Leaving the Military: A guide to finding purpose after military transition to civilian life

The transition from military service to civilian work is never easy. 47% of post 9/11 veterans say that re-entering the civilian world was difficult. Issues like translating military skills into civilian terms, finding a network outside of the military, and crafting a civilian resume are only the tip of the iceberg. Finding work worth doing after the military is even more challenging.

The military gives you a sense of purpose and has been giving you specific roles and responsibilities. The civilian world is not so clear cut. What work even makes sense for you as an individual? How do you determine what would bring you fulfillment or be work you could enjoy day in and day out? Let’s dig into your guide for leaving the military for work worth doing.

Leaving the Military for Better Work

Nearly every service member getting out of the military is looking for their next steps, the answer to “what do I do with the rest of my life?” The problem is, it’s hard to know what goes into the idea of “better work.” Let’s break down what good work actually is so you can start answering your questions.

Better work reflects your values

Values are the essential priorities in your life. They help you make decisions and navigate a complex and challenging world. Your values show up in every decision you make. If you look back at why you signed up for the military in the first place, chances are you can identify some key values—like duty, financial security, leadership, teamwork, etc.

What are your top areas of value? Answering this question can give you an idea of what you want to see in your life after military service. To identify these values, try looking back at some of your biggest life decisions. Why did you choose what you did? What values might be sitting under the surface of your choices?

Once you have identified the values that matter most to you, it’s time to apply them to work and life after the military. When you align your life with your values, living them out and pursuing them each day, you are more likely to be satisfied and engaged with your work. What jobs, lifestyles, and experiences would align with these values?

Better work makes room for passion

Passion is not everything for your work. In fact, many have argued that passion does not need to be attached to work at all. Instead, pursuing your passions in your work can cause you to lose your passion entirely.

The better way to use passions in your work is combine them with places of value. What passions do you have that also reflect places of value in your life? These deeper passions can shed light on work worth doing after the military. In this way, your passions can be a part of your work but they are not the defining factor for what work you should do.

One additional alternative to this is to allow your work to provide resources to pursue passion. Your work should still reflect places of value so that you don’t burn out or hate your job, but your passions might be pursued outside of work in new and creative ways. Consider volunteering or activities outside of work that line up with what you love rather than forcing them into your daily work.

Better work uses your strengths

We love doing what we’re good at. Studies have shown that when people use their strengths in their daily work, they are up to 23% more engaged, have up to 18% greater performance, and are three times more likely to say they have a high quality of life. So how exactly do you identify your strengths?

There are a variety of online assessments, like the High5 Strengths assessment, that can show you your top areas of talent. As a certified strengths coach, I find that these assessments can be

a great help in getting clear on your abilities and translating your skills from military to civilian language.

Another way to determine your strengths is to look at the places where you feel you have excelled. What were you doing? What made you better than others at this work? What came naturally for you? Answering these questions can help you determine the patterns of skill and ability that you can look for in the job search.

Finding Purpose After Military Service

The military is great at giving you a sense of purpose. It directs you on what you should do, where you should live, and who you should work with. As you transition out of the military, you will be forced to make all of these decisions on your own. So how do you do it?

Step One: Get to know yourself.

It will be incredibly difficult to find purpose if you do not understand who you are first. This means digging into your values, passions, and strengths. It also means looking for places where you can be at your natural best.

Step Two: Get to know your interests.

This doesn’t mean writing down a list of job ideas. What we mean here is to look for things that you actually care about and more importantly, want to learn more about or be better at doing. When you intentionally learn or improve in an area, it shows that you were motivated to pursue it and that the end result had some kind of intended meaning for your life. What do you want to learn about or improve?

Step Three: Get to know the world’s needs.

Have you ever heard someone say they felt “called” to do something? Maybe you even said this when you joined up with the military. The thing is, most people care about a lot of things that are happening in the world but don’t feel a “call” to actively solve them (like world peace or global food insecurity). These are great things and worth pursuing, but what do you feel drawn to pursue. Research around career callings has found that meaningful work requires a “pro-social orientation.” In other words, your life after military service should look for ways to serve others or accomplish something beyond a paycheck.

Are there specific opportunities you need to take advantage of? Are there specific problems in your community or the world that you want to help solve? Are there people groups or specific places that seem to call you out and pull on your heart? Answering these questions can help you identify the places where you can find true fulfillment.

A Purposeful Military Transition

As you take steps to leave the military, it’s not enough to just know how to build a resume or network in an online world. While those are important, necessary pieces of your military transition to civilian work, they do not answer all of your questions. Identifying work worth doing is the key to thriving after leaving the military world. Tap into these components, dig deeper into who you are, and you will find work worth actually pursuing.

If you are wanting to go deeper on any of these topics, the Civilian Refit program is right for you. Check out our programs page for more details on how you can find and secure work worth doing after leaving the military.