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With 48% of companies ranking recruiting top talent, and 68% reporting difficulty reaching ideal candidates in the recruitment process, organizations are looking for ways to optimize their talent attraction strategies and processes. Prioritizing the recruitment of student veterans is one way that corporate recruiters can tap into a top talent pool that is often overlooked in companies’ recruitment efforts. From excellent academic achievements to prior work experience, here is why recruiters should prioritize student veterans in their hiring efforts. On average, student veterans outperform their non-veteran peers academically. Student veterans are more likely to pursue and graduate with highly sought after business and STEM degrees. Beyond attaining degrees in demanding and complex fields of study, student veterans also earn, on average a 3.35 GPA , in comparison to the non-veteran student average GPA of 3.11. Student veterans have a proven professional track record. Organizations that learn to translate military experience and identify transferrable skills gain a major competitive advantage; many companies overlook or misplace veteran hires because they don’t know what various responsibilities and jobs in the military entail. Student veterans have a proven professional track record from their time in the service, and advanced degrees. While their working experience is specific to the military, the transferrable skills student veterans have developed make them stand out from their non-veteran student peers. Student veterans are diverse candidate pool. The majority of employees report that their employers need to do more to increase diversity at their organizations. Prioritizing the hiring of student veterans enhances diversity and inclusion initiatives within organizations by encouraging inclusive hiring practices and processes. The student veteran pool is made up of a diverse set of candidates, with different backgrounds, creeds, ethnicities; by targeting student veterans, recruiters and organizations can enhance their organizations’ approach to intersectional, inclusive hiring. Military experience instills highly-desirable qualities in student veteran candidates. Student veterans typically have many of the qualities corporate recruiters and hiring managers prioritize in candidates; these qualities are indicative of candidates’ potential and anticipated contribution to an organization. Military service cultivates and requires a strong work ethic , leadership skills, reliability, loyalty, teamwork, problem-solving skills, time-management, and organization. These soft skills, coupled with advanced academic achievement and prior work experience, make for highly desirable candidates. Recruiting top talent is a highly time-intensive, expensive undertaking. As corporate recruiters and hiring managers are considering how to get the most out of their investment in talent, finding candidates who possess both the hard and soft skills that will help make their organizations thrive, prioritizing student veterans in recruitment strategies should be a priority . To learn more about how to best tap into the student veteran talent pool, join American Veterans Group for its virtual panel discussion – VetSuccess: Campus to Career – on April 24, 2024 from 1:00-2:00 pm EST.