Most hiring organizations say they value veterans. Far fewer understand what the transition actually costs, or what's on the other side of it for candidates trying to translate decades of high-consequence leadership into a résumé a recruiter will recognize.

Sean Mulrooney has lived both sides of that gap. He left the Navy after 21 years as a commander and pilot, and spent the first chapter of his civilian career doing what most veterans do: learning to speak a new professional language while quietly wondering if the skills that defined his service were legible to anyone outside it. They were. But the path to proving that wasn't intuitive, and for too many veterans, it's a path that never gets completed.

As Chapter Lead of Veterans Beer Club San Diego, Sean has spent years inside that transition in real time, connecting veterans with employers, resources, and community while watching the same friction points emerge again and again. He knows what breaks down on the candidate side. He also knows what employers get wrong, and what the ones who get it right are actually doing differently.

This session is for HR and talent acquisition professionals who want to move beyond veteran hiring as a checkbox and start thinking about it as a genuine competitive advantage. Sean brings the operational credibility of military service and the practitioner's perspective of someone who actively works the transition pipeline, making the case, plainly and practically, for why veteran talent is worth the investment in understanding.

Attendee Takeaways

The translation problem is real, and it's yours to solve. Understand why strong veteran candidates disappear from your pipeline early, and what small changes in how you read experience, frame job descriptions, and conduct interviews can change that outcome.
What military leadership actually looks like. Move past the stereotypes and understand what 21 years of service, including deployments, multinational teams, and high-consequence decisions under pressure, actually builds in a person, and how those capabilities show up on day one.
Community as a talent pipeline. Learn how organizations like Veterans Beer Club are actively preparing veterans for civilian careers, and how employers can build relationships with those networks before a role ever opens.
The ROI of veteran talent. Veterans bring accountability, mission focus, and team-first culture that is genuinely hard to develop in a traditional career path. Hear the case, grounded in experience rather than talking points, for why that's worth building your hiring process around.