Why don't veterans self identify with employers?

I had no issue with telling my employer I was a veteran. Wait, that could be due to the fact that I was still in the Army during the interview process. In reality I still have a few more days on terminal leave.

Why in the world would you not identify yourself as a veteran? There are a ton of employers out there that take great pride in their willingness, often times eagerness, to hire veterans. You have done something most cannot, or will not, take pride in who you are and what you have accomplished!

The employer received tax credit by my self-idenification

I only self-identify when I've applied for government contractor positions and civil service jobs, where being a veteran is advantageous.

I have self-identified on a few civilian jobs I applied for, and got rejected almost immediately. I stopped self-identifying but was still getting rejected because of my resume. Since I served 20 years I pretty much HAVE to put my Navy experience on it.

There's a stigma that all veterans suffer with PTSD and other forms of mental illness. There's a big enough stigma against mental illness, but then add in combat training/experience and they believe you're going to shoot up the place if someone doesn't refill the coffee pot.

I've heard of some employers ignoring applications of people who identify as vets for that reason and for that reason, vets are not identifying.

At the unskilled level, in my area, being a veteran seems mostly irrelevant. I self identify every time. It's difficult not to when your employer is at all engaged in the interview process. It'll be on the resume. It'll be in your explanation of skills you've learned. You'll identify as one when filling out a lot of the initial paperwork.

Frankly, the National Guard noticeably hurt my chances of getting hired. If I got the feeling the National guard by disqualify on a job from an employer who might think 2 days out of a month is an imposition somehow, I would leave it on the resume and try to focus on other work experience.

I think it would be better to identify that you are a veteran in most cases. It is a skill set and it shows the employer that you are more disciplined and can handle stress better than most. Oh, and if you are a former NCO/Officer....Managerial Skills!

Because we are who we are. Most of the civilian world don't understand us. As far as employers, I can't comment on that as I am self employed. But I do know a lot of vet who do, they do well.

The ones that don't are afraid!

There are veterans, and then there are the veterans who have been to combat. Those of us who haven't feel a little bit more guilty that we haven't seen combat therefore we don't think we rate the status of being a veteran like others do; especially those of us who joined when there was much more involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did we ask not to deploy? I never did ask not to. Heck by my third year I wanted to. I just never ended up in a unit that deployed regularly, and I never really got a choice in the matter in my first four years. Now that I'm making this a career: who knows. A lot can happen in the span of a decade.