The Effect of Veteran Status on Job Candidate Assessments in U.S. Local Governments

Abstract

Veterans are often framed as an untapped resource for local governments to boost the public service workforce. While past recruitment efforts tend to draw a straight line from military experience to civilian careers in policing and emergency services, it remains unclear how HR professionals, more generally, weigh military experience when assessing candidate preparedness for a managerial career in public service. We examine how veteran status affects U.S. city and county HR directors’ evaluation of candidates for entry-level managerial positions in local government. Using an experimental design, we randomly assign candidate characteristics–veteran vis-à-vis non-veteran status and male vis-à-vis female–and observe HR directors’ assessment of candidate preparedness. Our findings reveal a premium of veteran status on candidate assessments relative to similar private sector experience, while results are less conclusive when the comparison is made to similar public sector experience. Additionally, we find no clear evidence of disparate assessments of candidate preparedness as a function of candidate gender