Today we’d like to introduce you to Deb Kloeppel.
Hi Deb, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I spent years as a senior executive at American Airlines, building a career I loved. But when my husband, Dan, had military orders that took us overseas, I had to leave that career behind to PCS with him. That experience changed everything for me. I met so many military spouses — accomplished, highly educated, highly trained people — who suddenly found themselves starting over professionally simply because they’d chosen to stand by their service member. I knew there had to be a better way to support them.
So in 2004, with $323 and a desk in our military housing, I started the Military Spouse Corporate Career Network, MSCCN. It grew faster than I ever expected, and a few years later, Dan and I — he’d just wrapped up a 36-year Navy career and another 36 years as a commercial airline pilot — co-founded CASY, Corporate America Supports You, to extend that same support to National Guard, Reserve, and transitioning service members and veterans of every branch. In 2019, we acquired VetJobs.com, the best-known military job board, and in 2020 we relaunched everything under VetJobs.org and MilitarySpouseJobs.org. We hit 100,000 verified hires in 2024, and today we’re past 120,000. What started at a kitchen table has become one of the largest military employment organizations in the country, and I still get emotional every time I think about how far we’ve come.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not even close, and I wouldn’t want it to have been. Building something from $323 means you’re scrappy by necessity. In the early years, we had to prove that military spouses and veterans weren’t a “nice to do” for employers but a genuine competitive advantage. We had to build trust one relationship at a time, with no marketing budget and no name recognition. Scaling MSCCN into CASY, and then folding in VetJobs, meant constantly rebuilding our technology and processes while never losing the personal, one-on-one touch that made us effective in the first place. We made a decision early on to be intentional about funding, making sure that it aligned with the services to truly expand career opportunities. Every struggle taught us something we still use today.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Military Spouse Jobs & VetJobs?
Military Spouse Jobs and VetJobs exist to connect veterans, transitioning service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and military spouses and caregivers with high-paying, sustainable careers — at no cost to the job seeker, ever. Our approach rests on three pillars: people, technology, and education. Every member of our team is military affiliated, so we understand military transition firsthand. We pair that personal, high-touch support with a technology backbone that gives our candidates access to over two million job openings, and we back it up with training and career development resources built with professionals who’ve developed curricula for top American universities.
What sets us apart is that we don’t think of placement as the finish line — we think of it as the start of a long-term partnership. We’ve never taken funding from any branch of the military or the government; our only allegiance is to the job seekers we serve. And we hold ourselves to a high bar of stewardship — independent Deloitte audits, conducted through the Call of Duty Endowment, confirm that the vast majority of every dollar we spend goes directly toward our mission. I’m proudest that we’ve stayed true to our founding charter through every year of growth: if it doesn’t directly help a veteran, service member, or military spouse land a high-paying career, we don’t do it.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
My advice for finding a mentor or building a strong network is to approach it as a two-way relationship. You get out of networking what you put into it, so focus on building genuine connections rather than simply asking for help.
Be genuinely curious about other people’s stories before you ask anything of them. Some of my most valuable relationships started because I asked someone about their career journey, experiences, and lessons learned—not because I was looking for a favor or opportunity. People can tell when you’re being authentic, and authentic relationships tend to last.
I would also encourage people not to wait for a formal mentorship program to find them. Some of the best mentors I’ve had were people I met simply by showing up—at industry events, on advisory boards, through volunteer opportunities, or in rooms where I was the newest person there. Mentorship often develops naturally when you consistently engage, contribute, and stay connected.
And when someone invests time in helping you, pay it forward. Especially within the military and veteran-affiliated community, so much of our success comes from leaders lifting each other up. Networking isn’t transactional—it’s about building relationships, sharing knowledge, supporting one another, and creating opportunities for others along the way.
Pricing:
- All job seeker services are completely free
- No cost for career coaching or counseling
- No cost for training and upskilling
- No cost for one-on-one job placement
- No cost for employers to access our candidate pool
Contact Info:
- Website: https://militaryspousejobs.org/ and https://vetjobs.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/militaryspousejobsvetjobs/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MilitarySpouseJobs/ and https://www.facebook.com/VetJobsUS/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/militaryspousejobs/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/vetjobs/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@VetJobs-MilitarySpouseJobs
