Picture this: You're home for the holidays, third glass of spiked eggnog in hand, when your cousin (the one who "almost joined,” but would have punched a drill instructor) asks the question:
"So, what do you actually do in the military?"
Your eyes glaze over as you fumble through acronyms like MOS, EABO, and OODA loop. Or worse, you’re on a Tinder date with someone who thinks everyone in the military either flies jets or rolls in the mud all day. Explaining your service to civilians can be a minefield, especially when the holiday libations start hitting hard.
This year, Redeployable leaned into that truth with a holiday tool built for one purpose: help service members explain what they do without turning it into a 30-minute PowerPoint. You plug in your branch, job title, and the person asking (your niece, Tinder date, the cousin who almost joined, or a flight attendant) and it spits out a fast, funny summary you can screenshot and move on with your life. Lighthearted? Yes. But the underlying problem it points to is real — and the company behind it is tackling that problem on a much bigger front.
What Redeployable Brings to the Fight
At its core, Redeployable is about people. Co-founded by CEO Ben Read, a former British Army sergeant with 12 years under his belt, the platform uses AI to cut through the fog of veteran job hunts. "The main mission, core reason, is all about the people," Read told Military.com during a recent interview. "We use AI to support the veteran. We use tools to build confidence to show that they have skills."
Forget the cookie-cutter transition classes that feel like they're cranked out on a factory line. Redeployable starts by mapping out what you've actually built in uniform: grit from patrols, logistics wizardry from supply runs, or IT work that keeps War Department computers humming. Drawing from millions of data points around veteran employment, its AI matches roles like infantryman or aviation tech to more than 1,000 civilian career paths. Then it gets personal: factoring in your location, work style, and where you are in life (i.e., a 38-year-old with a mortgage eyeing a stable schedule).
The result is personally tailored recommendations that give you realistic options with salary breakdowns.
"Transitioning is cookie-cutter and not personalized at all," Read says.
"We try to offer personalized recommendations. We show you the skills you have and the things you could pursue." In a year when veteran unemployment dipped to 2.7% in September (down from 3.1% the month before per the latest Labor Department numbers), underemployment still bites hard. Redeployable aims to fix that by spotlighting paths that stick.
Job Drops: Try It Before You Buy It
One of Redeployable’s most innovative features is the Job Drop — a simulation engine that lets service members “try on” a civilian role before applying.
Users complete short, scenario-driven tasks based on real job functions, such as troubleshooting a supply chain bottleneck or a mock energy grid. The platform evaluates performance, highlights transferable strengths, and flags areas to develop.
“Job Drops give tasks in a simulation that we score with AI and can tell how the veteran would fit into that job,” Read explained.
Job Drops flags jobs safe from automation, suggests tweaks, and even loops in new simulations based on your experience.
The data it generates trumps a static resume, letting users subscribe to "pathways" for early intel on openings. This allows transitioning veterans to get ahead of the pack and show up as the primed candidate. For companies, it's a vet talent pipeline without the guesswork. "We're solving two problems," Read notes. "The black hole veterans face during transition, and the uncertainty employers face in understanding how a veteran fits.”
Feedback throughout the process is tangible: Less "What now?" panic and more targeted leaps. For example, an aviation tech testing energy roles may find through a Job Drop that his skills map to turbine maintenance - complete with employer intros before applications even drop.
Resumeless Wins and Scaling the Impact
Redeployable’s results are impressive already. Recently, entire cohorts landed jobs at Honeywell and Schneider Electric; groups hired without a single resume crossing a desk.
"We got veterans hired at Honeywell, cohorts of them without management ever seeing a resume," Read shared.
The hires were a lightswitch moment for Redeployable. These hires are not flukes, but rather they are proof of military aptitude in critical infrastructure, where AI's power hunger is sparking demand for trainable hands-on pros.
Compared to staples like SkillBridge or VA workshops, Redeployable operates with a different goal: scale. More than 200,000 service members transition each year, and while existing programs serve many well, large numbers still fall through the cracks or struggle to translate their military experience into roles with long-term growth. “There are great programs already out there,” Read acknowledges. “We’re trying to solve this problem at scale. SkillBridge is a great program, but from a tech perspective, I haven’t seen anything yet that’s truly built to support tens of thousands of people at once.” With a veteran-founded team, a growing U.S.–U.K. footprint, and partnerships with organizations like The Honor Foundation, Redeployable is pushing to close that gap by making personalized, data-driven career navigation accessible to far more transitioning service members.
Read's own pivot fuels the fire. Post-Army, he sold photocopiers in north London before landing a software sales job. But seeing underemployed peers hit hard. "I quit my job on paternity leave, and I set the business up," he recalls. "I saw a lot of my former military friends who were underemployed. So I started to ask the question, "Why are these people not reaching their potential in civilian life?"
The Bottom Line for Veterans and Beyond
In 2025, AI is reshaping everything from cloud software to energy grids. Redeployable is more than a tool – it is a force multiplier for transitioning veterans. It builds on self-reflection while keeping finances front and center. Users report balancing purpose with paychecks, easing that first-year squeeze.
Head to redeployable.io for a free skills scan or the holiday pitch generator. As Read puts it, "At the end of the day, I always bring it back to the people. I want to help everyone." For today's forces, that's a mission worth saluting.
