A study done by Redeployable and Hire Heroes found which jobs best match veterans’ skillsets and which jobs are most resistant to automation.
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — John Pyon served in the Air Force for eight years, largely coordinating aid missions to other countries and mobilizing other servicemembers.
“I was a logistics readiness officer,” Pyon said. “I basically was the logistics operations who coordinated transporting people and cargo through our cargo ships and airplanes.”
Pyon was stationed in Charleston, SC, Osan Air Base in South Korea, and served as an Air Force ROTC instructor at the University of Georgia. He also helped coordinate a presidential visit to the base in Korea. In his life after service, Pyon thought he would have an easy transition finding a job. However, he ran into several roadblocks that prohibited him from finding that next mission.
“I kept getting rejected, one after the other,” Pyon said. “I had over 100 job applications. Life after the service was exciting and frightening at the same time. Exciting because a lot of opportunities for a new chapter in my life, frightening because it was a new chapter and I didn’t know what the conclusion would be at the end of the chapter.”
Pyon eventually connected with Hire Heroes USA, a national nonprofit based in Alpharetta that helps veterans and their families with training, coaching and resume building. Chief program officer Charlotte Creech said veterans bring marketable skills from the military into the workplace. They can help address issues like cybersecurity threats, healthcare shortages and the need for more data infrastructure.
“It’s really about continuing the mission, that passion and dedication for service beyond the military experience,” Creech said. “So when we can align those skills with purpose-driven work where the individual knows they’re contributing value to the workplace, that’s where we see great success occur.”
Creech said employers shouldn’t just be looking at hiring veterans as a charitable effort but as a strategic business advantage. Hire Heroes USA partnered with tech company Redeployable to find out which jobs match veterans’ skillsets best and how resistant those jobs were to automation and artificial intelligence.
“AI is really great at completing tasks, but it still struggles with judgment, ambiguity, complexity and leadership decision-making,” Creech said. “Military service trains our servicemembers to operate in really complex, high-stakes environment often times under high pressure, quick decision-making, and so those skills are things AI can’t replace. We invest billions of dollars in training our service members to be the most elite and career-ready workforce, so it’s doing a disservice to all of us if we don’t then help them translate those skills to the civilian workforce.”
Redeployable CEO Ben Read said the two entities released a report tracking changing trends in the job market, how artificial intelligence is playing a role and what work might match veterans’ skillsets best. Read, who served in the British Army for 12 years as an aircraft engineer, co-founded Redeployable to help veterans transition back into civilian life with defined career and life opportunities.
“So we also allow the veterans in this case to try roles before they apply for a role,” Read said. “We help those individuals get to a baseline and provide recommendations based on the data of where you could potentially go over time based on your skills and preferences. We look at the shift in the economy in terms of jobs and where is the opportunity.”
Read said jobs involving critical infrastructure and skilled trades are growing. According to Hire Heroes USA and Redeployable’s report, there are six sweet spots that fit veterans’ skillsets best: cybersecurity, healthcare, skilled trades, engineering, program and operations management, and supply chain and logistics. These jobs are believed to be AI-proof, or more resistant to automation.
John Pyon just signed on with Cintas as a service manager, months after leaving the Air Force. He and his wife are expecting, and now a new mission awaits.
“Most veterans, all their life has been military,” Pyon said. “Once they get out and go into the civilian workforce, they’re starting a whole new chapter in their life. It was good to have someone who understood military terminology and knew how to translate that to terminology that civilian companies could understand. Just be patient and ask for help. A lot of these skills they can add so much value into the workforce, they just need someone to help them through the process.”