Transitioning Enlisted Military Veterans Seeking Civilian Employmen

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the lived experiences of enlisted military veterans living in the United States, seeking employment in the civilian workforce after transitioning from active duty military service. This study also explored the enlisted military veterans' perceived effectiveness of the redesigned Department of Defense Transition Assistance program (DoD TAP) in assisting enlisted military veterans to find employment that matched the experience and skills gained while serving in the military. Twelve enlisted military veterans from the Army, Air Force, and Navy, in the enlisted ranks from E-3 to E-9 with military service ranging from 2 1/2 years to 33 years, provided their perceptions and experiences of the challenges encountered in seeking civilian employment after transitioning from active duty service. Networking with veterans, communicating on Facebook veteran pages and a snowball sampling technique resulted in the selection of the 12 enlisted military veterans for the study. The approach for collecting data was through a semi-structured interview. The NVivo for MAC software (QSR International, 2015) facilitated the coding and analysis of the participant's interview responses. Five primary themes emerged from the patterns found in the analysis of the data: (a) leadership support, (b) realistic expectations, (c) access to hiring managers, (d) satisfaction with pay in civilian jobs, and (e) adjustment to the civilian culture. These findings contribute to the literature by identifying the various challenges experienced by enlisted military veterans during the transition and the shortfalls of the DoD TAP. The five findings of this study demonstrate the importance of this study and the need to explore the best strategies to assist enlisted military veterans during the transition from serving our country to entering the civilian workforce.