Марія Бровінська Увійти в ІТ 10 July 2026, 13:43

"Everyone paints a picture of a former stormtrooper drinking smoothies in an open space after a two-month course. It's a trap." Why veterans shouldn't go into IT today - reflections of an IT professional who served in the army

Former military man, now product manager Oleksandr Kucheryavy decided to debunk the myth about IT as an ideal social elevator for veterans. The text is intentionally provocative and pointed — according to the author himself, it is a deliberate «therapeutic shock» designed to dispel illusions even before the first interview. Published with the author’s permission.

Market, economy and age barrier

Overheated job market: The myth of «get into IT in two months» is finally dead. Competition for entry-level positions is hundreds of people for one spot. Veterans who are used to quick and concrete actions find it difficult to accept months or years of fruitless job searches.
A separate and most serious blow to the myth of an easy start has been the rapid development of AI. It is not just changing the industry, it is radically rewriting the rules of hiring. Those routine tasks that previously trained juniors for years (writing simple scripts, basic testing, generating standard reports or primary analytics) are now performed by neural networks for free and in seconds. The number of entry-level vacancies on the market has decreased significantly not because of a temporary crisis, but because of the need for cheap and inexperienced human labor. It is no longer profitable for companies to invest mentors' time in training newcomers when automation closes these gaps here and now. For a veteran, this means only one thing: the threshold for entering the profession has risen to a height unattainable for short courses. Now, at the start, you need to have the skills that were previously required of mid-level specialists, and be able to not just do the job, but also effectively manage AI tools.
Economic unprofitability of starting: Junior jobs no longer bring in quick «thousands of dollars.» Starting salaries have fallen. For a veteran who needs to support a family here and now, such a long period of financial instability is unacceptable.
The dictates of ageism and the «young team»: The average age in IT often ranges from 23 to 28. It is psychologically difficult for veterans to submit to 22-year-old team members, whose management experience is limited to books about Scrum, and life experience is limited to the absence of real crises, except for Itachi’s fate.
The trap of «preferential» employment: The biggest mistake of modern HR departments is that they consider the employment of veterans as an act of Christian charity or an element of the social responsibility of business. This is complete nonsense and a manifestation of professional blindness. «Veteran friendly» programs often turn out to be ordinary marketing «veteran washing» for PR. No one lowers the real requirements at interviews, and the internal processes of companies are not adapted to the specifics of integrating people with combat experience.

Communication gap and corporate culture

Difference in culture and values: IT is dominated by a culture of delicate feedback and blurred responsibility. A person with combat experience, accustomed to direct and clear communication, where life depends on words, perceives this as falsehood and a waste of time.
Safe Spaces Culture and Infantilism: It can be unbearably difficult to adapt to this kindergarten, where thirty-year-old boys and girls hide from responsibility. The daily confrontation with a bizarre fusion of Zoomer infantilism, where some are unable to withstand the slightest departure from their comfort zone without a CBT session, simply kills the desire to work. A veteran who is accustomed to high psychological resilience has a hard time in an atmosphere where emotional comfort is put above efficiency.
Devaluation of the institution of reputation: In the military, reputation is earned through actions and reliability. In IT, success often depends on the ability to «sell yourself», maintain beautiful LinkedIn profiles and engage in internal corporate PR. This vanity fair causes internal protest among veterans.
Risk of losing a unique identity: Entering the IT community requires full adoption of its slang and values. Trying to «fit» oneself into this mold often requires a veteran to mask or suppress their combat past, which inevitably leads to deep internal conflict.

Crisis of meaning and the nature of work

The problem of illusory importance: When adults with higher education spend hours in strategy sessions inventing a pathetic mission for ordinary software, this office nonsense simply kills logic. After commanding units or managing complex combat systems, working on «changing the color of a button» or automating mailings seems meaningless. The product brings in «money» thanks to normal mathematics, not beautiful slogans on presentation slides.
Abstractness of the result: It would not be an exaggeration to say that most veterans in the war interacted with the material world (from repairing and maintaining equipment to actual assault operations). Transitioning into the pure plane of abstract code deprives them of the opportunity to «touch» the result of their efforts.
The illusion of global influence: IT companies constantly declare missions like «changing the world.» However, in reality, the developer is just a cog in a commercial machine. A veteran who has really influenced the course of events on the battlefield quickly realizes the scale of his new role as a digital migrant worker.
Loss of elbow feeling: Military service is built on a foundation of trust. In IT, especially remote work, a «team» is just a collection of avatars on Slack. It’s every man for himself, and the lack of a true team spirit exacerbates the feeling of loneliness.
Hypertrophied focus on process, not results: Endless meetings, daily synopses, and discussions about how to do the work instead of actually doing it, cause frustration due to inefficient use of time. At this point, you clearly see the Pareto law in action, where eighty percent of the team’s effort is spent simply simulating a flurry of activity in front of investors.

