Resources & Links

There is an enormous amount of support available to you, built by people and organizations that genuinely want you to land well. The hard part is knowing where to start.

This list is deliberately opinionated. Everything on it is worth your time, the ones at the top are worth it most, and each entry says what it is actually good for so you can pick the right one for where you are.

Verify before you act

Programs, eligibility rules and benefit amounts do change over time. Use this list to find the right door, then confirm the current details on the official site — particularly for anything involving VA benefits or a deadline. A few minutes of checking keeps you working from good information.

Start with these

If you only have an afternoon, spend it here. These five give you the most ground covered per hour, and several of them unlock things that are time-sensitive.

Resource	What it is	Best for
VA.gov	The official source for every VA benefit	Healthcare, disability, education, home loans. Use it instead of secondhand summaries.
DoD SkillBridge	Internship with a civilian employer during your last 180 days of service	The single highest-leverage program if you are still in. Start 12+ months out.
Hiring Our Heroes	US Chamber of Commerce Foundation	Fellowships, hiring events, and a genuinely active employer network.
O*NET Military Crosswalk	Maps your MOS/rating/AFSC to civilian occupations	Sanity-checking what job titles you should be searching for.
Your branch’s COOL site	Credentialing Opportunities On-Line	Finding certifications your training already qualifies you for, often with the exam paid.

Job boards

Veteran-specific boards are excellent for finding employers who actively want to hire you, and the mainstream boards carry far more volume. Use both together — the veteran boards for warm ground, the mainstream ones for reach.

Board	Notes
LinkedIn Jobs	Where most professional hiring actually happens. Also the best tool for finding people to talk to.
USAJOBS	Federal civil service. Slow, rule-bound, and worth it — veterans’ preference is real. Read the federal application prompts first.
ClearanceJobs	If you hold an active clearance, this is where the premium is.
Indeed	Highest volume. Good for market research even when you do not apply.
RecruitMilitary	Veteran-focused board plus a heavy schedule of in-person and virtual hiring events.
Hire Heroes USA Job Board	Paired with free one-on-one career coaching, which is the real value.
Handshake	If you are using the GI Bill at a school, this is where entry-level and internship hiring lives.

Free one-on-one help

Each of these will put you in touch with an actual person who will work with you individually, at no cost. Coaches, mentors who served, corporate professionals in your target field.

They are among the most valuable things on this page and they are underused. Apply to one or two early — the good mentorship programs take a few weeks to match you, so starting the process now means someone is in place when you need them.

Hire Heroes USAFree personalized career coaching, resume help, and mock interviews for veterans and military spouses. The most substantive free service on this list.

American Corporate Partners (ACP)A free year-long mentorship with a corporate professional in your target field. Apply early — matching takes time.

VeteratiOn-demand mentorship calls with volunteers. Low commitment, good for specific questions.

FourBlockA structured career readiness program run in cohorts, with employer connections built in.

Your state workforce agencyEvery state has a Local Veterans Employment Representative. Underused, free, and they know the local employers.

Veteran Service OrganizationsVFW, American Legion, DAV, and others will help you file a VA claim for free. Never pay someone to file a claim.

Federal and government contracting

Often the highest-value lane for a military background, and the one people are least likely to explore first. See Where to Look First for the full case and how to choose between the three markets.

Resource	What it is good for
USAJOBS	Every federal civil service opening. Build a profile, save searches, and set alerts.
Feds Hire Vets	OPM’s official guide to veterans’ preference and special appointing authorities. Read this before you apply anywhere federal.
VA Careers	The VA is among the largest employers of veterans in the country. Clinical and non-clinical.
Defense Health Agency careers	Military health system roles, civilian and contractor.
ClearanceJobs	The main board for cleared work. If you hold a clearance, this is where the premium is.
USAspending.gov	Find out which companies actually hold contracts with your former customer — then go work for them.
SAM.gov	Contract opportunities and registered contractors. Useful for finding small firms the job boards miss.
OPM General Schedule tables	Exact federal pay by grade, step, and locality. No guessing.
DCSA	The agency behind personnel security. Background on clearance status and reinstatement.
SBA Veteran Contracting	SDVOSB and VOSB certification, if you want to build rather than join.
Veterans Business Outreach Centers	Free counselling for veterans starting a business.

Education and training

Program	What it covers
Post-9/11 GI Bill	Tuition, housing allowance, and books. Check your remaining entitlement before planning.
VR&E (Chapter 31)	Often more generous than the GI Bill if you have a service-connected disability. Frequently overlooked.
VET TEC	Technology training programs that do not consume GI Bill entitlement.
Credentialing Assistance	Branch-funded certification costs while you are still serving. Use it before you separate.
Onward to Opportunity	Free professional certification training from Syracuse IVMF, for service members, veterans, and spouses.
Microsoft Software & Systems Academy	Free technology training for transitioning service members.

Pay and market data

Check at least two of these before you name a number in any conversation.

They will not agree exactly, and the spread between them is useful information in itself — it tells you the realistic range for the role rather than a single point estimate you might over-trust.

• Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook — the most reliable baseline, though it lags the market.
• Levels.fyi — self-reported but detailed, strongest for technology roles.
• Glassdoor and Payscale — broad coverage, wide variance.
• OPM General Schedule tables — exact federal pay by grade and locality.
• State pay-transparency postings — in a growing number of states, employers must publish the range in the job ad. Read them even for jobs you are not applying to.

Support

Transition is a significant life change happening at the same time as a job search, and that is a lot to carry at once. Everything below is free, confidential, and built by people who understand exactly what that combination feels like.

Reaching out to any of them is good planning rather than a last resort, and plenty of people use them simply to have someone to think out loud with.

If you need to talk to someone

Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988 then press 1, text 838255, or chat at veteranscrisisline.net. Free, confidential, and staffed around the clock, often by people who served. You are welcome to call whenever something is weighing on you, and there is no enrollment or paperwork of any kind.

Vet Centers — community-based counselling for combat veterans and their families, frequently staffed by veterans themselves. No VA enrollment required, and the services are confidential and held separately from your VA medical record. Find one at va.gov/find-locations.

• VA Mental Health — the full range of VA services.
• Give an Hour — free mental health care from volunteer providers.
• Team Red, White & Blue and The Mission Continues — community and purpose, which are the two things people most often say they want to rebuild after service. Both are straightforward to join and built around doing things together.
• Blue Star Families and Military OneSource — support for spouses and families, who are going through this transition too.

AI tools

All of these have free tiers that are sufficient for everything in this guide.

Tool	Link
Claude	claude.ai
ChatGPT	chatgpt.com
Gemini	gemini.google.com
Microsoft Copilot	copilot.microsoft.com
Perplexity	perplexity.ai

See AI Basics for how to choose between them and What to Keep Out of the Chat Window before you paste anything.