“The one thing that I think is sometimes frustrating first for military members who are transitioning is you can be a very junior person in the military — first, second, third year — and you have tremendous responsibilities,” said Jeffrey Wenger, Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research institution.

“And you get out of the military and someone wants you to stock shelves. And so you, you’re like, ‘I know I can do better than this.’”

Another driver of veterans’ dissatisfaction appears to be career progression. More than 1 in 4 veterans believed it was not at all likely for them to advance at their current jobs, according to the survey from Hill and Ponton.

“In the civilian sector, it takes many years to work your way up through the ranks,” Wenger said.