Most veteran sourcing runs reactive. A req opens, the recruiter scrambles, and the search starts cold. But veteran supply does not show up evenly across the year. It moves in waves, and those waves are predictable.

Service members do not separate at random. They leave on cycles tied to two military rhythms: PCS and ETS. When you learn those rhythms, you can plan your outreach around them. You reach people when they are actually about to enter the job market, not weeks after the good ones are gone.

This guide shows you how to build a recurring sourcing calendar around those cycles. It is written for a midsize talent acquisition lead or hiring manager who wants to time veteran outreach instead of guessing at it. We will cover what PCS and ETS mean in plain terms, the last-180-day SkillBridge window, and how to map all of it to a 12-month plan you can run every year.

This is a timing piece. It is not a channel roundup and it is not a finite sprint. If you need help picking where to source, read the ranked channel field guide. If you have open reqs and a clock running right now, run a 30-day sourcing sprint instead. This calendar is the layer above both. It tells you when in the year to push.

What Do PCS and ETS Actually Mean?

You will hear both terms a lot once you start sourcing veterans. They drive when people become available. Here is the plain version.

PCS stands for Permanent Change of Station. It is a military move from one base to another. A service member and their family pack up and relocate, often across the country or overseas. PCS itself does not mean someone is leaving the military. But it matters to you for two reasons.

First, a spouse who PCSes often has to leave a job and find a new one in the new city. That is a huge, motivated talent pool. Second, some service members decide to separate instead of taking the next PCS. The move forces a fork in the road. Some pick the civilian door.

ETS stands for Expiration of Term of Service. It is the date a service member's enlistment contract ends. When someone hits their ETS and does not re-enlist, they separate. This is the most direct signal you have. An ETS date is a near-exact date when a person enters the civilian job market.

The key idea: PCS and ETS are scheduled. People know their dates months in advance. That means you can know them too, if you reach out at the right time.

Why Does Separation Timing Move in Seasons?

Separations cluster. They do not spread out flat across all 12 months. A few forces push them into seasonal waves.

PCS moves lean heavy toward summer. The military runs most family moves during the warmer months. The reason is simple. Kids change schools over the summer break, so the services try to move families between school years. That summer move season pulls a wad of spouse job searches and some member separations with it.

Enlistment contracts also tend to follow the calendar in loose patterns. Many were signed at certain times of year, so they expire in loose clusters years later. Re-enlistment decisions and end-of-contract dates pile up in some months more than others.

I want to be careful here. The exact month-by-month separation counts shift year to year, and they differ by branch and by job field. Do not build your plan on a precise national statistic. Build it on the pattern: summer is the biggest separation and relocation window, and the months feeding into it are when smart outreach starts.

The takeaway for you is steady. There are busy seasons and quiet seasons in veteran supply. If your outreach is flat all year, you are working hard in the quiet months and missing the busy ones.

How Does the SkillBridge 180-Day Window Fit In?

There is one more window that matters more than any other, and most employers miss it. It is the last 180 days before separation.

Under DoD SkillBridge, a service member can spend their final months of service working at a civilian company. They get on-the-job experience. The company gets an extended look at the person before any hire decision. It is a built-in tryout window the military created on purpose.

Be clear on what SkillBridge is and is not. A service member who lands a SkillBridge slot at your company has not been hired. They are still on active duty. The military still pays their salary. You pay nothing in wages during the program. They are not yet your employee. There is no guaranteed job offer to the individual, though DoD now requires approved SkillBridge partners to demonstrate a high probability of hiring participants who complete the program.

What SkillBridge gives you is timing and trust. You meet the person roughly six months before they hit the civilian market. You see how they work. When their service ends, you can make an offer, and you already know what you are getting.

This is why the 180-day window is the anchor of any sourcing calendar. A person's SkillBridge search starts before their separation date. So your relationship with that person starts even earlier than their ETS. If you only source at the ETS date, you are late. The best candidates locked into a SkillBridge slot months ago.

For the full mechanics, see how to become a SkillBridge host company and how to convert a SkillBridge intern into a full-time hire.

How Do You Build the 12-Month Sourcing Calendar?

Now we turn the rhythm into a plan. The goal is a calendar you run every year on repeat. You are not reinventing it each quarter. You are setting a few recurring pushes and tying each one to a window of supply.

Work backward from the heavy summer separation season. That is your peak. Everything else feeds it or fills the gaps. Here is how the year breaks down.

