A new nonprofit program seeks to help veterans break into artificial intelligence (AI) career fields by combining their unique qualifications with free tech career-focused education and connections to employers eager to leverage veteran skill sets.
Vets in AI is a new initiative from the veteran jobs nonprofit VetsinTech. First announced early this year in California with a separate, more recent rollout in D.C., the program aims to leverage its network and resources to place thousands of skilled veterans in various AI tech jobs, said founder Katherine Webster. The program also serves military spouses, she said.
The program assists veterans and spouses in three key areas: education to build skills, employment networking to land jobs, and entrepreneurship connections to help start businesses and find investors.
Webster, a tech industry insider and daughter of a longtime Air National Guardsman, said she started VetsinTech in 2012 after noticing a gap in tech industry outreach to veterans. With the help of various tech employers eager to use veteran talent and philanthropist Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, VetsinTech has reached about 800,000 veterans since its founding and has 20 individual chapters, she said.
Veterans and military spouses are particularly suited to careers in tech and AI, even if they don’t know it, Webster said. That means landing a high-paying role in the tech growth industry is well within reach, she said.
“They absolutely can do these jobs,” she said. “Some people get scared by the fact that they don’t think they’re qualified, but there is a job for everyone.”
Those who successfully land tech or AI jobs can expect to earn an average of $120,000 to $140,000 within a few years, she said.
Just like other career fields offer a wide variety of non-specialized roles, not all jobs in tech and AI are highly technical, she said. The industry also needs people to fill roles in everything from human resources to project management. All a prospective employee needs is to be minimally tech-savvy and willing to learn, she said.
Veterans and military spouses are also uniquely well-positioned to succeed in tech and AI fields thanks to their backgrounds and values systems, she said.
“The security background, the ethics, the trust, even security clearances, the way they can go from a physical world to a digital world in protection and in the thought process of what they need to do,” she said. “Yes, I do believe they’re uniquely suited, especially since we’re at the forefront of AI.”
Employers recognize the value of placing veterans in tech fields, she said, which is why they are eager to help veterans and spouses get these jobs. In addition to sponsoring VetsinTech and Vets in AI programming education, employers like Microsoft and Adobe participate in quarterly virtual hiring fairs that directly connect veterans with companies looking to fill open roles.
Visit VetsinTech to learn more about the Vets in AI program. Participation is as easy as signing up, and most programming does not have a waitlist, Webster said.