You open a veteran's profile. The first line says "E-7, 12 years." Then "25B, Secret clearance, current." Below that sit a few medals and a string of acronyms. If you do not work in defense, half of it reads like code.

Here is the good news. Every one of those lines tells you something useful. Rank tells you scope. The job code tells you skills. A clearance tells you trust and money saved. Awards and evals tell you how they performed. You just need a key to read it.

This guide is that key. It walks through what a veteran candidate profile or resume actually shows you, signal by signal. We keep it plain so you can read one in under a minute and know if it is worth a call. We also cover the part most hiring teams miss: how reaching out to a veteran candidate works, and the consent rules behind it.

What does a veteran's profile actually show you?

A veteran candidate profile is built from the same raw material as a military resume. Service branch. Years served. Rank at separation. The military job code. Where they were stationed. Clearance status. Awards. Training and schools. Civilian certs they earned along the way.

None of it is filler. The military documents everything. So a veteran's record is often more detailed than a civilian's. The trick is knowing which signal answers which hiring question.

Think of it in five buckets. Each one maps to a thing you already want to know about any candidate.

Read in that order and a veteran's profile stops being code. It becomes a fast, honest snapshot of what someone can do. The labor market backs this up too. The unemployment rate for veterans was 3.5 percent in 2025, lower than the 4.2 percent rate for nonveterans, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These are people who tend to work. The profile just helps you find the right fit fast.

How do you read rank and leadership scope?

Rank is the first thing most profiles show. It is also the fastest read on seniority. You do not need to memorize every rank. You need to know which tier someone reached.

Enlisted ranks run E-1 through E-9. Officers run O-1 through O-10. A higher number means more time, more trust, and more people led. The jump from junior to senior matters most.

Here is the part that surprises people. Rank does not equal age. A 26-year-old E-6 may already run a team of 20 and a budget for gear worth millions. That is a frontline supervisor with real stakes. Do not read "no degree" and assume "no leadership."

So how do you use it? Match the tier to the role you are filling. An E-5 or E-6 maps well to a team lead or shift supervisor. An E-7 to E-9 maps to operations manager or senior individual contributor. A junior officer maps to a project lead or analyst. A senior officer maps to a director.

Want the full breakdown by branch? We cover it in military rank explained for civilian recruiters. For now, just remember: rank is a seniority read, not an age read.

What does the military job code tell you about skills?

Every service member has a job code. The Army calls it an MOS. The Navy calls it a rating. The Air Force calls it an AFSC. The Marines use an MOS too. The code is short. The skills behind it are not.

Take an Army 25B. That is an Information Technology Specialist. They run networks, manage servers, and handle help desk tickets at scale. Or a Navy Logistics Specialist, who tracks parts and supply chains for a whole unit. The code is a pointer to a real trade.

You do not need to learn every code. You need to know two things. First, what the core skill is. Second, whether it maps to your open role. A medic maps to healthcare. A combat engineer maps to construction and project work. An intelligence analyst maps to data and research.

A good veteran profile already translates the code into plain skills. A strong candidate will not just write "68W." They will write "combat medic, treated trauma in the field, ran a clinic, trained junior medics." That is a translated profile. It is doing the work of explaining the code for you.

When a profile only lists the raw code, do not skip it. The skill may be a perfect fit. You can look up what an Army 25B Information Technology Specialist or a 68W Combat Medic actually does, then match it to your role.

How do you read a security clearance line?

If your work touches defense, government, or sensitive data, the clearance line is gold. A cleared candidate can save you months of wait and real money. But you have to read the line right.

There are three levels. Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. Top Secret is the highest. You may also see "TS/SCI," which means Top Secret with access to special compartmented information. SCI is an add-on, not a fourth level.

Watch the status word next to the level. "Active" or "current" means the strongest position. The person passed the investigation and may still be in access. "Eligible" means they passed but may not be reading classified material right now. "Inactive" or "lapsed" means access ended.

One rule saves a lot of grief. A clearance can often be reinstated without a brand new investigation if it ended within the last 24 months and there is no adverse information, per the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. So a recently separated veteran with a "lapsed" clearance is still very valuable. Do not write them off.

