More employers are actively recruiting veterans, but what are they looking for?

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Debra Auerbach

This year’s Veteran’s Day may find more veterans with job offers in hand. According to CareerBuilder’s annual Veteran’s Day Hiring survey, 2 in 5 employers are actively recruiting U.S. veterans for their organization over the next 12 months, up from 37 percent last year. Additionally, more than half of employers have hired a U.S. veteran in the past year.

Forty-eight percent of employers pay more attention to applications submitted by U.S. veterans, up from 46 percent last year. Sixty-eight percent of employers say if they have two equally qualified candidates for a job, and one is a U.S. veteran, they are more likely to hire the veteran, on par with last year. However, while veteran hiring initiatives have gained momentum, approximately 2 in 5 veterans (41 percent) still feel underemployed or say they’re working in a low-paying job.

Top skills to highlight
In addition to functional skills and accomplishments, veterans, especially those who feel underemployed or are in low-paying jobs, should highlight their soft skills when marketing themselves to employers. In particular, employers look for these skills that members of the armed forces typically bring to organizations after leaving active duty:

Ability to work as a team (62 percent)
Disciplined work approach (59 percent)
Respect and integrity (58 percent)
Perform under pressure (52 percent)
Leadership skills (51 percent)

Industries hiring veterans
Employers say veterans are being recruited across a wide variety of functions, including:

CareerBuilder is partnering with RallyPoint, a professional military network that aims to help service members and veterans lead more successful and fulfilling lives. Learn more about this partnership, and see how it will connect RallyPoint’s more than 1.3 million members to the right job opportunities from CareerBuilder’s network of hundreds of thousands of employers.