Your telecom reqs sit open for weeks. Fiber techs, RF engineers, tower crews, NOC operators. The civilian applicant pool is thin. The good people are already hired. And the ones who apply often need months of training before they can touch live gear.

There is a pool you are likely skipping. Veterans run military communications networks every day. They install fiber. They tune radios. They aim satellite dishes. They sit watch in operations centers and keep links up under pressure. The skills map almost one to one.

This guide is for midsize telecom employers. Carriers, regional ISPs, tower companies, network integrators, and managed service providers. You do not need a giant program to start. You need to know where these people are and how to read their experience. Let me walk you through it.

Why are veterans a strong fit for telecom roles?

The military is one of the largest communications operators on earth. Signal, transmission, RF, and satellite comms are core jobs in every branch. These troops do not just study the gear. They run it in the field, often with no backup and no spare parts.

That builds the exact traits a telecom shop needs. They troubleshoot under pressure. They follow grounding and safety procedures because lives depend on it. They document their work. They show up.

Telecom is also a field where the door is open. Most signal and transmission jobs are not the same as software development or the security team. So you are pulling from a pool that other tech employers often miss. Two of our other guides cover those lanes if your reqs are different. See hiring veterans for software and tech roles for coders, and hiring veterans for data center and cloud operations for facilities and infrastructure work. This guide stays in the carrier and network lane.

Which military jobs map to telecom roles?

Start with the signal and transmission fields. These are the closest match you will find to a telecom job description. A military comms operator already speaks your language. They just call the gear by different names.

Here are the most common matches. Treat this as a starting point, not a fixed rule. Two people with the same code can have very different depth.

• Network and transport techs: Army 25H Network Communication Systems Specialist and Air Force 3D1X2 Cyber Transport Systems run network gear, lay and test cable, and keep links alive.
• RF and transmission: Air Force 1D7X2 RF Transmissions techs install and tune radio and microwave links. This is a direct fit for wireless and tower work.
• Satellite comms: Army 25S Satellite Communication Systems Operator and Marine 0627 SATCOM Operator-Maintainer set up, aim, and maintain satellite links. They fit SATCOM, VSAT, and backhaul roles.
• Field radio and line work: Marine 0621 Field Radio Operator sets up and runs radio nets in the field. Good base for field tech and install roles.

Beyond the obvious code, look for hands-on signs. Did they run a satellite terminal? Did they manage a network operations watch? Did they splice fiber or pull cable? Those duties tell you more than the job code alone.

What do veterans bring beyond the technical skills?

The gear knowledge gets them in the door. The other traits keep your network up and your crews safe.

Telecom runs on uptime. A veteran who stood comms watch knows what it means when a link drops at 0200. They do not wait for someone to tell them to fix it. They work the problem.

Field telecom also runs on safety and process. Tower climbs, high voltage, grounding, lockout. Military comms troops live by checklists for the same reason. They follow the procedure because skipping it gets people hurt.

Some candidates bring a security clearance from a SATCOM or signal background. If your work touches government or defense contracts, that clearance can save you months. You skip part of the grant process. They can start billing on cleared work sooner.

Where do you find veteran telecom talent?

You will not find these people on the same job boards everyone else fishes in. Go where transitioning troops actually are.

Start with SkillBridge. The DoD SkillBridge program lets service members intern with your company in their last few months of service. You get a no-cost trial run with a signal or SATCOM tech before you commit to a hire. It is the cleanest test-drive you will get.

Next, reach them before they separate. Base transition offices and American Job Centers run hiring events. The Department of Labor VETS office connects employers with these channels. Show up where the comms troops are leaving the service.

You can also tap the BMR talent pool directly. We add over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month. Many list signal, RF, network, or satellite backgrounds. You can reach out and access BMR's veteran talent pool to source telecom candidates without the months-long search.

How do you read a military telecom resume?