We break down the full reading rules in how to read a security clearance on a resume. The short version: level tells you trust, status tells you currency, and a security officer confirms the truth.

What do awards and evaluations signal?

Awards look like a wall of medals. Most civilians glaze over them. That is a mistake. Awards are the military's performance record, and they are hard to game.

You do not need to know every ribbon. You need to spot the pattern. Did this person get recognized for doing the job well? Did they get picked out from a group? An achievement medal or a commendation usually means they did something above the baseline.

Evaluations matter even more. The military rates every member on a regular cycle. Words like "top performer," "promote ahead of peers," or "selected over peers" carry real weight. They mean a supervisor put this person at the top of a stack of people doing the same job.

One caution. Some awards are for showing up, like service ribbons for a deployment or a time period. Those are not performance medals. Focus on the ones tied to a specific act or a job done well. We dig into which awards mean what in what military awards and decorations tell a recruiter.

How do you read training, certs, dates, and availability?

The bottom of a veteran's profile holds the practical stuff. Schools attended. Certs earned. Service dates. When they can start. This is where you confirm fit and timing.

Military training is often longer and tougher than civilian programs. A vet may hold a civilian cert too, like a Security+ for IT roles or a CDL for driving. They may have run heavy equipment, managed a supply system, or led safety programs. Read these as proof of skill, not as a side note.

Dates tell you availability. A service member still on active duty has a separation date. Many can start a working tryout before they fully separate through a transition program. Veterans already out are ready now. The profile usually makes this clear.

The transition program for members still serving is called SkillBridge. It lets a service member intern with you in their final months while the military still pays them. You get a tryout at no salary cost. You can read the rules at SkillBridge. It is one of the lowest-risk ways to bring on a veteran.

What are the consent and contact norms?

Here is the piece most hiring teams overlook. Seeing a veteran's profile is not the same as having permission to use it however you want. There are norms, and getting them right makes your outreach land better.

On a real candidate database, a veteran chooses to be visible to employers. They opt in. That consent is what lets you see their profile and reach out. It also means they want to hear from companies. That is a warm start, not a cold one.

Treat contact info with care. A phone number or email on a profile is for a real job conversation, not a mass blast. The fastest way to burn a veteran candidate is to spam them or pitch a role that does not fit what their profile clearly shows.

When you reach out, lead with the fit. Name the skill you saw. Name the role and why it matches. Veterans value directness. A short, specific message beats a long, vague one every time. We cover the playbook in how to reach passive veteran candidates.

One more note on documents. If you ask for proof of service, the standard document is a DD-214. It confirms service dates and discharge status. It is a verification document, not a resume. Do not expect work history or skills to come from it. The profile and resume hold that.

How do you turn a fast read into a good hire?

Once you can read the signals, screening gets quick. Rank for scope. Code for skills. Clearance for trust. Awards and evals for performance. Training and dates for fit and timing. Five reads and you know whether to call.

Build a simple habit. Open the profile, run the five signals top to bottom, and decide in under a minute. If the fit is there, reach out with a specific message. If it is not, move on. You will move faster than teams still stuck on the acronyms.

Want a tighter screening process? Pair this with our recruiter checklist for screening veteran applicants and our guide to how to evaluate a veteran's resume. Together they turn a confusing profile into a clear yes or no.

Where do you find veteran candidates to read?

Reading a profile only helps if you have profiles to read. That is the part that trips up midsize teams. You do not have a veteran-sourcing program, and posting a job and waiting is slow.

A candidate database flips the model. Instead of posting and waiting, you search and reach out. You see profiles that are already translated into plain skills, so the reading is done for you. The choice between the two models is laid out in veteran job board vs candidate database.

Best Military Resume gives you that pool. Over 1,000 new veteran profiles are added every month, on top of more than 60,000 resumes built on the platform. These are veterans who built a clear, civilian-ready profile and want to be found by employers.

If you want to reach veteran candidates and read their profiles the way this guide describes, reach out about access to BMR's veteran talent pool. You bring the open role. We bring the people who can fill it.