Attitude towards mistakes, risk and learning

Artificial stress and simulated panic: In IT, a server crash or a code error can be perceived as a disaster. When you’ve seen cities disappear, it’s hard to take a colleague’s existential crisis seriously because everyone around them is «toxic» and «watermelon.» To someone who’s made decisions under fire, civilians' tantrums over a «long sprint» look ridiculous.
Conflict of attitude towards risk: For a veteran, risk is a physical threat or loss of people. The exaggeration of minor civil problems in IT leads to the fact that the veteran cannot take management «panic» seriously. This detachment and a certain emotional deafness to minor office squabbles are a logical consequence of extreme experience. The lack of desire to play these corporate games is a sign of healthy pragmatism, not destructive behavior.
Lack of quick feedback: In war, the result of an action is visible instantly. In IT, the feedback cycle can last for months (Performance Review once every six months). This blurring of time creates a feeling of stagnation.
The trap of endless training without practice: Veterans are accustomed to the principle of «short briefing — and immediately into battle». In IT, they quickly burn out from the need to learn abstract theories for months without the opportunity to immediately test them in practice. At the front, your backlog is adjusted directly by arrivals, and the vehicle registration is rewritten depending on who is the driver today: Stepanovich «Toretto» or Kolyan «green apricot».

The same, but different

Lest it seem like I’m painting the military as the ideal of governance, let’s be honest. Certain things in both worlds are painfully similar.

«Office confinement» syndrome: Military service is also not always about crazy dynamics and autonomy. 8-10 hours of sedentary work at a monitor in an IT office is sometimes even better than 12-18 hours at a remote control or screen in the basement, but not with such comfort and safety. Once I saw an ATGM operator sit for 5 hours almost motionless, waiting for an enemy tank to leave the landing (he waited, somehow).
Micromanagement and total control: The Army does teach you to work within the framework of «order by intention», but no one is immune from micromanagement. Just as there is a team leader who stands over the soul in Jira, so there is an officer who does not trust the sergeants to choose the type of porridge to cook.
Culture of «imitation of activity»: The huge number of meaningless chores and the creation of the appearance of total employment in the office causes a sharp sense of deja vu in a veteran who is accustomed to keeping a «journal of journals».
Conflict of hierarchies: In IT structures, the leader often becomes the one who has worked in the company longer or communicates better, even if his management skills are zero. In the army, you can also be given a battalion commander «from above» or an officer after the military department, who are not very competent. With the only difference being that the commander’s authority is unappealable, and you can’t just ignore his words.

Alternative?

What are they offering veterans in return? The state, through Brave1, Vlasna Sprava grants, and programs of specialized ministries, is actively pushing people into two vectors: defense industry/MilTech and micro-entrepreneurship.

The offer to veterans to go into defense technology under the guise of «using unique experience» is professional sabotage. The effect of traumatic fixation is well known in psychology, when a person cannot go beyond the context that changed him. Defense Industry, Miltech, Deftech (call it what you will) is a surrogate for the army for a former military man. They create the illusion of security, because everything is familiar there, but in reality they block the development of new civilian roles. You need to have the courage to break this circle (I am a weak person, I do not have such courage). Real recovery begins where any mention of the defense sector ends. The vector must be changed radically, building a new identity in a completely peaceful territory.

Where to go then?

I don’t have any cheap recipes for success or universal roadmaps for you. Anyone who claims to know the perfect path for thousands of completely different people with different backgrounds is a regular infogypsy.

I have deliberately exacerbated and brought to the absolute all the above shortcomings, systemic flaws and infantile manifestations of the IT industry. This hyperbolization is not just an artistic technique or an attempt to splash out emotions. When sweet tales about the ideal corporate world sound from every screen, the usual calm analysis will simply drown in the general information noise. I needed to arrange a radical therapeutic shock for those who stand at a crossroads. By thickening the colors, I sought to tear the marketing mask from reality, force the veteran to look behind the scenes and go through the worst-case scenario even before the first resume is sent. Only through such harsh exaggeration can one knock out the remnants of naive illusions and prepare a person with combat experience for the real, cynical civilian market. This is not an attempt to intimidate, it is an attempt to arm you with a sober understanding of the worst-case scenario so that your choice becomes truly conscious.

The only correct advice is to choose a business exclusively with cold pragmatism. If you really enjoy writing code, if you see logic in algorithms that the real world lacks, and if it feeds your family — go for it. But go with a sober head.

The corporate world is not waiting for heroes. It doesn’t care about your chevrons and polished landings. It needs a predictable, systematic and quiet resource that doesn’t disrupt the emotional comfort of the «ecosystem». The labor market has become so cynical and fast that it is not the strongest who survives, but the one who knows how to mimic the rules of the game.

If you are ready to exchange your time, your concrete straightforwardness and nerves for financial stability, do it. But not as a beggar on the «market of Christian charity», but as a professional who clearly knows the price of every minute of his life. The market does not adapt to us. Therefore, either we break its rules with our efficiency, or we consciously agree to be cogs in someone else’s machine. There is no third option.

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