How does the job you already did work for veterans?

You already did technical work. Your résumé just says it in a language nobody outside the military reads. You did the work for this already. You hold it. The only question left is whether you claim it before it lapses.

Are veterans doing well in technical work?

41% of the federal IT management workforce is veterans, and post-9/11 veterans are over-represented in computer and mathematical occupations by 2.1 percentage points. Veteran unemployment was 3.5% in 2025 against 4.2% for non-veterans.

The job you already did: a veteran's route into technical work — One Hundred Eighty Days

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Already earned

A service member in uniform — licensed illustration, not a person in the statistic. Already Cleared — One Hundred Eighty Days — your mos. — A service member in uniform. Licensed illustration — not a person in the statistic. Photo: Pexels

13% of enlisted and 21% of officers held a technical military occupation. Signal. Cyber. Avionics. Radar. Cryptologic. Intelligence analysis. Network operations. Electronic maintenance.

You ran those systems in worse conditions than any office. Then you wrote it down in a language no hiring manager reads.

That is the gap. Not your skill. Your vocabulary.

A screening system searching for "network administration" does not match "25B." A manager reading "maintained operational readiness of tactical communications systems" does not hear "ran the network."

Fix it three ways. Run your MOS, rating or AFSC through the O*NET and CareerOneStop crosswalk tools. Rewrite every line in civilian nouns. Systems, not platforms. Users, not personnel. Uptime, not readiness.

Then get the certification. A credential is the translation layer a machine can read.

This route works. Post-9/11 veterans hold computer and mathematical jobs at 2.1 percentage points above non-veterans, and veterans are 41% of federal IT management. Thousands of people walked this path ahead of you. Nobody put up signs.

You did the work for this already. You hold it. The only question left is whether you claim it before it lapses.

Where veterans already stand

Measure	Veterans	Non-veterans
Unemployment rate, 2025	3.5%	4.2%
Share of the civilian labour force, 2025	4.9%	—
Share of the civilian labour force, 2000	10.5%	—
Federal IT management workforce	41%	59%
Living in rural areas	24.1%	19.3%

Unemployment and labour force: BLS Employment Situation of Veterans, 2025 annual averages — BLS notes the 2025 figures are 11-month averages excluding October and are not strictly comparable with other years. Federal IT: OPM FedScope, September 2024, via Pew Research Center. Rural: Census Bureau, Veterans in Rural America, 2011–2015 American Community Survey, against the 2010 Census rural share of the total population.

What you have already earned

Post-9/11 GI Bill — 36 months, up to 48. Covers certification exams, apprenticeships and non-degree technical training, not only college. va.gov.
VR&E, Chapter 31 — a 10% service-connected rating qualifies, and there is no time limit if you were discharged on or after 1 January 2013. va.gov.
VET TEC 2.0 — technology training, 4,000 seats a year, no prior VA education benefit required. va.gov.
SkillBridge — your last 180 days of service, with commander approval. skillbridge.osd.mil.
WIOA priority of service — veterans and eligible spouses go first, by law, in every county. CareerOneStop.
Veterans' preference and special appointing authorities in federal hiring. USAJOBS.

Rates, seat counts and eligibility rules change. These are the doors; verify current terms with VA or DoD before counting on a number.

All eight routes The campaign

Sources. Veteran population and rural share: US Census Bureau, Veterans Day Facts for Features 2025 (2024 ACS) and Veterans in Rural America: 2011–2015; occupational over-representation and technical military occupations: Census Bureau, The Employment, Earnings, and Occupations of Post-9/11 Veterans. Unemployment and labour force: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation of Veterans, 2025 annual averages — BLS notes these are 11-month averages excluding October and are not strictly comparable with other years, and we pass that caveat on rather than dropping it. Federal IT workforce: Office of Personnel Management FedScope, September 2024, via Pew Research Center. Benefit terms — Post-9/11 GI Bill, VET TEC 2.0 and VR&E: VA, current as published; SkillBridge: Department of Defense. Security clearance population: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FY2019 Annual Report — dated explicitly because it is the most recent public aggregate and is several years old; clearance compensation figures are a recruiting-industry survey, not a government source, and are labelled as such. County classifications: USDA Economic Research Service; labour markets: 2020 Commuting Zones. County counts are computed from the committed county file at build time, not asserted. Benefit amounts and eligibility rules change — verify with VA or DoD before planning around a number on this page.

Photographs on this campaign are licensed stock used as illustration — not portraits of the people inside the federal counts. Full credits: CREDITS.md.