Veterans have to get out of the military mindset if they’re going to adapt to the civilian workplace. And that means gearing up for a new outlook even before they leave the armed forces behind.

While it’s important to be proud of military service, it’s also critical for a vets career to know how to play up and play down their years serving your country, advised Randy Plunkett, the director of community and government outreach for Military.com, during our live web chat Wednesday.

“Two common mistakes transitioning military make are to not start early in transitioning and to use military jargon on their resumes,” he told readers.

One reader, Phil, a captain in the Army with a degree in history from West Point, asked Plunkett: “What kind of jobs are available for someone with my background?”

Plunkett’s response:

“Think about your ancillary experience. Not only do you have a degree, you have more than just your army job. You are a human resources manager - talking with soldiers about their careers, you supervise and manage extensive training programs, you actively participate in performance reviews, and you have extensive diversity and inclusion workplace experience.”

It’s all about taking your experience in the military, he explained, and pointing out how what you did can fit into the real work world.

“We need a fundamental change in thinking,” he stressed. “Military members have to think in terms of their big picture, large category experience, not just their classification.”

Here’s the entire Q&A with Plunkett:

 Join us next Wednesday for another live web chat with an expert that will address money or work issues.

Courtesy Andrae Evans

Andrae Evans in Kandahar during humanitarian patrol in 2009.

Members of the National Guard and Reserve sign up to serve our country as needed, and when they return home many expect to find their civilian jobs waiting for them.

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

Tim Hack

Adrae Evans with his daughter Ariel, wife Kristin, and son Gabe, before his 4th deployment.

Andrae Evans was an insurance sales manager and a member of the New York Army National Guard in 2004 when he was deployed to Iraq. When he was released from active duty in 2006 his former employer, MassMutual Financial Group, would not reinstate him to the position he left behind.

“I hoped to work things out with MassMutual and believed, wrongly, that they would do the right thing,” said Evans, who's been unable to find work and recently took on a temporary National Guard assignment. He is now in Bagram, Afghanistan, and is suing MassMutual. The company says they were not required to reinstate Evans because he was an independent contractor, not an employee.

In another case, a prosecutor for the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, Andrew Gross, signed up for the U.S. Army Reserve in 2009, and when he returned from a six-month military training program found his job wasn’t waiting for him when he returned.

“I was told I’d have to go to the back of the line to get my job back,” said Gross, who sued the State’s Attorney's office and settled the case late last year.

Mark Cheshire, a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office, said the new state's attorney inherited the case from his predecessor and moved “to resolve the matter in an equitable fashion" when he took office.

National Guard and Reserve soldiers have faced numerous deployments and calls to duty during the years of war over the past decade, and many have returned to find they no longer had jobs they expected to return to. Some contend they have faced  discrimination on their return, or retaliation for their military service.

Such actions are illegal under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA, which is supposed to help protect veterans when they return to the workforce. 

Complaints brought under the law have escalated in recent years, mirroring the number of guard and reservists returning to their civilian lives.

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve

Number inquiries from vets regarding USERRA and total number of cases taking on by the government.

According to data from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, inquiries under the law started to skyrocket in 2010, more than doubling to 34,612, compared with a year earlier. The number of Guard and Reserve members who came off active duty during 2010 also spiked to 91,931 from 48,702 in 2009 before dropping to 45,968 last year, according to the Defense Department.

The number of USERRA complaints also dipped to about 30,000 in 2011, and shows signs of leveling off so far this year. But many veteran advocates expect the problem to continue as the drawdown from Afghanistan proceeds.

“I think as the wars have gone on it has challenged, both spiritually and pragmatically, civilian employers' approach to USERRA,” said Ward Carroll, editor of the Military.com website and blog.

While he’s empathetic to employers who’ve had to function without key employees during their deployments, he stressed the importance of complying with the law.

“It’s part of your duty as an American employer to comply with USERRA and help citizen soldiers,” he said. “Between now and 2014, these challenges to USERRA will continue.”

Steven D. Silverman, the attorney who represented Gross in his suit against the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, said he’s seen a doubling in USERRA claims in his practice over the past year. “I attribute that to the economy and ignorance of the law by employers,” he said.

Indeed, a March survey by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America found that nearly 40 percent of veterans polled felt their employer didn’t have enough information about their rights under USERRA.

Gross said he doesn’t believe his managers wanted to undermine military service. “I think if they had an understanding of the law this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

In the case of Evans, who worked for MassMutual, his complaint is that he was not reinstated in the higher position he got before being deployed, said Michael Macomber, an attorney with Tully Rinckey who is representing him. The law, he noted, doesn’t just call for hiring employees back, but also keeping them in a similar position.

MassMutual said in a statement it is “fully complying” with USERRA and will “vigorously defend” its position in court.

A tight job market has exacerbated the problem in recent years, agreed government officials and legal experts. The unemployment rate among veterans who've been on active duty since September 2001 was 12.1 percent in 2011, compared to 8.2 percent overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Of course while business conditions may change, most employers want to do the right thing and comply with the law by hiring back returning veterans.

“I believe our employers by an overwhelming vast majority are living up to their responsibilities under USERRA," said Ronald Young, director of family and employer programs and policy in the Pentagon’s Office of Reserve Affairs.

While Young acknowledged some of the uptick in USERRA complaints might have resulted from employers skirting the law, a big chunk had to do with better tracking of cases and more outreach to employers and employees by the government.

