Despite their discipline, leadership experience and teamwork, veterans often find it challenging to land civilian roles that recognize their full potential. Career coaching can play an important role in helping veterans highlight their strengths, navigate new career paths and unlock greater opportunities, including advancement to leadership positions.
Veterans Offer More Than Many Job Seekers, but Face Career Challenges
Military veterans typically possess highly sought-after attributes like resilience, problem-solving skills and adaptability. However, they’re often overlooked for management roles in the civilian workforce. So much so that, according to Forbes, veterans are being drastically overlooked by civilian companies, “Veterans, who bring nearly double the work experience of nonveterans, are only half as likely to reach director or vice president leadership roles in their civilian careers.” Many veterans can find it difficult to translate their military experience into civilian job requirements, which can limit the opportunities available to them. Career coaching bridges this gap by helping veterans effectively communicate their experience and demonstrate its value to employers in many industries.
Career coaches who specialize in helping veterans understand the unique challenges they face and offer guidance on ways to position themselves as strong candidates for leadership roles. By focusing on how skills like leadership, project management and critical thinking are directly applicable to business environments, veterans can confidently step into career paths that fully utilize their capabilities.
So You're Out of the Military...Now What?
Career Coaching Helps Veterans Identify and Develop Key Skills
For veterans who want to progress in their civilian careers, especially in management or leadership, career coaching can be a valuable resource. Coaching sessions help veterans identify which skills to highlight and which new ones to develop. Often, veterans have skills that translate well into business, such as team leadership, strategic planning and decision-making. Career coaches can help them assess where these strengths fit into civilian roles and which additional skills might be needed to reach their career goals.
Whether it’s mastering new technology, developing industry-specific knowledge or strengthening communication skills, career coaching provides veterans with a targeted approach to skill-building. Coaches also offer practical advice on using these skills to secure better job opportunities and to position themselves for promotions and management roles, helping veterans to transition into the next stage of their careers confidently.
Career Coaching Builds Confidence and Prepares Veterans for Success
One of the best benefits of career coaching for veterans is the confidence it provides during a time of transition. After years in the military, adapting to civilian work environments can feel overwhelming. Career coaches offer support and guidance that builds confidence and prepares veterans for the demands of new roles and experiences. Coaches provide valuable tools, including job search strategies, interview preparation and guidance on networking, all of which help veterans make meaningful career connections and discover rewarding opportunities.
By equipping veterans with a clear understanding of how their skills align with civilian roles, career coaching empowers them to launch or relaunch careers that reflect their experience and ambition. For veterans looking to move up to leadership roles, this coaching is especially valuable in navigating civilian workplace culture and positioning themselves for success.
pepelwerk Can Help You Connect With Career Coaches
If you’re looking to get hired as you transition from military to civilian careers, pepelwerk offers a unique job-matching system that connects businesses with candidates based on skills rather than traditional resumes. It’s a perfect fit for military veterans with a large number of translatable skills that may lack work experience at a business or company. pepelwerk also offers career coaching sessions you can take advantage of to gain many of the benefits mentioned above.
