If you are about to transition to civilian life from the military, there are many employment opportunities available to you. In this article, we provide a list 26 jobs across a variety of professions and industries for you to consider, but we’ll also include a job for retired military that most people don’t realize is an option: Airline Pilot. We think the best jobs for retired military are working as a commercial airline pilots.
If you are looking for a jobs that pay 100k a year without a college degree, we don’t think there is a better choice.
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Commercial Airline Pilot
- National average salary: about $104,250 per year
- Educational Requirement: A high school diploma is required. Pilots also need a commercial pilot's license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and airline pilots need an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate. Commercial airline pilots typically need 1500 hours of flight experience.
- Primary duties: Pilots are responsible for flying aircraft, checking the condition of an aircraft before and after flights, ensuring that the aircraft is balanced, and operating and controlling aircraft systems. They also need to navigate the aircraft along planned routes and during takeoff and landing and communicate with air traffic control personnel.
- Relevant military roles: Any roles involving flying military aircraft, such as Air Force pilot, helicopter pilot, drone pilot, etc. However: Flex Air Flight School will train any veteran with ZERO experience.
- Learn about how to use your GI Bill and VA Benefits
- Employers: Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines, Envoy Air, Republic Airways, SkyWest Airlines as well as regional and cargo airlines.
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Automotive technician
- National average salary: about $64,000 per year
- Educational Requirement: Most positions require a high school diploma and post-secondary vocational education. Many technicians complete a formal training program at a vocational school or community college.
- Primary duties: Maintenance and repair of vehicles, ensuring compliance with state and federal codes.
- Relevant military roles: Heavy equipment or vehicle maintenance, equipment repair technicians, and with additional training, aviation mechanics.
- Employers: MIDAS, CarMax, Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Ford Motor Company, Bridgestone Americas
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Personal trainer
- National average salary: about $42,250 per year
- Educational Requirement: A high school diploma is usually required. Certification from a recognized organization is often required. Some roles may require a bachelor's degree in exercise science or a related field.
- Primary duties: Assisting clients with fitness goals, preparing customized fitness plans, monitoring workouts, and modifying plans as clients’ needs change.
- Relevant military roles: Any that prioritize physical fitness and offer training experience.
- Employers: Anytime Fitness, Gold’s Gym, YMCA, Equinox, 24 Hour Fitness
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Electrician
- National average salary: about $56,500 per year
- Educational Requirement: Most electricians learn through an apprenticeship, but some start out by attending a technical school. Most states require electricians to be licensed.
- Primary duties: Installing, maintaining, and repairing electrical systems, diagnosing electrical issues, repairing and replacing wiring and other components.
- Relevant military roles: Construction, troubleshooting, diagnosing faults, and maintaining and repairing electrical or electronic systems or components.
- Employers: Tradesmen International, Rogers Electric, Aerotek, Northrop Grumman, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
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Landscape designer
- National average salary: about $56,000 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in landscape design or landscape architecture is often required. Many also hold licenses or certifications, which may require a combination of education and experience.
- Primary duties: Designing outdoor spaces for commercial, residential, and public properties, estimating costs, developing landscape designs to meet client needs.
- Relevant military roles: Any that involve adaptable communication and meticulous attention to detail.
- Employers: Brightview, Pleasant Landscapes, Realty Landscaping, Stantec, Department of Parks and Recreation, many are Self Employed as well.
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Police officer
- National average salary: about $54,300 per year
- Educational Requirement: Range from a high school diploma to a college degree. Most departments require graduation from their training academy.
- Primary duties: Enforcing laws, responding to calls and complaints, conducting property searches, mediating disputes, rescuing victims, detaining and questioning suspects.
- Relevant military roles: Law enforcement or security role, situational awareness, public relations, use of a firearm, decision-making under pressure.
- Employers: Virtual every city and state as well as the military.
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Construction technician
- National average salary: about $58,300 per year
- Educational Requirement: A high school diploma is typically required. Some technicians have post-secondary education such as a certificate or an associate's degree in construction technology or a related field.
- Primary duties: Working in construction environments, cost estimating, project management, project scheduling, and inspection.
- Relevant military roles: Project management roles, leading people, communicating with cross-functional project teams, managing multiple ongoing tasks.
- Employers: Aerotek, Tradesmen International, NPL Construction, Turner Construction
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Aviation technician
- National average salary: about $51,750 per year
- Educational Requirement: Typically, aviation technicians need to earn a certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which often involves graduating from an FAA-approved aviation maintenance technician school.
- Primary duties: Locating, addressing, and resolving issues related to airplane mechanics, performing routine safety checks, ensuring aircraft are up to state and federal code.
- Relevant military roles: Aircraft maintenance and repair, aviation maintenance support.