This is where most telecom employers lose good candidates. The resume is full of codes and gear names you do not recognize. A screener skims it, sees nothing familiar, and moves on.

Read the duties, not the codes. The gear names will be military model numbers. But the action is the same as your job. They installed it. They tested it. They fixed it. They kept it online.

Look for the verbs. Installed, configured, troubleshot, maintained, restored. Then look at what they ran. A radio net. A satellite terminal. A network node. A patch panel. Match the action and the gear type to your open req.

If you want a process for this, our guide on mapping a military career field to your open reqs breaks it down step by step. The recruiter checklist for screening veteran applicants is a fast reference for your screeners too.

How should you interview a veteran for a telecom job?

Keep it practical. These candidates prove out best with their hands, not with buzzwords. A whiteboard quiz on the latest vendor jargon will sink a strong tech who has never heard your brand names.

Give them a real problem. A link is down. Walk me through how you find the fault. A good comms tech will talk you through layers, power, grounding, and signal checks. That tells you more than any cert on paper.

Help them translate. Veterans often undersell their work. They say "we" when they led the job. They leave out wins because the team got the credit. Ask follow-up questions. "What was your role on that?" pulls out the real story.

Ask about uptime and pressure too. Tell me about a time a link failed and you had to fix it fast. Their answer shows you how they think when the network is down and the clock is running.

How do you onboard and keep veteran telecom hires?

Getting them in the door is half the job. Keeping them is the other half. Veterans value structure, a clear mission, and a path up.

Give them structure on day one. A checklist, a clear chain of command, and a named go-to person. They are used to a clear org and a clear task. Vague onboarding frustrates a person who ran tight operations.

Pair them with a lead tech for the first few weeks. They will pick up your vendor gear fast. The fundamentals of RF, fiber, and network already live in their head. They just need to map your tools onto what they know.

Show them the promotion path. A SATCOM operator who led a watch can run your NOC in a couple years. A field radio tech can grow into a senior install lead or a site supervisor. Veterans tend to stay where they can climb.

What does the telecom labor market look like?

The numbers back up the case for building a veteran pipeline now. The pool of trained telecom workers is tight, and the work keeps coming.

Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers earn a median of $64,310 a year, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2024). The field is projected to see about 23,200 openings each year through 2034. Most of those come from workers leaving the field. That is replacement demand you have to fill.

Line work pays more and is growing. Electrical power-line installers and repairers earn a median of $92,560 a year, and the BLS projects 7 percent growth through 2034, much faster than average. Fiber buildouts and 5G are driving it. Veterans with line, RF, and install backgrounds fit right into this demand.

Are there hiring incentives for veteran telecom hires?

There can be, but check the current status before you bank on it. The main one is the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, or WOTC. It gives employers a federal tax credit for hiring from certain groups. Veterans are one of those groups.

When the credit is active, the savings can be real on qualifying veteran hires. The amount depends on the veteran's category and hours worked. Our WOTC employer guide walks through how it works and what to file. Run any incentive past your tax team first.

The stronger case does not rest on a tax credit anyway. A SATCOM tech who can stand up a link and a field radio operator who can run a site bring value on day one. If your cybersecurity reqs are also open, our guide on building a cybersecurity veteran hiring pipeline covers that lane, and the aviation and aerospace hiring guide covers airfield and avionics roles.

Start building your veteran telecom pipeline

Your telecom reqs do not have to sit open for weeks. The military trains thousands of signal, RF, and satellite techs every year. They run real networks under real pressure. Most telecom employers walk right past them because the resume looks unfamiliar.

Read the duties, not the codes. Source where the troops actually are. Interview with a real problem instead of a buzzword quiz. Onboard with structure and a clear path up. That is the whole playbook.

BMR adds over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month, and more than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. Many of those candidates list signal, RF, network, and satellite backgrounds. If you want to fill your telecom reqs with people who already know the gear, you can partner with BMR to access the veteran talent pool. Reach out and we will help you connect with telecom-ready veterans.