Why Identity, Not Employability, Is the Real Transition Crisis
Decades of evidence show job placement doesn't restore identity after service. This is the research behind why AURIS exists — and what's still unproven.
86% of service leavers find a job within six months. Almost none of them are asked whether they know who they are without the uniform on.
This paper sets out the research behind why AURIS exists: why a decade-long Swedish study found military identity doesn't fade after service, why doctoral research on veteran coaching found identity work outperforms skills-translation alone, and why our own interview programme keeps finding the same pattern — the loss people describe is rarely about the job.
The full paper — with citations, methodology and the caveats we place on our own evidence — is available to download below.
Author: Gemma Gardner. Publisher: AURIS Institute. Published July 2026.
This is the branded PDF version with logo, footer and full citations.
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A quiet, private companion for the work — available now in the browser.