For many junior enlisted people, the U.S. military was their first employer after high school. Many have never had a traditional job interview. The only culture they know is military life. And while the federal government has strengthened military career transition and financial literacy programs, many gaps remain.

The high operations tempo resulting from almost two decades of combat operation in the two longest wars in American history have resulted in approximately 200,000 uniformed service members transitioning out of the military each year-1,300 each day. Transitioning veterans immediately need:

• Training and Certification Programs
• Jobs
• Education
• Health Care

To fill these gaps, MOAA annually connects with over 17,000 currently serving service members, veterans and their families to offer award-winning Career Transition training and assistance programs and services.

These include a signature annual Washington, D.C. networking and hiring event, the MOAA Military and Veteran Networking Forum; a series of “virtual” career fairs through which about 15 percent of attendees are advanced through the hiring process; and numerous career transition instructional webinars. Each year in conjunction with these events, MOAA completes more than 750 complimentary career counseling sessions, to include resume and LinkedInTM profile reviews and delivers dozens of professional development workshops designed to prepare service members, veterans and military spouses for a more favorable interaction with company recruiters. MOAA's nationwide veteran jobs initiative is complemented with a LinkedInTM career networking group with more than 29,000 members who receive weekly updates on career transition best practices, financial literacy and healthcare planning from MOAA's team of transition experts.

For a full list of our current Career Transition Events, please visit our calendar here. 

With almost 1 million men and women in uniform leaving the uniformed services over the next five years, the MOAA Foundation Career Transition program will continue to be a program in high-demand. Funding enables MOAA to offer its highly-rated career-transition syllabus throughout the year and provide all military families with vital career transition training, education and preparation for a seamless transition to civilian career success.

In November 2022 MOAA received a HIRE Vets Medallion Award from the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) for the third consecutive year.

The award recognizes the organization’s recruiting, employment, and retention of veterans. MOAA was one of 835 recipients of a medallion in the award’s fifth year.

More than 30% of MOAA’s staff is made up of veterans or military spouses.

“We are thrilled that our efforts to hire veterans have been recognized at a high level,” said Lt. Gen. Dana T. Atkins, USAF (Ret), president and CEO of MOAA. “Their military experience and proven work ethic are crucial to our success and a natural fit for an organization whose mission is Never Stop Serving."