- Employers: Delta, American Airlines, Air Methods Corp, General Atomics, SpaceX
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Account manager
- National average salary: about $58,000 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in business administration, sales, communications, or a related field is usually required.
- Primary duties: Maintaining positive relationships with clients, scheduling calls and meetings, suggesting new products and services, preparing strategies and quotes, answering client questions.
- Relevant military roles: Any involving customer service and communication skills, building relationships, assessing customer issues.
- Employers: Coca-Cola Refreshments. UnitedHealth Group, Amazon, Verizon
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Operations manager
- National average salary: $67,300 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in operations management, business administration, or a related field is commonly required. Some positions may require a master's degree in business administration (MBA).
- Primary duties: Ensuring company operations are effective and efficient, improving various business procedures, acting as a representative on regulatory concerns, training workforce on policies and regulations.
- Relevant military roles: Leadership roles involving operations management, overseeing people, strategy, projects, budgets, and logistics.
- Employers: JPMorgan Chase & Co The Home Depot, Wells Fargo, CVS Health
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Sales representative
- National average salary: about $68,300 per year
- Educational Requirement: Many positions require a high school diploma, but some, especially those selling technical or scientific products, require a bachelor's degree. Some specialized fields may require knowledge gained through higher education or experience.
- Primary duties: Selling products and services to prospective and existing customers, reaching out to new leads, performing product demos, establishing relationships with new accounts, maintaining communication with existing accounts.
- Relevant military roles: Any that build self-motivation, tenacity, and adaptable communication skills.
- Employers: AT&T, Cintas, ADT, Oracle, Verizon, Dell Technologies
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Technical Writer
- National average salary: about $58,550 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in English, communications, journalism, or a related field is typically required. Some technical writers may also need a degree or knowledge in a specialized field, like computer science or engineering.
- Primary duties: Preparing procedural documents, instruction manuals, how-to guides, and other informational materials. Translating complex information into user-friendly content.
- Relevant military roles: Those involving technical training, policy revision, or revising technical instructions.
- Employers: Leidos, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Oracle, Salesforce, Google, Northrop Grumman
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Financial Analyst
- National average salary: about $71,400 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, or a related field is usually required. Some roles may require a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA).
- Primary duties: Collecting data, creating models, and monitoring economic forecasts to support company’s financial decisions. Identifying market trends and assisting in strategic planning.
- Relevant military roles: Any involving data analysis, troubleshooting, root cause determination, or expenditure tracking.
- Employers: CBRE, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Amazon, Boeing
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Criminal Investigator
- National average salary: about $58,000 per year
- Educational Requirement: Requirements vary widely by agency. Some agencies may require only a high school diploma, while others may require a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice or a related field.
- Primary duties: Gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses, visiting crime scenes, collecting forensic evidence, and testifying in court.
- Relevant military roles: Those involving investigation, root cause analysis, or assessment of complaints or issues.
- Employers: FBI, Every state.
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Quality Assurance Engineer
- National average salary: about $66,000 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in quality assurance, industrial engineering, or a related field is typically required.
- Primary duties: Ensuring product quality by tracking and overseeing development from start to finish, performing tests, and providing feedback.
- Relevant military roles: Especially in the maintenance field, roles that involve compliance with specifications and technical standards, conducting QA inspections and audits, and technical troubleshooting.
- Employers: GE Corporate, Walgreens, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Wells Fargo, Apple, Bank of America
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Registered Nurse
- National average salary: about $88,400 per year
- Educational Requirement: A Bachelor of Science degree in nursing (BSN) is often required, although some nurses may enter the field with an associate degree or a diploma from an approved nursing program.
- Primary duties: Treating patients, providing emotional support, educating patients on care plans, performing diagnostic tests, administering medication and documenting treatments.
- Relevant military roles: Those involving decision-making under pressure, communication in high-stress situations, and diagnosis or root cause analysis.
- Employers: CoreMedical Group, Dignity Health, Kaiser Permanente, Baylor Scott & White Health, Cross Country Nurses, Memorial Hermann Health System, Northwell Health
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Truck Driver
- National average salary: about $71,100 per year
- Educational Requirement: The minimum educational requirement for a truck driver is generally a high school diploma or equivalent. To become a professional truck driver, individuals must also attend a professional truck driving school or vocational college where they can earn a commercial driver’s license (CDL).
- Primary duties: Transporting goods, performing truck inspections, loading and unloading cargo, maintaining logs, and communicating with dispatch centers.
- Relevant military roles: Those that develop skills in working independently, understanding safety standards, and regulatory compliance.
- Employers: UPS, PepsiCo, ProDrivers, J. B. Hunt Transport, Swift Transportation, Schneider, Amazon
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Sales Manager
- National average salary: about $64,900 per year
- Educational Requirement: Many sales managers have a bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, communications, or a related field, although experience may substitute for education.
