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Upon discharge, US service members experience an instantaneous immersion back into civilian life. One of the most challenging aspects of that reimmersion is the reentry/entry into the civilian workforce. As such, it is necessary to study the returning veteran's employment experience when considering the veteran's civilian reintegration. The purpose of this study was to analyze and evaluate the returning veteran's civilian employment experience and to identify challenges faced by the veteran in the civilian onboarding experience.

This study is a qualitative analysis in which 27 military veterans were interviewed about their experience with civilian reemployment. The results of the interviews were compiled, analyzed and grouped by common theme. This study explains some of the major issues confronted by the newly separated veteran and discusses how those challenges may influence job satisfaction and job performance.

The analysis identified the following three main themes that posed challenges to the veteran to civilian employment transition: civilian employer’s military job knowledge deficit, veteran anxiety with civilian employer’s lack of clearly defined new-hire processes and civilian employer misunderstanding of veteran compensation, benefits and family involvement expectations.

This study is beneficial to scholars in as much as it will help to more clearly identify literature gaps, provide direction on emerging research concepts, add to the existing literature on the veteran to civilian transitions and connect research areas that have not yet been adequately studied. Future research would be well served to follow a similar program of research but by employing different research methods in order to address the limitations outlined above and further support the findings of this research. Specifically, future research should sample across a wider set of individuals as study participants (time since discharge, age, military rank at time of separation, reserve status, etc.). By doing this, future researchers may be able to determine how perceptions change over time and with regard to military experience. A second area of future research may be to conduct related research based on civilian employment opportunities and qualifications. Specific areas of study to be considered should be focused primarily on the macro issues such as military leadership and translating military experiences and skill sets to civilian contexts. Unlike other findings in this research, these two areas cannot be affected at the organizational level, and as such require concept exploration and clarity.

This study provides guidance and direction for veterans and employers alike by outlining areas that may be challenging for new-hire military veterans and bringing to light areas where the civilian onboarding experience can improve to better accommodate veterans. Further, this study identifies areas that directly or indirectly contribute to high veteran turnover rates and ultimately high veteran unemployment rates.

This original quantitative study conducted by the author specifically identifies several areas in the veteran to civilian employment transition that pose challenges for the returning veteran. All data for this study were gathered and analyzed using first-hand face-to-face interviews and established data analysis methods by the researcher.

This study aims to interrogate the nature and characteristics of military entrepreneurship among veterans of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Through the application of case study methodology, the study gathered data that reveal some distinguishing features of veteran entrepreneurship in Nigeria.

Veterans’ military background and military training appear to have both facilitating and inhibiting effects on veteran entrepreneurship in Nigeria. The study also reveals that veteran entrepreneurship though it may have some distinguishing features, but does not differ significantly to civilian entrepreneurship. Veterans’ entrepreneurs confront the same challenges as their civilian counterparts.

The result provides valuable knowledge for academics/researchers researching success and failure factors in the veteran entrepreneurship field.

This study investigates the leadership tenets informing veterans’ work as school leaders. Drawing on 15 interviews and surveys with military veterans working as educational leaders, the study relies on Stake’s (2006) case study method to substantiate assertions that veterans: 1) come into education without the support of a transitional program, 2) are committed to taking care of their people, 3) have a strong belief in service, 4) are influenced by leadership that they have witnessed, and 5) are equipped to manage delegating and accountability by virtue of military experiences.

Many veterans struggle with the civilian world and the loss of identity associated with leaving the service. This research investigates the Building Heroes Charity's role in assisting service leavers transitioning to civil employment, in the United Kingdom (UK) and what can be learnt from the training and support.

An exploratory case study design was chosen to investigate the transition from military to civilian employment. The case study consisted of 12 in-depth interviews consisting of nine veterans, who had attended the Building Heroes courses and three course tutors.

The Building Heroes Charity does have an important role to fulfill in the transition of military personnel from the service to civilian work. There are positive outcomes that complement the work done by the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), but there still needs to be recognition that the needs of veterans do differ by age, transferability of competencies and the financial resources available.

The limitations of this research are the sample size is small and the majority of the veterans are from the Army. This is mostly because the Army is the largest of the services.

