“The best way to capitalize on one’s combat experience during a job interview is to explain to the interviewer how combat has made you more self aware as a person,” said Hudson. “Elaborate on the teamwork that is necessary for combat arms to operate effectively and efficiently.”
When an actual veteran is faced with a “veteran” of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare”, cavalier questions about killing can be expected. “When I transitioned to the civilian world, I was shocked by the amount of people who think its acceptable to ask combat veterans to describe their combat experience or to ask combat veterans how many friends they had that were killed overseas.” Hudson’s advice in a job interview: “If they ask if you have ever killed someone, look them square in the eye and say, ‘Yep (even if you haven’t), and I’m itching to do it again. Who are your biggest competitors?'” The effect is three-fold: to demonstrate an unwillingness to dignify foolish questions, to turn the topic back to the company, and to do this without coming off as too brusque or incensed.
Once a veteran gets the job, things will be complicated for a while. “I was also shocked to learn that many civilians will accept failure because of emotional weakness,” said Hudson. “Mental toughness in the workplace is often overlooked because most workplaces cater to the mentally weak—’the squeaky wheel gets the grease’—the exact opposite of the military.” A veteran should be prepared for this while also dealing with another common misconception: that basic training is how the actual military works, and that people end instructions with Hollywood phrases like “that’s an order!” or preface conversations with superiors with “permission to speak freely.”
These are tough times in the job market, and it feels unpatriotic (it’s certainly illegal, anyway) for employers to judge negatively a veteran who wants a new job. Because employers are often coming from a place of ignorance and misunderstanding, as opposed to hostility or philosophic disagreement, hope is not lost for the job-seeking veteran. It will, sadly, take patience and a careful willingness to teach on the part of the veteran, and in the longer term, a broader understanding by the American public of what our fighting men and women do beyond the cartoonish antics of video game characters. It will take an effort on America’s part to come to grips with what war means, what it demands, and what it instills in the men and women who temporarily take up arms to wage it.
