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About Civilian Compass

Nobody leaves the military without potential. Plenty leave without direction.

Civilian Compass is a free platform that helps you figure out what you want to do next, and then gives you a system for going and getting it. It was built by one veteran, out of three years of conversations with hundreds of veterans across industries.

Two hundred thousand people leave the service every year. Most of them are on their own.

TAP is built to be universal. Resume basics, benefits, the logistics of separating. It has to work for everybody, which means it can't go deep for anybody.

Some people go straight to grad school and buy themselves two years to figure it out. That's a real option, and an expensive one.

Everyone else is in the middle. You don't want another degree. You want the right next role. And there's almost nothing built for that, which is why the defense recruiter's email ends up being the loudest voice in the room. Not because it's the best option. Because it's the one that showed up.

It's three decisions, and you've made them before.

Every assignment you ever got came down to what you'd be doing, who you'd be doing it for, and where. Civilian careers work exactly the same way. The words change. The decisions don't.

What you doWho you do it forWhere you do it
ArmyMOSUnit, battalion, brigadePost
MarinesMOS, billetUnit, battalionBase
NavyRating, designator, billetCommand, ship, squadronHomeport
Air ForceAFSCSquadron, wingBase
Space ForceAFSCSquadron, deltaBase
Coast GuardRatingCommand, unitStation
CivilianCross-functional roleIndustryLocation

Pick the role and the industry and you've narrowed a market of millions down to something you can actually work. Most people try to pick a company first. That's backwards, and it's why the search feels endless.

Phase 1

What actually happens

  1. You start with a guess.

    Not a decision. A hypothesis about the role and the industry you think might fit. It's allowed to be wrong. It's supposed to be revisable.

  2. We build you a list.

    Twenty companies measured against that hypothesis, each with a reason it's there. You keep five. The rest go back.

  3. You find your people.

    Three veterans inside each company who share an uncommon commonality with you, and you set up the conversations. Your network, your outreach, your relationships. We're not the middleman.

  4. You have the conversations.

    Not interviews. You're not asking for a job, you're asking what the work is actually like. This is the part that feels uncomfortable for about two weeks and then doesn't.

  5. You rate every one on a scale of 1 to 10.

    Right after, before you talk yourself into or out of anything.

  6. We show you the pattern.

    After fifteen conversations, your own ratings say something you couldn't have said at the start. Sorted by role, by industry, by company. That's the signal in the noise, and finding it is the part we're actually built for.

  7. You're done when you're a nine or ten out of ten.

    That the role and the industry you picked are the right ones to go after. Not a job offer. Certainty.

The unfair advantage you already have

An uncommon commonality is something you share with someone that feels like a coincidence. Same school. Same hometown. Same ship. Same service.

It's the difference between a cold message and a warm one, and veterans reaching out to veterans is about as warm as it gets. It's why your outreach works when a recruiter's doesn't.

When I had an uncommon commonality, I was five times more likely to get a response. Nine out of ten wrote back within six weeks.

Lang, founder

What we don't do

We don't place you. Nobody here gets paid when you take a job, which means nothing on this platform is steering you toward a particular company.

We don't blast your resume anywhere.

We don't promise you an offer.What we promise is that you'll understand the market, understand yourself, and come out the other side with a network you can use every time you change jobs for the rest of your career.

Start with one conversation.

Six questions to set your direction. No account until you've seen something worth saving, no card ever, and no recruiter waiting on the other end.

Get startedFree for veterans. No recruiter on the other end.

Still deciding? I host office hours every week. Bring the questions you don't want to ask your chain of command. Save a seat →