You need a hire who already holds CompTIA Security+. Or a PMP. Or an FAA Airframe and Powerplant ticket. The cert is the whole point of the search. So you post the role, wait, and get a stack of resumes where the certification is buried on page two or written in a way you do not recognize.

Veterans are one of the deepest pools of certified talent in the country. The military trains people to a standard and tests them hard. Many service members also earn full civilian certifications while still in uniform. The problem is not supply. The problem is that the cert is easy to miss when you only search the way you search everyone else.

This guide shows you how to find veterans who hold a specific technical certification. You will learn where the certs come from, how to read military credentialing, and how to search so the right people surface to the top instead of sinking out of view.

Why are veteran certifications so hard to find?

The cert is usually there. It just does not show up where your search looks.

A veteran might earn Security+ through a military program, list it as "CompTIA Security+ (DoD 8570 compliant)," and bury it under a line about a unit you have never heard of. Your keyword search for "Security+" may still catch it. But your eye, scanning fast, slides right past it.

There are a few real reasons the search breaks down. None of them mean the talent is not there.

Fix the search, and the supply is real. The military has unemployment running low. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the unemployment rate for Gulf War-era II veterans was 3.6 percent in 2025, with about 5.6 million veterans in that group. These are working people. The strong ones move fast. You have to find them before they are gone.

Where do military certifications come from?

If you want to find a cert fast, it helps to know how veterans earn one. Most come from one of a few clear paths. Each path tells you something about the candidate.

The COOL credentialing programs

Every branch runs a credentialing program called COOL, short for Credentialing Opportunities On-Line. Army COOL and its sister programs map a military job to the civilian certs and licenses that match it. They also fund the courses and exams, often up to 100 percent of the cost.

So a logistics soldier can earn an APICS supply chain cert. A signal soldier can earn CompTIA Security+ or Network+. A mechanic can work toward an ASE cert. The veteran took a real civilian exam and passed it. The cert is the same one your other applicants hold. It was just paid for by the military.

On-the-job training that maps to a cert

Some certs come straight from the job. A veteran who ran a network operations center may hold the same vendor certs your IT team holds. An aircraft mechanic may already have, or be one test away from, an FAA Airframe and Powerplant rating. A heavy equipment operator may hold a commercial driver license earned in service.

SkillBridge and transition programs

In the last six months of service, many members do a fellowship through DoD SkillBridge. Some use that window to finish a cert like a PMP or a cloud credential. These candidates are weeks from being free to start. They are worth finding early.

How do you read military credentialing on a resume?

The cert may be plain, like "PMP, 2024." Or it may be wrapped in military terms. You want to spot both. The same credential can read two different ways.

"IAT II" is a tell. The DoD 8570 framework requires a baseline cert for IT security roles, and Security+ is the most common one used to meet it. So when you see "8570" or "IAT," there is almost always a real cert behind it. The same trick works in other fields.

A few quick translations worth keeping handy:

• "8570 / IAT II": usually CompTIA Security+ or an equivalent security cert.
• "A&P" or "powerplant": an FAA aircraft mechanic license, or close to it.
• "Lean / continuous process improvement": often a Six Sigma belt.
• "OSHA 30" or "safety officer": a formal OSHA safety credential.
• "CDL" or "88M / 3531": a commercial driver license earned in service.

One note on screening. Your applicant tracking system racks and stacks resumes by keyword match. It does not throw weaker matches away. A cert written in military shorthand may still rank lower than a clean civilian listing, so it can sink down the list even when the person is exactly who you want. Read past the first screen, or search the credential directly, and you stop losing strong people to a ranking quirk.

How do you search for a specific cert?

The goal is to find the credential no matter how it is written. That means searching the cert, the issuer, and the military shorthand all at once. Run it this way.

This is where a veteran-focused candidate database beats a general job board. A database lets you search the credential across thousands of profiles at once, instead of waiting for the right person to answer an ad. BMR adds over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month, and more than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That is a steady, growing pool of certified talent you can filter by the exact cert you need.

Which certs do veterans most often hold?

You can search for any cert. But it helps to know which ones show up most in the veteran pool, because the supply runs deep there. These map well to roles a midsize company hires for all the time.

If you hire for cleared technical work, the overlap gets even better. A veteran can pair a security clearance with a Security+ or a CISSP. That mix is hard to find and slow to build on the open market. We cover the clearance side in our guide on how government contractors hire cleared veterans and in how a midsize company hires cleared veterans.

For broader role-based sourcing, see our guides on sourcing veterans for hard-to-fill technical roles and hiring veterans for cloud and DevOps roles.

Should you require the cert or coach toward it?

Sometimes the perfect cert match is not on the resume, but the person clearly has the skill and most of the path. You have a choice to make.

If the role legally requires a current cert, like an A&P license for certain aircraft work, you need it on day one. No flexibility there. But many certs are a formality for someone who already does the work. A veteran who ran security operations for years may need one exam to hold Security+ on paper.

A short note on fairness. You can and should search for a specific credential. You cannot screen people out based on veteran status or military service. Lead with the cert and the skill, and you stay on solid ground. This is general guidance, not legal advice, so check your own hiring rules. We go deeper in our guide on sourcing veterans without violating EEO rules.

How do you build cert sourcing into your process?

One good search is nice. A repeatable one is better. The point is to make cert-filtered sourcing a normal part of how your team works, not a scramble each time a role opens.

If you want to formalize this, our guide on building a veteran sourcing scorecard shows how to measure the channels and searches that actually fill seats. And before you read a single profile, what a veteran profile tells you before the call helps you spot the strong ones fast.

What if the resume only hints at the cert?

Plenty of strong candidates undersell themselves. A veteran may list "managed network security" and never mention the Security+ that sat behind it. The skill is loud. The credential is quiet. You do not want to pass on that person.

When a profile hints at the cert without stating it, read for two things. First, the issuer of the work. A role tied to a DoD security baseline almost always sits on a real cert. Second, the scope. Someone who led a team or ran a major system usually holds the credential that role demands, even if it is missing from the page.

Then ask. One short message clears it up. "Do you currently hold Security+? Your background looks like a match for a role we are filling." Many veterans hold more certs than they wrote down, because no one told them which ones you care about. A quick question often turns a maybe into a clear yes.

Putting it to work

Certified veteran talent is not rare. It is just hidden behind military shorthand and a search built for civilian resumes. Once you know where the certs come from, how to read them, and how to search the credential instead of the title, the right people stop sinking and start surfacing.

Build your cert cheat sheet. Search the credential, the short form, and the military code together. Decide per role whether the cert is required or coachable. Then run that search against a pool deep enough to deliver.

BMR is a veteran candidate database built for exactly this. You can filter by the cert you need across a pool that grows by over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month, with more than 60,000 resumes built on the platform. For the official employer view of veteran hiring, the U.S. Department of Labor keeps a solid resource hub. When you are ready to search certified veterans by name and credential, reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool.