Do you actually have to put down that you're a veteran on a job application?

[Pedro de San Patricio]

Say your six years are up. You generally see your enlistment as a positive experience you're grateful you had the opportunity to have, and you don't have anything like negative performance reports or a disciplinary record, but you just don't really want to continue doing what you're doing. You want to start with a clean slate somewhere new and see what else life has to offer. None of your training or skills are transferable and contracting is too close to what you're trying to get away from and hard to get your foot in the door anyway so you decide to start small and head to the local Huddle House for an application. The questions are easy enough. You can do the arithmetic test perfectly just like you could at 16. You know what all the big words mean. Then you go to the next question to see it's directly asking if you have a military background. You really, really want to avoid any investigation into your military history, not for any legal reasons or because you need to hide anything, but a major point of getting out was to close that chapter of your life and open a brand new one. Prying would not be conducive to that. You leave it blank. Is that in any way a crime? I could see how saying no would be.

It's just a question btw. It's not my current situation or anything. Some friends and myself have been trying to argue this out, and I've wondered since I was a teenager anyway. We don't work with anyone who might know so I figured it was worth a shot to ask here. There seem to be enough former members around.

 

[PratchettFan]

Its not a crime. Leave it blank if you want.

 

[Agit8r]

It's just on the application because veterans may receive hiring preference.

 

[Silent Warrior]

You can leave it off with no problem, but be prepared to lose the job to a veteran that filled it in because the employer gives preference to veterans.

 

[namvet]

they want to know what you've been doing for work before coming to them. fill it out. give em a DD214 to

 

[whitehall]

Military service is a benefit in a job application. How on earth did Pedro imagine a scenario where a Veteran would want conceal his time in the Military. He wondered since he was a teenager? How long was that, a couple of months?

 

[boedicca]

A job candidate may not have to disclose the information, but employers over a certain size (I think it is now as low as 50 employees) have to track veteran, gender, and race information. There is also a requirement to have an Affirmative Action Plan that posts in place where such protected groups are likely to seek jobs. They are required to not just track this information for the people they actually hire, but also for people who apply for jobs.

It's a pain in the ass.

 

[Pedro de San Patricio]

Military service is a benefit in a job application. How on earth did Pedro imagine a scenario where a Veteran would want conceal his time in the Military. He wondered since he was a teenager? How long was that, a couple of months?

I'm 23. "Concealing" it might be a stretch. There's nothing to actively hide. It would just lead to questions one might prefer not to answer and impede closing that chapter of one's life and moving on fully to the next.

 

[whitehall]

The deal is that Veterans are a special rights group in government and some private hiring. If a Veteran checks the box he allows the government data base to certify that his DD214 is genuine. There is nothing sinister about it.

 

[Zander]

I hire veterans over non-vets every time.

 

[Mad Scientist]

How you gonna' explain where you've been all that time? What alternative do you have?

 

[Pedro de San Patricio]

I'm not entirely sure honestly. I guess you can't really just have a six year employment gap. Or you could but they'd totally conclude that you were a criminal during that time. It's not an easy question.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Say your six years are up. You generally see your enlistment as a positive experience you're grateful you had the opportunity to have, and you don't have anything like negative performance reports or a disciplinary record, but you just don't really want to continue doing what you're doing. You want to start with a clean slate somewhere new and see what else life has to offer. None of your training or skills are transferable and contracting is too close to what you're trying to get away from and hard to get your foot in the door anyway so you decide to start small and head to the local Huddle House for an application. The questions are easy enough. You can do the arithmetic test perfectly just like you could at 16. You know what all the big words mean. Then you go to the next question to see it's directly asking if you have a military background. You really, really want to avoid any investigation into your military history, not for any legal reasons or because you need to hide anything, but a major point of getting out was to close that chapter of your life and open a brand new one. Prying would not be conducive to that. You leave it blank. Is that in any way a crime? I could see how saying no would be.

It's just a question btw. It's not my current situation or anything. Some friends and myself have been trying to argue this out, and I've wondered since I was a teenager anyway. We don't work with anyone who might know so I figured it was worth a shot to ask here. There seem to be enough former members around.

I was told ya do as with supplying a copy of the dd-214 doc. Dunno the legality though.

 

[JWBooth]

Lying on a job app is usually a just cause dismissal situation. Tell the truth.