Veterans Alliance is privately owned and operated to serve veterans. We are not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Veterans Alliance — Veterans Alliance
← All Mississippi benefits
employmentstate

Top of the Eligible List — Disabled Veterans First

When an agency receives its list of eligible applicants for a state job, disabled veterans and veterans are placed at the top of that list, with disabled veterans ahead of veterans — and every applicant must state veteran status on the application.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

When an agency receives its list of eligible applicants for a state job, disabled veterans and veterans are placed at the top of that list, with disabled veterans ahead of veterans — and every applicant must state veteran status on the application.

Who is entitled to it

  • You served in the armed forces.
  • You are applying in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Answer the veteran status question. The State Personnel Board requires every applicant to indicate veteran status on the application, and the recruitment platform is configured to act on that answer.
  2. 2The preference operates when the agency receives its list of eligible applicants: disabled veterans and veterans are listed at the top, with disabled veterans listed before veterans.
  3. 3A Purple Heart recipient qualifies as a disabled veteran under the 2019 legislation that set the current definitions, so the higher tier is worth checking even without a rating decision in hand.
  4. 4Keep the DD 214 ready. The preference turns on status the agency can confirm, and the discharge document is what confirms it.
Form
State job application — the veteran status question on the application is what raises the preference
File with
The hiring state agency, through the State Personnel Board recruitment system
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThis is not a points scheme. Nothing is added to a score — the preference changes where a name sits on the list the hiring agency sees, and the ordering between the two veteran tiers is fixed: disabled veterans before veterans.
Worth knowingThe 2019 legislation redefined "veteran" and "disabled veteran" to line up with the federal definitions, and made Purple Heart recipients disabled veterans. A veteran whose eligibility was assessed before that change is worth reassessing.
Worth knowingA separate route exists for military spouses. The State Personnel Board takes part in the Military Spouse Transition Network, which helps a spouse already working for a state agency find work in the state they are moving to on a permanent change of station — resume help, skills translation and contacts, arranged through the board.
Known gapThe board’s page does not state whether the preference reaches promotion or layoff retention, or what happens where two disabled veterans are on the same list. Ask the hiring agency before assuming either way.

Sources

Why only one source type: The State Personnel Board administers the statewide personnel system and describes the mechanism, the ordering and the application requirement on its own page. The code is published behind a commercial host that was not readable this session.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.