Do you feel that people transitioning from the military see the career potential of their skills developed while in the military?

Enlisted infantry, definitely no. We had a first ever job summit the Army wanted to test out on us for guys ETS-ing and retiring. The only people that really had any shot at getting a job were the officers. Nearly all the job recruiters there wanted some form of higher education. I got so tired of explaining for my entire table that we were all infantry and none of us had any degrees to the job recruiters. You could tell as soon as it was mentioned that they were no longer interested in talking about their company. At one point an officer sat down at our table and every single job recruiter that stopped by talked to him exclusively while the rest of us just sat there. Even the senior enlisted leaders there were having trouble relating to these job recruiters. At the end of the day most of us just left feeling frustrated.

I found that upon entering the civilian world My Military Law Enforcement experience led right to a civilian Law Enforcement job. I also had a BS degree in Criminal justice which under the Quinn bill, in the Massachusetts General Laws, for educational incentive, gave Me a 20% increase in pay over and above regular pay. I found also My veteran status put Me right at the top of the hiring list. I was working for a Police Dept within a week of arriving home and two years later changed to another Department from which I retired. I found even at the Police Academy, We marched and drilled in a platoon formation, stood open ranks inspections, did PT, spent 1.5 weeks at the firing range. Shown below is a picture of My class from the Brookline Police Academy, Brookline, MA (i'm standing third from the left and in the center in the next to the top line in a dark blue uniform) This was the first time We had our Dept uniforms on for graduation, during training we all wore tan color uniforms, military creases in the shirts, with black ties and belts.

First, there is the set of skills the commercial sector would be interested in. Second, is selling those skills. So you need to ditch "Expert AN-SPA-Crap Mod 2 Whatever Maintenance" and substitute "Expert diesel, electronics, IT systems, etc". Put the leadership, teamwork, mission orientation icing on the top and it should be a dessert worth ordering. It's always been about recognition and then selling. Yes trigger pullers have a steeper climb over credentialed medical types, but Grandma always said the icing made the cake.