Capitalizing on strengths and minimizing weaknesses of veterans in civilian employment interviews: Perceptions of interviewers and veteran interviewees

ABSTRACT

Like all job applicants, veterans have to face the ubiquitous employment interview and pass this potential hurdle to civilian sector employment. So, because of the uniqueness of transitioning from the military to civilian employment, the present paper sought to identify perceived interviewing strengths and weaknesses of veteran interviewees from (a) the perspective of civilian sector human resource professionals (i.e. hiring personnel) with experience interviewing veterans (Study 1, five focus groups, N = 14), and (b) veterans (Study 2, N = 93). Qualitative analysis of the focus group transcripts resulted in the emergence of two theme categories: (1) veteran interviewee strengths and (2) veteran interviewee weaknesses. This information guided the development of a 10-item survey that was completed by 93 veterans (Study 2). In its totality, the results (from both Study 1 and Study 2) indicated that communication of soft skills, confidence, and professionalism were perceived to be strengths that veterans displayed during civilian employment interviews, and conversely, the ineffective translation and communication of relevant technical skills acquired in the military, use of military jargon, and nervousness were considered to be weaknesses. Recommendations to capitalize on the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses are presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Veteran employment interview strengths
• veteran employment interview weaknesses
• civilian employment interview
• interviewer perceptions
• veteran interviewee perceptions

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Veteran Research and Support Center at Texas A&M University and Col. Gerald “Jerry” L. Smith, USMC (Ret.), SGM Donald Freeman, USA (Ret.) for their assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of Study 2 are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2024.2356498.

Notes

1. There was a total of 15 focus group participants but one participant was excluded from the final analysis because they were the only participant who attended their session and also admitted that they did not have considerable experience hiring veterans.

2. As previously noted, the focus groups were run during the COVID pandemic (i.e., January to March 2021).

3. The preponderance of comments were along the lines of “thanks for doing this work.”

4. f = frequency of mentions in response to each question asked.

5. Texas A&M University.

6. There were two closed questions (“Are you currently serving in the Armed Forces in any capacity;” “Which branch(es) did you serve in the Armed Forces?”) for which participants had to select a response from a list, and two open/constructed-response questions (“What was your first year of service?;” “What was your last year of service?”).

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation [Award #1956021].