Report: Vets' job expectations may be unrealistic

To turn a phrase "Culture shock."

When we talk about evolution, and major events killing off species, it isn't the initial change that did it, it's when things change back that does.

Military vets are "Trained Labor" and many of us, when we get out are at Supervisory if not Management level. There's nothing wrong with an "Entry Level Position." Doctors have Entry Level Positions, but... getting knocked halfway down the ladder hurts.

We don't mind a few rungs back, but starting fresh to many of us is "an unrealistic expectation." During even 4 years, we have so much life experience packed in, it's just hard to compare or even put down on a resume. There's no ACE accreditation for what we really did, or what we actually know.

If you tell a former Cpl he's going to be the equivalent of a PFC again, and unlikely to advance for 4-8 years, he's likely to pass on that "opportunity" because it's just not rewarding in any way. Not financially, not mentally, not morally. It just becomes draining on all three counts.

And for those of us that do the same thing in civilian life as we do in the military, we sometimes have "unreasonable" expectations that this experience will carry over.

I had a supervisor once that wanted me to do a white paper on basic database normalization. I'm talking about the stuff you learn in your first UNDERGRAD course when you're taking database management. Nevermind I'd done database stuff in the years I was active duty, and worked it since I'd gotten off active duty.......in his eyes I was starting at ground zero.

I quickly left that job.

In my opinion the civilian workplaces evaluation of military experience is unrealistic.

Sure, an E5 isn't going to be the CTO of a company, but a lot of these places have no desire to even understand the level of training and leadership experience we have.

It's a wonder why you see all these Veterans start their own businesses that are hugely successful. You also see military friendly businesses who take the time to realize that a senior Captain in the Army truly has a boatload of experience that are doing well.

I see Soldiers who work for me who are great at the things they do, and I would hire them in an instant. HR people have no idea, on a lot of fronts. Many times they don't even understand the qualifications needed for a particular job opening. Employers are losing millions of qualified applicants because of that.

Employers need to get their heads out of their 4 point of contact!