- Primary duties: Developing and implementing sales strategies, setting objectives, monitoring team progress, coaching and supervising sales staff.
- Relevant military roles: Those that involve team leadership, providing coaching and training, and performance evaluation.
- Employers: Walgreens, Vivint Solar
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Human Resources Manager
- National average salary: about $70,000 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in human resources, business, or a related field is typically required.
- Primary duties: Recruiting, staffing, policy development, training, employee counseling, and onboarding new employees.
- Relevant military roles: Those involving management of staffing, advising on human resources policies, and resolving payroll or benefits issues.
- Employers: about Lowe’s, Cintas
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Supply Chain Manager
- National average salary: about $75,350 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in supply chain management, business, or a related field is usually required.
- Primary duties: Overseeing supply chain, logistics, and operations, reviewing strategies to improve productivity, and maintaining relationships with vendors and distributors.
- Relevant military roles: Those involving logistics and supply chain planning, forecasting needs, monitoring in-stock levels, and problem-solving related to transport of supplies.
- Employers: PepsiCo, CVS, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Amazon, Intel Corporation
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Mechanical Engineer
- National average salary: about $80,100 per year
- Education required: A bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or a related field is usually required. This degree is typically a 4-year program, and it may also require licensure for some positions.
- Primary duties: Planning and designing complex machines such as electric generators, gas and steam turbines, and air-conditioning systems. Managing machine installation, maintenance, repair and replacement.
- Relevant military roles: Roles that involve any type of equipment or component maintenance, reading electrical and wiring diagrams, technical blueprints and equipment specifications.
- Employers: Honeywell, Boeing, Wyzant, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris
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Information Security Analyst
- National average salary: about $93,500 per year
- Education required: Many employers require a bachelor's degree in a computer-related field. Relevant degree fields include information security, cybersecurity, computer science, or a related field.
- Primary duties: Protecting company’s networks, data and computer systems against cybercriminal attacks. Installing data encryption software, updating systems, monitoring for breaches, studying the latest threats, and educating employees on security practices.
- Relevant military roles: Roles that involve interaction with encryption equipment or procedures. Knowledge of information security and cybersecurity.
- Employers: Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics Information Technology, Wells Fargo, American Express, Bank of America
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Project Manager
- National average salary: about $76,700 per year
- Education required: While not always strictly necessary depending on the industry, many employers prefer project managers with a bachelor's degree in business management, business administration, or a related field. Certification such as PMP (Project Management Professional) can be an added advantage.
- Primary duties: Determining project feasibility, preparing a budget, documenting strategy, and leading projects to completion. Overseeing project timelines, facilitating communication between teams, providing progress reports to stakeholders, and ensuring project completion as per scope and schedule.
- Relevant military roles: Roles that involve customer/stakeholder needs assessment, establishing project schedules, and leading cross-functional teams.
- Employers: Verizon, HP, Dell, JPMorgan Chase & Co., IBM, Honeywell, AT&T, Deloitte
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Database Administrator
- National average salary: about $89,900 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in a computer-related field is typically required. Relevant fields of study include database administration, computer science, or information technology.
- Primary duties: Planning, building and overseeing the performance of company’s databases. Performing routine maintenance and upgrades, ensuring database functionality, and protecting against cyber attacks and data leaks.
- Relevant military roles: Roles that involve accurate records keeping, developing custom databases, compiling data, producing detailed reports, and troubleshooting technical systems.
- Employers: Robert Half Technology, Diverse Lynx, IBM, Oracle, Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Verizon
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Software Engineer
- National average salary: about $94,500 per year
- Educational Requirement: Typically, a bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field is required. Some positions may also require knowledge of specific programming languages.
- Primary duties: Designing, building, testing, maintaining and upgrading software systems. Performing project feasibility analyses, preparing flowcharts, diagrams and other informational material to guide design and development process.
- Relevant military roles: Roles that are process-driven, involving the mapping of flowcharts, diagrams and strategic plans.
- Employers: IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Apple, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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Network Security Engineer
- National Average Salary: $104,044 per year
- Educational Requirement: A bachelor's degree in cybersecurity, computer science, or a related field is typically required. This position may also require professional certifications, such as Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
- Primary duties: Protecting a company’s network systems by installing detection and firewall software, performing cybersecurity upgrades, performing systems tests to identify and patch hardware and software vulnerabilities. Resolving cyber attacks quickly to minimize data loss and property damage.
- Relevant military roles: IT and cybersecurity roles, especially ones involving investigative and troubleshooting skills, communication and needs assessment abilities, and meticulous attention to details and regulations.
- Employers: Northrop Grumman, Cisco, Booz Allen Hamilton, Rackspace Technology, Verizon, Cisco Systems, AT&T
Sources:
- Glassdoor.com
- Indeed.com
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics