Less than one per cent of students rank the Canadian Forces as their top career choice

Canada’s military recruiters have their work cut out for them. A survey of more than 24,000 post-secondary students from across the country shows less than one per cent of them (188) ranked the Canadian Forces as their No. 1 preferred employer after graduation, and just over three per cent (829) identified the organization as among their top three to five choices. “It’s not the first choice for every student and, from that perspective, they do have their work cut out for them,” said Jay Kipps, founder & CEO of Flint & Steel, an employer branding outfit. “The talent that is selecting the Canadian Forces among their top five are less likely to be active on LinkedIn. So, your standard approach might not fit this candidate if you’re using a one-size-fits-all strategy.” The survey of 24,730 students was conducted online between May and July of 2024 by Brainstorm Strategy Group Inc. in partnership with Flint & Steel Inc. Students from 200 different post-secondary institutions, including universities, colleges and institutes of technology each took about 20 minutes to complete it in either English or French. The results come at a time when Canada’s military needs more recruits. At the end of 2024, the Canadian Armed Forces had 64,461 regular force members and about 23,177 reservists. It hopes to reach targets for the regular force (71,500) and the reserves (30,000) by 2032 to erase the current shortfall of about 13,862 people. “What the data would tell us is there is an opportunity here,” Kipps said. “They’ve got wins when it comes to security and stability. This is a talent sector that’s more interested in ethics and being selfless than their own personal success. So, from that perspective, they are sort of service minded.” When asked if they wanted to find an organization where they could spend their whole career, the military-aligned students were more likely to say yes (60 per cent) than the overall group (53 per cent). “The military has a natural fit for this talent’s propensity towards security and stability,” Kipps said. They were also slightly more likely to say they wanted to start their careers in Canada (90 per cent) versus 88 per cent for the overall group. When folks interested in military careers were asked what attributes they most associate with, their top choices were professional training and development, as well as secure employment (tied at 64 per cent), followed by good benefits (61 per cent), interesting work (59 per cent), good opportunities for advancement (53 per cent) and good prospects for high future earnings (42 per cent). Those interested in donning military uniforms were slightly more optimistic about their future careers, with 16 per cent indicating they strongly disagree that the current economy makes them worry about their job prospects versus 12 per cent in the overall group. They were also less concerned about whether artificial intelligence would affect their future careers, with 32 per cent strongly disagreeing it would, versus 28 per cent in the overall group. Less of the military-aligned group had created a resume (62 per cent versus 66 per cent of the larger group), but they were more likely to have worked in their field of interest (52 per cent versus 46 per cent of the overall sample). Only 40 per cent of them had set up a LinkedIn profile, versus 52 per cent of all the students surveyed. Fifty-seven per cent indicated their biggest stressor was finances, versus 53 per cent in the overall group. Just over half (51 per cent) said it was important that future employers have informative websites, versus 29 per cent in the larger sample. Just under half (49 per cent) indicated campus career fairs were important to them, with 40 per cent of the overall group saying the same thing. They were also more likely to participate in networking events (40 per cent) than the larger group (34 per cent). They were less likely to support diversity, equity and inclusion issues, with 45 per cent saying it was the most important aspect of an employer’s social responsibility, versus 50 per cent in the overall sample. In a similar vein, they were also less likely to choose advancing women in the workplace as their top issue (27 per cent versus 31 per cent in the overall group). Kipps cautioned that recruiters shouldn’t just target those who express interest in joining the military. “There’s still also an important effort that has to be made to reach talent that aren’t currently identifying Canadian Armed Forces as their top choice,” he said. “Catering your decisions too much to reaching the talent that’s already drinking the Kool-Aid might be a little bit limiting.”

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