Winter into Spring: Plant the Seeds

This is your lead-up. The summer separators are deep into their last year of service. Many are starting their SkillBridge search now. This is when you reach out to base transition offices, post in veteran groups, and open your SkillBridge slots for summer starts. You are not closing hires yet. You are getting on the radar.

Spring into Summer: Push Hard

This is peak supply. PCS moves are happening, spouses are job hunting in their new cities, and a wave of members are separating. Your outreach should be at full volume here. Run your sprint now if you run one. Fill open reqs against the deepest pool of the year.

Late Summer into Fall: Catch the Tail

The summer wave settles. Many people have moved and are now actively searching. Spouses who relocated in June are job hunting in September. This is a strong, often overlooked window. The supply is still warm and the competition has eased off.

Fall into Winter: Build for Next Year

This is the quiet stretch for separations. Do not go dark. Use it to nurture the list you have built, reconnect with people whose dates are further out, and plan next year's SkillBridge cohort. This is also when you build relationships that pay off in spring.

What Should Each Calendar Entry Actually Contain?

A calendar is only useful if each entry tells you what to do. A date with no action is just a reminder that you are behind. Each recurring push on your calendar should name four things.

Name the window. Which season is this and what supply does it feed. Name the channel. Where you will reach people that month, like base transition offices, veteran groups, or a candidate database. Name the action. The specific move, like opening SkillBridge slots or running a sprint. Name the owner. One person responsible, so it does not slip.

Keep it simple. A shared calendar with four recurring quarterly blocks beats a 40-tab spreadsheet nobody opens. The point is that the work happens at the right time, every year, without a fire drill.

How Is a Calendar Different From a Pipeline or a Sprint?

These three plays get mixed up. They work together, but they are not the same. Knowing the difference keeps your effort clean.

A sprint is reactive and finite. You have open reqs and a clock. You go heads-down for 30 days to fill them. The 30-day sprint guide covers that play. A sprint is a tool you use inside the calendar, usually during peak season.

A pipeline is always-on. You build a warm pool of veteran candidates before any req opens, then nurture it. The talent pipeline guide covers that. The pipeline is the pool the calendar fills and draws from.

A calendar is the timing layer over both. It tells you which months to push hard, which months to plant, and which months to build. It makes sure your sprints land during peak supply and your pipeline gets fed when supply is highest.

Run all three and they reinforce each other. The calendar sets the timing. The pipeline holds the people. The sprint closes the reqs.

Where Does a Candidate Database Fit the Calendar?

Seasons tell you when supply is heavy. They do not deliver the people to your inbox. You still have to find candidates whose dates line up with your windows. That is where a standing veteran candidate pool earns its keep.

A live database lets you search any month, peak or quiet, and pull people whose timing matches your reqs. You are not waiting for a job fair date or a single PCS season. The supply is there year round, and it refreshes.

BMR adds over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month. Across the platform, more than 60,000 resumes have been built. That steady, fresh flow is the point. When your calendar says push in May, you have a deep, current pool to push into. When it says nurture in December, you have new profiles to add to your list.

The database also solves the translation problem that slows cold sourcing. The military experience is already written out in civilian terms. You are reading skills, not decoding a job code. That speed matters most during peak season, when you are working against a tight window.

One note on how candidate ranking works. Applicant tracking systems do not throw out a resume that reads military. They rank it. A strong veteran whose resume uses terms like "platoon sergeant" instead of "team lead" sinks lower in the stack. They are not rejected. They just never rise to the top where you would see them. Sourcing from a translated pool sidesteps that problem.

Where Do You Start?

You do not need a perfect 12-month plan on day one. You need one push, timed right, that you repeat. Start with the next supply window on the horizon and build out from there.

Pick your peak. For most employers that is summer. Mark a recurring push that lands in late spring, when separations climb. Open your SkillBridge slots months ahead of it. Then add a quieter nurture block in the fall so you do not go dark.

For free, government-backed employer help, the DOL VETS Hire a Veteran resources walk through outreach channels and SkillBridge as a feeder. Pair that with the channel plays in the veteran recruiting strategy playbook and the base transition office guide.

Veteran talent moves fast. In 2025, the unemployment rate for Gulf War-era II veterans, the largest veteran group at 5.6 million, sat at 3.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The good ones do not stay on the market long. Timing your outreach to when they enter it is the whole game.

If you want a standing pool that is ready every month your calendar says push, that is what BMR's database is for. Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and start timing your sourcing to real supply.