian job -- how work is assigned, how work is accomplished, how to excel in the new environment, how long it will take to adapt. The civilian world does not operate on military values. Even for the smartest, most adaptable person, this gap can make the first civilian job far more confounding than expected.
The same is true for the employer. "There is also an expectations gap between what the employers expect a veteran hire to be like," Gendzier said. "Companies often do not understand how to recruit, hire and integrate veterans. Only 7% of U.S. companies have a veteran program, only 60% of the Fortune 500 companies do and most programs could be drastically improved."
What can veterans do? Do your research about employers, find veterans who work at the companies you are interested in and assess the opportunity before you land.
4. Identity Gap
Veterans understand that they need to reassess and redefine their identity when they leave the service. They think this means that when they land a new job, they are not supposed to use military vocabulary or "wear their rank." So they don't. (Or they at least try not to.)
That isn't quite enough of a metamorphosis from their military identity to their civilian identity, however. Veterans must go through a period where they feel like neither one thing nor the other. This identity gap emerges as a nagging feeling that you are stuck in an unfulfilling role without a sense of what matters or how you are supposed to fit in. No wonder you want to quit.
The actual shift in identity may be difficult to attain in the short term. "It takes time. You can't sit on the couch and wait for it to happen," Sarver said. "It can help to find a new way to talk about purpose. If you have the beginnings of a new sense of purpose, then you have something to hang on to when you have a crap day."
5. Integration Gap
Veterans often cite difficulty adapting to a workplace's culture as a top challenge -- and a reason to quit their first civilian job. Companies don't know how to hire and integrate veterans onto the existing team. The data about which processes work is scant.
Again, coaching as part of the onboarding process may be a helpful part of your new career. You might get this kind of coaching just by asking for it as a benefit when you accept the job offer. Many companies have internal coaches and mentors or use a coaching service. It is best if it happens over time as your new job unfolds.
The journey of a warfighter to veteran status is hard and fast and brutal. The journey of the veteran to their new civilian mission is slower, deeper and more complex than you imagined. Go ahead and take the time you need to move forward. Speak with those who have been on the same path. There is both purpose and identity out here for you. Keep moving forward.
Find the Right Veteran Job
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