Submitting application after application and hearing nothing back has long been one of the most frustrating parts of looking for a job after military service. But Tim Best says something has changed.
After decades working in veteran employment, the RecruitMilitary CEO says the frustration he hears from job seekers today is different, and more intense, than at any other point in his career.
“There’s a lot of frustration more than I’ve ever seen in my career from job seekers around the job search right now,” Best said.
Best, a former Army special operations helicopter pilot, recently sat down with Military.com to discuss what he is seeing in the employment market and how veterans and transitioning service members can navigate a job-search process that many increasingly believe isn’t working.
The problem extends beyond veterans. But transitioning service members can face additional hurdles as they try to explain military experience to civilian employers while simultaneously navigating an employment system being transformed by technology.
Best says the answer isn’t simply submitting more applications. Veterans may need to fundamentally rethink how they search for work.
Why the Job Search Feels Different Now
RecruitMilitary recently brought together current and former job seekers for a focus group examining their experiences with artificial intelligence, employer technology and other tools used during their searches. Participants included civilians, veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses.
Best said the conversation became surprisingly emotional.
I would categorize it as generally people feel like the current process is broken, he said.
Job seekers have always complained about putting significant effort into applications and getting few responses. But Best said the current frustration goes beyond that.
“It’s not just that, oh, this is a lot of work for little results,” Best said. “It’s that it feels meaningless.”
Easy-apply technology can allow candidates to submit applications rapidly, but it can also leave recruiters sorting through hundreds or thousands of applicants, including many who aren’t qualified for the position.
Meanwhile, job seekers see postings that already have hundreds of applicants and wonder whether anybody will ever see their résumé.
“I’ve never been a big fan of easy apply in any in in in any ecosystem, because to me, easy apply means lots of applications means you’re burdening recruiters on the other end,” Best said. “How can they possibly do their jobs when there are hundreds or 1000s of applications that aren’t relevant?”
For veterans navigating that environment, Best recommends focusing on three things they can control.
1. Make AI Your Partner, Not Just Your Résumé Writer
Best believes artificial intelligence can be extraordinarily useful to transitioning service members but many aren’t taking full advantage of it.
Instead of treating an AI tool as something that simply rewrites a résumé or cover letter, he recommends giving it enough information to understand a veteran’s experience and career objectives.
Really treat the AI as your partner because it can be, Best said.
For example, a veteran could provide an AI tool with a résumé and a job description and ask it to analyze the match.
- Why am I qualified for this position? Why am I not?
- What skills does my résumé demonstrate that I’m failing to communicate?
- What would the ideal candidate look like, and how am I different?
- What might cause a recruiter to reject my application?
- What other job titles could match the skills I’ve accumulated in the military?
“What am I missing that you know about me that I could convey better to show that I am a fit?” Best said. “What’s the reason a recruiter would see my resume or application for this and say no? And what can I do about that?”
Best cautioned against treating AI as a replacement for a human career coach.
“It’s not a coach,” he said. “It’ll never be what a coach really is because, as you know, coaches provide so much more than just information.”
But as a tool for analyzing opportunities and challenging assumptions, he believes AI can help veterans become smarter applicants.
2. Stop Trying to Become a LinkedIn Influencer
Networking is hardly new advice for transitioning service members. Best’s advice is different: Stop assuming you need to build an entirely new network.
He is particularly wary of what he calls the “LinkedIn influencer approach” to military transition, which is the idea that service members need to accumulate followers and create a personal brand to successfully enter the civilian workforce.
“I really get nervous when they’re paying attention to the wrong approach to networking,” Best said. “You know, I’ll call it the LinkedIn influencer approach.”
LinkedIn can be extremely valuable, he said, but veterans may overlook the network they already possess. Family members. Friends. Neighbors. Former colleagues. People they served alongside who have already left the military.
“Most people already have that network in their family or in their friend groups,” Best said. “They never think about their cousins, their uncles, their aunts, their neighbors, people they served with that already got out.”
Once veterans exhaust those connections, LinkedIn can help expand the search. But Best recommends making requests specific.
Instead of contacting someone and vaguely asking for help transitioning, a veteran might say he or she has applied for a particular position and ask whether the contact knows the hiring manager and would be willing to make an introduction.
“Making it a layup is the key,” Best said. The easier and more specific the request, the easier it becomes for someone to help.
3. Treat the Job Search Like a Mission
Military members routinely spend weeks or months preparing for important missions. Best believes they should bring some of that same discipline to their civilian job searches.
He said too many job seekers approach the process intermittently by working on it for a while, stepping away and returning when they have time.
Instead, he recommends something familiar to military members: planning, developing courses of action and executing against the plan.
I know that sounds a little hokey, but I think a lot of people think of their job search as this thing they plug in and out of, Best said. “You know, let me spend a little bit of time on this, and I just don’t think that’s enough right now.”
That means identifying employers in the location where a veteran wants to live, understanding the positions they offer, researching how military skills correspond to those positions, submitting targeted applications and systematically working personal and professional networks.
The payoff isn’t necessarily just getting a job. It can be having choices.
“And the work that goes into that often is the reason for that,” Best said.
A Harder Search Doesn’t Mean There Aren’t Jobs
Best acknowledges that even highly prepared veterans can face difficult searches.
A senior military leader pursuing an executive position in a small geographic market, for example, will naturally have fewer opportunities than someone with highly transferable technical skills who is willing to move anywhere.
“Sometimes the person who is most prepared, the hardest working and is the most qualified can also be the person with the toughest job search because sometimes they’ve reached a level in their career where there are just fewer opportunities,” Best said.
The objective, he said, is to concentrate on what the job seeker can actually control.
Despite the frustration he sees in the current employment environment, Best remains optimistic about military talent. Employers still tell him they need people, he said, and many want to recruit veterans. The disconnect is often figuring out how military experience maps onto their needs.
“It is harder. and it can be frustrating,” Best said. “But what hasn’t changed is there’s still incredible opportunity out there.”
And the qualities service members develop while navigating constant change may become increasingly valuable as civilian workplaces contend with technological and organizational disruption.
“You’re needed more now than maybe ever,” Best said. “Actually, when we think about how quickly things are changing and the adaptability and change management skills you bring, it’s a natural match.”
The hiring process may be changing. Best’s advice to veterans is to change with it rather than disengage from it.
“It’s not a time to give up,” he said. “It’s a time to understand the problem.”
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