Military Experience in Civilian Job Postings: A 100-Posting Review
Sergeant TAP reviewed 100 current public job postings across 10 military-heavy U.S. markets. Only 6 explicitly said military experience could count toward the qualifications, although 34 allowed some form of equivalent experience.
Sergeant TAP reviewed 100 current public job postings across 10 military-heavy U.S. markets to examine a narrow question: when employers describe experience requirements, do they actually tell veterans that military experience counts?
The review found:
84 of 100 postings included a numeric experience requirement or preference.
34 of 100 provided an explicit equivalent or in-lieu pathway.
7 of 100 explicitly invited another transferable background.
Only 6 of 100 explicitly recognized military experience in the qualification language.
28 of 100 used veteran or protected-veteran language without saying military experience could satisfy the qualifications.
This was an exploratory sample, not a national prevalence study, and the findings should not be interpreted as evidence that employers do not value veterans or intentionally exclude military experience.
The narrower conclusion is more practical: employers may be willing to consider equivalent experience while still leaving military applicants to determine for themselves whether their experience is what the employer means.
The fix is not lower standards. It is clearer standards.