Career Transition Support for Veterans Exiting the ADF

This page explains how professional career development support for veterans works, what is included, and how this service supports veterans to navigate defence-to-civilian transition with clarity, dignity, and confidence.

Welcome

Transitioning from the Australian Defence Force is not simply a job change.

For many veterans, it is a complex transition involving identity, structure, purpose, health, family life, and the practical realities of entering the civilian workforce. This is particularly true when separation is unplanned, medically driven, or shaped by administrative processes outside an individual’s control.

What Veteran Career Transition Support Is

Veteran career transition support is a structured, evidence-based career development process designed specifically for current and former ADF members.

This work supports veterans to:

  • Clarify career direction after service

  • Translate military skills, leadership, and experience into civilian language

  • Understand how their experience fits within the Australian labour market

  • Make informed decisions about employment, retraining, or study

  • Develop practical career tools with confidence and understanding

This approach draws on career development theory and transition counselling frameworks adapted for defence-to-civilian contexts.

It is not job placement, and it is not generic career coaching.

Why Transition After Defence Is Different

Service in the ADF shapes more than technical skills.

It shapes:

  • Identity and sense of purpose

  • Decision-making under responsibility and constraint

  • Team-based ways of working

  • Language, hierarchy, and structure

  • Expectations of self and others

When these systems change or fall away, veterans often experience a period of re-orientation that standard employment services are not designed to support.

Career transition after Defence is not only about employment. It is about re-establishing direction in a new context.

How the Career Transition Process Works

While every transition is individual, the work typically moves through recognisable phases.

1. Orientation and Stabilisation

We clarify where you are now, what has changed, and what support is needed to move forward steadily and safely.

2. Identity and Skills Translation

We identify transferable skills, leadership capability, and experience, and translate them into civilian language that employers understand.

3. Capacity and Life Context

We consider health, energy, family life, and practical constraints so career decisions are realistic and sustainable.

4. Career Direction and Decision-Making

We explore employment, retraining, or portfolio options grounded in Australian labour market realities.

5. Practical Tools and Job Search Strategy

This includes résumé development, LinkedIn profiles, interview preparation, and job search strategy, developed collaboratively so you retain skills and confidence long term.

Services Included

Depending on your situation, this work may include:

  • Career clarity and decision-making support

  • Defence-to-civilian skills translation

  • Career direction and transition planning

  • Burnout-aware capacity and sustainability assessment

  • Résumé and LinkedIn development as an upskilling process

  • Interview preparation and job search strategy

Support is tailored to your stage of transition and individual circumstances.

What Many Veterans Don’t Expect

Career transition after Defence can feel:

  • Disorienting and slower than anticipated

  • Frustrating when experience is misunderstood

  • Emotionally complex, even when leaving service was the right decision

These responses are normal. Effective career transition support acknowledges the whole experience, not just the employment outcome.

Why Work With Me?

Meet the Founder and Professional Career Development Practitioner, Narelle Vigor

Veterans often seek career support from people who understand the reality of transition, not just the theory.

I have spent thousands of hours supporting hundreds of veterans through defence-to-civilian transition. This includes veterans exiting through medical separation, voluntary separation, and administrative discharge, with medical separation forming the majority of my caseload.

This means I am familiar with the complexity that often accompanies leaving Defence, particularly when transition is unplanned or shaped by factors outside an individual’s control.

Deep Experience with Defence Force Transition Program

I have supported veterans navigating:

  • The administrative burden of Defence separation processes

  • Prolonged and uncertain timelines for Permanent Impairment assessments

  • Engagement with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA)

  • Interactions with ComSuper and income support processes

  • The challenges of accessing timely and effective advocacy

I understand that career decisions are often being made alongside significant uncertainty, delay, and emotional load.

This work does not attempt to fix systems beyond an individual’s control. Instead, it supports veterans to make career decisions that are realistic, paced, and sustainable within the context they are actually living in.

Informed, Respectful, and Non-Clinical Support

While I am not a medical or psychological provider (you probably already have those), my approach is informed by extensive exposure to the lived realities of veterans managing injury, illness, loss of role, capacity changes, and identity shift.

Career development support in this context requires:

  • Patience rather than pressure

  • Clarity without false certainty

  • Respect for service and experience

  • Practical guidance grounded in real constraints

This is career development support delivered with deep contextual understanding.

Boutique Support with National Reach

As a boutique provider, I work closely with each veteran rather than applying standardised, volume-based models.

I am based in Albury and work online, supporting veterans anywhere in Australia, including those in regional, remote, and metropolitan locations.

Book a Complimentary Consult

Who This Service Is For

This service is suited to veterans who:

  • Are preparing to exit the ADF

  • Have recently transitioned and feel unclear or underutilised

  • Are navigating medical separation or unplanned discharge

  • Are managing complex administrative processes alongside transition

  • Want professional, respectful support beyond job placement services

Who This Is Not For

This approach may not be the right fit if you are seeking:

  • A quick, transactional résumé service only

  • Job placement without deeper career work

  • Generic advice that does not account for Defence context

Frequently Asked Questions – Veteran Career Transition Support

  • Yes. I support veterans transitioning via medical separation, voluntary separation, and administrative discharge. The process is tailored to your circumstances and stage of transition, including situations where timelines and administrative requirements are uncertain or prolonged.

  • No. This is professional career development support, not recruitment or job placement. The focus is on career clarity, defence-to-civilian skills translation, informed decision-making, and practical job search capability rather than matching you to a role.

  • Résumé support is included where relevant, but it is delivered as an upskilling process. We work together to translate your experience into civilian language so you understand how to articulate your value and can update your documents confidently over time.

  • Yes. Defence-to-civilian translation is a core part of the service. This includes identifying transferable skills, leadership capability, and experience and translating them into language Australian employers understand.

  • Yes. Many veterans engage in career decision-making while managing complex administrative processes and uncertain timelines, including engagement with DVA, Permanent Impairment assessments, and ComSuper matters. Career support is paced realistically and designed to work within the context you are living in.

  • No. This is non-clinical career development support. While career transition often involves identity and emotional adjustment, this service does not replace medical, psychological, or clinical care.

  • Yes. Services are delivered online, supporting veterans anywhere in Australia, including regional, remote, and metropolitan locations.

  • The best time is as early as practical, including during the planning stages of transition. However, support is equally relevant after separation, particularly if you feel stuck, underutilised, or uncertain about your direction in civilian work.

Next Steps

If you are tired of the run around, copying your mates resume hoping it will work for you, and still unsure of where you sit in the ‘system’ and what the world on ‘civvy street’ looks like, then let’s talk about what is possible.

My mission is to help those who serve us the most, and veterans are on that list, and when capacity changes because of your work history I know the disorientation. Book a conversation today about how I might be able to help smooth the process for you through this period. It has been my privilege to serve veterans for over 5 years. Initial consult is 30 minutes and on the house, let’s talk about your transition experience and I will give you an honest assessment of how I might be able to help (or not).

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