Career Transition Checklist for Veterans Seeking Tech Careers

Transitioning to a post-enlistment career is both exciting and challenging for veterans. There is so much opportunity to pursue different lines of work than you performed in the military, as well as chances to leverage the essential skills and abilities you developed serving our country.

At the same time, there are several unique contradictions that exist in the job market for veterans. On one hand, veterans are often more qualified for jobs than lifelong civilians:

• Veterans are 160% more likely to have higher education, including a master’s degree.
• Veterans are 39% more likely to be promoted, and be promoted earlier, than nonveterans.
• Veterans with bachelor’s degrees have almost 3x more job experience than nonveterans.

These statistics should add up to an incredible job market for veterans, right? Unfortunately, the reverse is true.

• 76% of top industries employ veterans at a lower rate.
• Veterans are 15.6% more likely to be underemployed, meaning working a job that doesn’t use all your available skills or provide you with the growth opportunities you want.

What is the disconnect? Sometimes this disparity is driven by the network gap. This means that despite better qualifications for any given job, you might not have the personal connections in your local network that make you known to employers.

Additionally, a majority of veterans want to do something totally different than they did in the military. This means a necessity to skill up quickly while also growing your network.

Luckily, both these issues can be tackled at once with applied strategic thinking. Eleven Fifty Academy has created the Civilian Tech Career Transition Checklist to help veterans decide which aspect of the tech industry to break into. We also share insights about the different educational pathways that can help you grow skills and your network at the same time, as well as community resources that you can leverage to grow professional connections outside the classroom.

Our tech bootcamp tuition is fully covered by the GI Bill® from all military branches. With a 75-85% graduation rate and a top-tier career services team, Eleven Fifty Academy has structured our programs with intention to help you transition to a high-paying and fulfilling civilian career in technology.

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As of October 16, 2012, ‘‘GI Bill’’ is a federallyregistered trademark owned by VA. The mark consists of standard characterswithout claim to any particular font, style, size, or color.