Though there is limited research into the employment of veterans, there is evidence to demonstrate that veterans are more likely to suffer from depression and potential homelessness than nonservice personnel. This research is unique in investigating the role of a charity whose main purpose is to improve the employability of veterans by reducing the competency skills gap between the military and construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of veteran status on civilian wages and on retirement age through employing individual-level data.

Instrumental variable (IV) estimation specifications show that, contrary to public perception, veteran status has a statistically significant positive impact on an individual’s civilian wage and thus helps him retire earlier than his non-veteran counterpart.

Moreover, the wage premium effect largely holds for less-educated men; however, for highly educated men, military service has adverse effects on their subsequent wages, and thus, on their retirement age. In line with this result, the effects of veteran status on retirement age largely hold for the relatively less-educated group.

This is the first finding to shed light on the link between veteran status and the decision to retire. This work is also first attempt to explore relationship between compulsory military service and subsequent civilian labor market performance, using the Korean individual-level data via relevant IV estimation methodology.

The transition from military service to civilian employment is one of the most important factors related to post-service well-being and success. It is also one of the biggest challenges. The majority of veterans describe finding a job as the greatest challenge in transitioning to civilian life. While research has demonstrated a number of contributory factors related to difficulty in finding employment, a conceptual framework for understanding such challenges has yet to be proposed. Military transition theory describes the progression through which service members’ transition out of the military and illustrates how certain factors may create susceptibility to negative transition outcomes. The purpose of this chapter is to utilize the military transition theory to provide a foundation for understanding the factors related to successful transition to the civilian workplace after military separation.

Company programs to hire military veterans and Olympic athletes represent a convergence of responsibilities, interests, and opportunities for human resources (HR) and public relations (PR) staffs. These employment initiatives often reflect corporate social responsibility (CSR) values as well as business goals. This chapter explores why companies create special hiring programs, how they are integrated into an HR function, and the role of PR in communicating about the program as part of a socially responsible mission. Though distinctive in their roles – HR in managing corporate staffing and PR in shaping a company’s image and promoting its brands – these two functions can jointly amplify the value and impact of special hiring programs.

The purpose of this paper is to first consider how veterans use talk to shape interpretations of personal and social identify. Second, this paper seeks to gain an understanding of how veterans see themselves in a civilian world, their ability to re-conceptualise and realign their perspective on life to support their transition in to a civilian world.

Underpinned by Ricoeur’s theory of narrative identity, the work provides a qualitative analysis data from coaching interviews with five veterans.

The findings revealed the on-going legacy of military life and how its distinctiveness and belief centred on kinship shapes personal identity and the way they see their civilian world. The work sheds light on to the benefits of this Ricoeur’s self-reflexive approach and how it can be used to provide a deeper insight in to the nature of personal transitions and how narrative can be used to expose complexities of the narratives of personal history and meaning as the narrator becomes both the seeker and what is sought.

The work reinforces the value of Ricoeur’s self-reflexive approach identifying narrative mediating between two “poles” of identity and the act of mimesis; prefiguration, configuration and refiguration as veterans project stories of their world and their place within it.

The paper provides new insights in to the importance of narrative identify broadening its potential application with engagement across diverse communities, thereby providing depth and rigour of its conceptual understanding of personal identify. The work further provides insights in to the challenges facing veterans to integrate within a civilian society.

A significant minority of veterans have poor mental health outcomes but their needs are not always well managed by the NHS. The purpose of this paper is to explore veterans’ experiences of NHS mental healthcare in Norfolk and Suffolk to identify ways of improving services.

Interviews were conducted with 30 veterans. Template analysis was undertaken to explore key themes in the interview transcripts.

Participants were reluctant to seek help but were more likely to engage with a veteran-specific service. Those whose symptoms were military related reported better experiences when accessing treatment that was military sensitive.

This was a local study and the findings do not necessarily reflect the views of the wider veteran community. Most participants who received military sensitive treatment were referred to the study by NHS providers, which could account for their positive feedback.

The development of dedicated mental health services may encourage more veterans to seek support, helping to improve patient outcomes. There is a need for further research to determine the effectiveness of dedicated services and identify how they should be deployed.

Where academic interest has generally centred on the aetiology of mental health conditions within the military, this study focussed upon service user experience. The findings contributed to NHS England’s recent decision to extend its network of dedicated services in 12 areas of the country to cover veterans across England from April 2017.