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As a veteran, you may assume that you are slightly behind others in the job hunting process because you don’t have the right professional experiences.

However, the skills you learn in the military might put you ahead of the rest of the cohort.

A veteran who has received rigorous military training is better suited to certain professions than others. Business degrees can be some of the most promising choices for military members adjusting to civilian life. 

This article will go through the ten reasons why veterans should get degrees in business administration or an associate degree in business. 

1. Leadership and Management Skills Are Highly Useful

Going into the armed forces improves your leadership skills. In the military, you learn to be fast on your feet and be excellent at devising strategies. Leaders in the military will be aware of their responsibility and how their decisions may affect others’ lives.

Veterans have also been exposed to different leadership styles. They will gauge what traits make the best leaders that others can look up to and follow in the line of fire. 

The best place to apply your leadership skills is in the business field. Highly successful companies enjoy recruiting veterans for various positions they have in their organization. The recruitment of Veterans may be helpful to them in gaining strategies in marketing to like individuals.  Veterans learn how to follow processes and rigorous schedules, and these skills can help companies hire strong managers. 

2. Good Communication is Necessary

Communication skills are highly sought after in the business administration career field. It is also valuable when tackling your business administration degree. Employers understand that communicating ideas or concerns is an integral aspect of the project’s success when people work in teams.

If everyone is afraid to speak up, nothing gets done the way it should. The employees’ insights and skills will go unnoticed. 

The military often hones your communication skills from the moment you set foot in their training facilities. When facing a high-risk situation, the ability to communicate important information to other comrades can determine the difference between winning and losing. 

With this skill, it is the hope that you will stand out from your peers in the interview process and at work as a veteran. It is the goal that Veterans, with additional business training,  will be able to verbalize their thoughts clearly and concisely. This will help them contribute effective opinions to drive projects forward. 

3. Adaptability is Important in the Business World

In the military, you are trained to be prepared for almost anything. You will learn a diverse range of strategies, but there may be moments when you will have to improvise in certain situations to succeed.

This experience makes you highly adaptable. You understand that situations and commands can change in an instant. You will have to adapt yourself to deliver according to the new orders quickly.

This means you are likely to transition between jobs or industries more quickly than most others. 

This can set you far apart from your competitors in the job market. While other employees may take a while to shift their thought process to adjust to the new directives, you should be able to do this quickly and work more efficiently with your military training. 

4. Critical Thinking Skills are Critical

The military is all about making strategic decisions to prevent casualties and ensure success. This requires critical thinking and the ability to plan for challenging scenarios thoroughly. 

These skills are needed to think through a business’s corporate strategies in various business positions in a business environment. For example, which product marketing method will be the most successful? How do you cut down on costs while maintaining product quality? How do you address customer requests?

These scenarios require someone who can consider different approaches to an issue. This involves evaluating and outlining the pros and cons of each and the likely outcomes of specific strategies. These are likely some of the skills you may have developed in the armed forces and may deliver when pursuing business degrees. 

5. Employers Look for Trustworthy Employees

Employers are always fearful that they will hire people they cannot trust. This is less of an issue with veterans, who have been trained to emphasize diligence and loyalty in the armed forces. Military officers understand the importance of remaining trustworthy and keeping their oaths.

When you enter the professional workforce, Veterans often carry these desirable traits and inspire other colleagues to act the same way. 

6. You Don’t Get “Rattled” with Challenging Situations

Business degrees are a great pathway to working for others in the professional field or becoming a business leader/ entrepreneur yourself. One of the most important traits you will need to become highly successful will be your ability to handle difficult situations. 

No matter how well you plan, there will be moments when everything breaks down, and you may have to deal with failure. How you cope with these challenges during this period of time can often determine how successful you or your business will be in the future. 

As a veteran, you likely have learned to keep your wits about you. If you have to work in a stressful office environment, you will be more capable of sticking out during the hard times. The office’s stressors and the military are entirely different things, but the military does teach you how to work under pressure. This gives you the ability to cope better and think through difficult moments, often finding solutions instead of focusing on failures.

7. Good Time Management Skills

One of the most desirable traits that employers look for is an employee’s ability to manage their time well and meet tight deadlines. This is yet another transferable skill you will likely have from your time in the military.

In rapidly developing situations, you and others on your team will have undergone different operations with a strict time limit or time window to ensure the mission’s safety and success. This means you will have had to develop the ability to use your time wisely and remain productive, often coming up with more efficient ways to do the same things.

In the business administration career field, meeting deadlines is essential, and missing deadlines could reflect poorly on a business’s reputation. This is where you will have an opportunity to stand out among your peers by focusing on strong time management skills to get jobs done timely and accurately. 

8. You Have a Strong Sense of Organization

Business degrees and a business administration career require people who can organize their resources well to ensure that a business will succeed. The military life is highly structured and organized, meaning veterans will likely have had to remain organized in their own lives to keep up and perform well. 

This skill is crucial in the business field so that projects are structured, divided, and tackled to use resources effectively. 

9. Veterans Follow Instructions Well

In the military, discipline is an attribute that you must have. Soldiers have to follow their leaders’ instructions to ensure that operations run well and that their actions do not compromise their comrades. Veterans’ ability to lead sometimes and to follow instructions at other points will make employers glad to hire qualified Veterans.

10. You Have a Service-Based Work Ethic

When people refer to the corporate world, they frequently associate it with a dog-eat-dog mindset. In some ways, this may be true. Employees need to perform beyond everyone else to get promoted or seen, sometimes resulting in an unhealthy competition that hurts the organization.

Your work ethic will stand out from the crowd, likely because of your military service time. 

As someone who has devoted their life to serving others, you are used to forming leadership decisions based on putting your team members’ needs above your own. This can make you an effective business leader who will inspire others to remain loyal or act with the same integrity level.

The ability to positively influence the work environment is not a skill that should be underestimated. It’s something you can likely bring into the corporate world through your military experience. 

How Business Degrees Suit Veterans

People undertake business degrees to work in the corporate field or a business administration career one day. This pathway is highly suitable for veterans looking to adjust to professional career roles.

The qualities that a member of the armed forces has had to cultivate — such as effective communication, integrity, and the ability to think under pressure — are highly sought after in the business field.

This means veterans who utilize the skills they have learned can become model employees or successful business leaders, with their ability to handle pressure and navigate difficult situations using their critical thinking skills. 

Contact us today for more information regarding our business administration programs.