It all comes down to how you think about your transition from the military to a successful, well-paying civilian profession. According to PreVeteran creator Jason Anderson, it's all in your head; all you have to do is shift your thinking and connect yourself with the private sector.

He knows what he's talking about because he's backed up by experience and studies.

A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Anderson has been a C-130 Hercules pilot for two decades, as well as an entrepreneur and worker in the civilian aerospace industry. He reflected on the thoughts, emotions, and acts that dominated his transformation in the years following his divorce.

He founded PreVeteran, a research-based transition assistance program aimed at helping separated service personnel understand their worth, navigate the civilian market successfully, and find meaningful work.

Every departing service member's military separation checklist includes the current Transition Assistance Program, also known as TAP. For many years, it was a weeklong course aimed at teaching soon-to-be civilians about job hunting, VA benefits, and other perks individuals receive after leaving the military, among other things.

TAP was made available to service members 365 days before their separation date in 2019. In the program, veterans are taught about VA benefits and educational, job, and entrepreneurial opportunities to help them transition to civilian life.

The approach of PreVeteran's Transition 2.0 is being validated by a researcher at Texas A&M University. It's a holistic, individually personalized approach that gives veterans the foundation and resources to help service members adjust to civilian life before leaving the military.

This specific focus, according to Anderson, will enable students to locate the industry, company, function, and degree of work that is a good fit for them. Because the private sector requires an expert, and this is how they promote openings on job sites, veterans require this degree of specificity.

Military members who have never seen a job board before do not grasp how that role contributes to the profit-making organization without going through this training.