His agency recognizes employers that do a good job supporting National Guard and Reserve members by awarding them the Freedom Award. This year Intel Corp. made the list.

Courtesy Mark Miera

Mark Miera

“We have tools in place to help managers fill temporary positions for whatever reason the position is open,” said Lisa Malloy, a spokeswoman for Intel, which employs 100,000, including about 3,000 who have been in the military. 

Mark Miera, 43, a National Guard member in New Mexico who’s worked for Intel for 18 years, has had two deployments since 9/11, including a stint in Afghanistan that ended in December.

When he was overseas colleagues messaged him about a position as manager of construction at Intel, and before he came back to work he ended up with a promotion.

“Intel has always moved beyond the requirements of the law,” he said. “They don’t question protecting veterans returning from war and their positions.”

(For more on this issue, join a live web chat Wednesday at noon ET with Randy Plunkett, Military.com's government relations and community director. Click here to join the chat.)

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IAVA’s Paul Rieckhoff and veteran Jessi Tseng join Andrea Mitchell Reports to talk about the employment opportunities for veterans and whether a GI bill is needed.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

Sen. Jack Reed, a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger, talks about his efforts to help homeless veterans find housing and jobs. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

NBC’s Charles Hadlock reports live from a job fair at Fort Hood, Texas. Hadlock discusses why soldiers are pushed to take classes on how to find a job after their service is finished. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

MSNBC’s Richard Lui reports from the USS Intrepid, where a jobs fair for veterans is taking place on Wednesday. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

In Congress, multiple bills are in the works to either directly fund veterans’ employment programs or encourage businesses to step up. Rep. Tim Griffin and Rep. Bill Pascrell discuss.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

Col. Jack Jacobs talks about the unemployment rate and says “military veterans are the most qualified people anywhere,” because they have had a lot of responsibilities at a young age. Sen. John Manchin joins the discussion to talk about his initiative “I Hire Veterans,” saying, “it’s easy to talk the talk but you got to walk the walk.”

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

By Jay Blackman
NBC News

Long after the welcome home ceremonies, the standing ovations at sporting events and in airports, and the hugs and tears, reality sets in for veterans returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. For a large number of them, the new battle is for a full time job in an economy where so many other folks are out of work. The numbers tell the story. According to the United States Department of Labor, veterans who have served on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001 are experiencing a 12.1 percent unemployment rate, with young male vets under the age of 25 suffering the worst -- a 29.1 percent unemployment rate.

There is hope, however, in the form of job fairs sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The program, which started last year, hosted 100 job fairs nationwide, successfully pairing veterans with positions in the private sector.  This year, the Chamber of Commerce partnered with NBC Universal to host ‘Hiring our Heroes,’ and expanded the number of job fairs to 400.   

So far, 5,000 employers have hired more than 8,000 returning veterans.

Click here to find a job fair near you.

For one veteran, Marine Sgt. Edzavier Reese, it wasn't just his skills that got him a job, it was incredible timing and luck.  He had bounced from job to job in California after finishing his five deployments -- four to Iraq and one to Afghanistan -- but now Reese was looking for more.

"I was still stuck trying to be like, ‘I want to like something the way I like being in the Marines,’" he said.

Marine Sgt. Edzavier Reese found a job at GameStop in Atlanta, Ga., through the 'Hiring our Heroes' job fair.

Reese made the decision to return back home to Atlanta, Ga late last year. At first, he was going to take it slow, but once he got behind the wheel of his blue Mazda6, he decided to make the drive straight through, arriving at his mother’s house late afternoon.  A friend told him about a vets-only job fair at the Georgia Dome.  Reese wanted to take a nap, but said he knew he had to go.

"I went into the house, took a shower and shaved my head, and went over there," he said. 

When he got there, the fair was almost over.  As luck would have it, GameStop’s Mark Qualls noticed Reese. 

"I saw a guy coming through, great suit, shoulders back, walking straight, great presence -- he's got to come talk to me," said Qualls, a regional manager at the computer and video game retailer.  

After a brief conversation, Qualls saw in Reese what he says he sees in other returning veterans. "These days most of our veterans coming in have had some type of military service on the war front. So add to that high stress environment, a lot at stake -- quick decision making ability is really important -- and then lastly you have things like determination and honesty and honor and loyalty and that's not just words for them. They take an oath on that and they really believe it. So the better question is, ‘How can you not hire our veterans?’" 

Lisa Rosser, who is also a veteran, now runs a group called The Value of a Veteran, which helps organizations improve veteran recruitment. She says hiring veterans just makes good business sense.

"The military person has the skill sets you need,” she said.  Eighty-one percent of the jobs fit what you have in your organization, and the other skills that we bring are managerial and operational and training and leadership experience. What employer doesn't need those types of skills in their workplace?"

Reese was eventually offered a management trainee job at a GameStop in Atlanta. He says he is eager to get his own store soon. 

“I was pretty excited on the inside,” he said. “But like I said, you’ve got to maintain your cool, you have to.”  

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.

Sen. Jim Webb talks about the concern that the post 9/11 GI Bill program has been abused by some universities. 

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here. 

The unemployment rate for veterans reached 12.1 percent last year, almost 30 percent higher than national average. Jon Soltz joins NewsNation’s Tamron Hall to talk about the Hiring our Heroes initiative, which has organized job fairs around the country and online to provide support.

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.