How would a “dishonorable discharge” from the military effect a former soldier’s ability to get a civilian job?
It depends on how deeply the employer wants to research his background. If he doesn’t put on his application/resume that he was ever in the military, the odds are they’ll never even check.
I hire people all the time for high tech jobs. If someone put on their resume that they were dishonorably discharged it would raise a red flag with me. I would want to know why, and depending on the reason I may not even bother doing an interview.
You have to do something bad to get the “duck dinner,” as my grandpa would say. Really, really bad. I don’t know why anyone would ever in a million years voluntarily mention that they were DDed.
But if you don’t list your military service, there will be an unexplained gap (unless you got discharged very quickly).
A dishonorable discharge is the result of a court martial conviction, which often is the equivalent of a federal felony conviction. As such, you’d have to report it as part of your job application.
A dishonorable discharge will make you ineligible for most federal jobs.
How aware are hiring managers these days of the various type of discharge and their implications? I imagine for managers born in the WWII and Korea generations, a DD or an OTH or “General” discharge might brand someone as definitely undesirable. But for managers these days born in the 70s or 80s, if a guy said, “oh yeah, I received a general discharge” would the interviewer just shrug “huh, ok. Next question . . .” ?
They’d probably think it meant that you were discharged as a general, and give you the job.
I guess if it’s a long gap, or recent you have to list it, but if you just lie and say your discharge was honorable, I still think a lot of employers aren’t going to bother check it. Actually, I’m not even sure they can. I don’t know if any employer has ever checked on my military record, but I don’t think they can really verify anything but the dates you served (and maybe not even that much).
If noticed, just stress that it was a matter of conscience and give out the true statement that there are some orders it would be wrong to obey. Leave it to them to conflate the issue of your discharge and the unrelated ideal of refusing immoral orders.
If pressed claim you are bound by national security not to reveal anything about the trial as it was classified secret.
And you could mention that your grandfather died at Auschwitz.
(Leaving out that he was killed by a fall from the guard tower.)
While I was in a friend of mine received a general discharge for popping positive twice for marijuana on a piss test. He didn’t really have a hard time finding a good job.
I know a bad conduct discharge (BCD) or (Bad Chicken Dinner) had consequences as far as Federal jobs.
Same for OTH but these weren’t common when I was in back in the mid 80’s.
Everybody knew that you did not want a dishonorable discharge following you around for the rest of your life. I’ve only read and heard anecdotes but apparently good luck trying to get any type of government backed loan, federal or state. Or qualifying for any type of financing, even from the private sector.
Again only anecdotal but at least some employers consider it worse than a felony, including the owner of the company I work for. I was in the same room when he went on a rant after he found out about somebody that he did business with having a DD. Whew boy.
I don’t know how hard it is for an employer to find out though. But I guess if they have your Social Security number you’re hosed if they want to look.
That was pretty funny actually.
In the 60’s and 70’s some guys were getting out of the service seperated that is. The term was less than honorable. Many thought they were in the clear no problems. There were several news stories about those with dirty paper, less than honarable. They were having a hard time getting jobs.
Today I would say it would all depend on the job and the employer. My last job 70% of those who made the first check and interview were turn down after the back ground check. So it depends.
:rolleyes: Right–good luck with that.
A dishonorable discharge is most likely to come up if you apply for a job that requires a criminal background check. It could also come up if you apply to some educational or training programs, or apply for a professional license (e.g. teacher, engineer, physician, registered nurse, physical therapist, etc.)
Here are a couple of examples of institutions that specifically state that their background check process includes a “Search for Dishonorable Discharge from the Armed Forces”:
University of Louisville School of Medicine Criminal Background Checks Policies & Procedures
Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service Criminal Background Checks
A dishonorable discharge is still treated the same as a criminal conviction. A person who tries to claim they “are bound by national security not to reveal anything about the trial as it was classified secret” is going to be shown the door pretty quickly, once the interviewer stops laughing at them.
“Remember, son, you can’t spell ‘dishonorable’ without H-O-N-O-R.” – Homer Simpson
Bad Conduct Discharge - BCD - “Big Chicken Dinner”
Dishonorable Discharge - DD - “Duck Dinner”
Or so I’ve learned.
A Dishonorable Discharge is the worst, and can only be given by a General Court Martial (NOT a Special Court Martial or Nonjudicial/Captain’s Mast). You CAN’T be DD’d administratively or through a performance review.
A dishonorable discharge shows up on a criminal background check, so it is not difficult to discover. All federal contractors and subcontractors are required to report how many veterans they have hired, and to give some hiring preferences, so they’ll definitely check.
A DD is equivalent to a felony conviction.
Also wanted to add that employers can get tax breaks for hiring unemployed veterans. That’s why they ask on the application. Not sure if the tax breaks apply to vets with a DD.
Whoa, TMI!
There is also something like what Alvin Greene got in the Army.
From Wikipedia:
“Greene received an honorable but involuntary discharge from the Army in 2009 after a 13-year career and has been unemployed since.”