Grant Gibson, Marine Corps veteran and lead instructor for MyComputerCareer’s Cyber Warrior Program, recently had his insights on veteran cybersecurity careers picked up by Military.com. He joined MyCC’s “Get Into IT” live broadcast to dig deeper into the topic, and his message was clear: Veterans don’t always realize what a great match they are for the IT industry.
The Translation Problem
The biggest hurdle veterans face isn’t a lack of skills. It’s knowing how to talk about them.
“When you’ve been speaking one language for four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty years, it’s really hard to know how other people communicate about the same things,” Grant said.
He pointed to a common example: In the military, you might serve as a safety NCO. In the civilian world, that role translates directly to risk analysis and risk management, core functions within governance, risk, and compliance. But most veterans don’t make that connection on their own, and neither do hiring managers reading their resumes.
When the Place Is on Fire
Grant put it simply: The time an employer needs you most is when everything falls apart. Servers go down. Communications drop. Most people panic.
“In the military, we’re used to being in environments where the place is on fire,” he said. “And we don’t panic. We just calmly go and look around. We assess the situation, we do our job.”
That ability to stay composed under pressure, think critically, and keep a business running when things break is exactly what IT employers need. And it’s a skill that’s hard to teach.
AI Didn’t Replace IT Jobs. It Created a Boomerang.
Grant addressed the elephant in the room: companies that cut IT staff in favor of AI are now bringing those roles back. “They did it,” he said. “And then the work suffered because it doesn’t produce the same quality as a human does. It (the AI) needs somebody to sit there and guide it.”
The takeaway? IT professionals aren’t going anywhere. AI can support the work, but it can’t replace the people doing it.
Stop Calling It a Home Lab
This one was blunt: “Don’t call it a home lab. You did a project.”
Grant tells his students to stop labeling their hands-on work as home labs and start calling them what they truly are: IT projects. “A project sounds like work experience,” he said. “Put that on your resume. Go to GitHub and document it. Now you’ve got documented experience potential employers can go and see.”
“You’re Needed”
Grant’s closing advice was direct: “You’re needed. First and foremost, you’re needed. There is a role that you can fill.”
He encouraged veterans not to underestimate how well their skills transfer. “Even though you don’t think you know anything about IT, you know more than you think,” he said. “Anybody can do this. It just takes time and effort, a willingness to put your nose to the grindstone a little bit. And if you do that, there are careers waiting for you.”
Grant helped build MyComputerCareer’s Cyber Warrior Program specifically for veterans transitioning into IT and cybersecurity. He designed the curriculum, teaches alongside fellow veteran instructors, and the majority of students in the program are veterans and service members. The full-time program covers four CompTIA certifications (A+, Network+, Security+, and CySA+) and gives students what Grant calls ‘three months of on-the-job experience.’
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