Europe has a defence talent awareness problem

A recent EU-wide study surveyed more than 2,600 students and young professionals. 58% found a career in defence attractive, but only 6% of job seekers said they intended to actively pursue one. Among people familiar with the defence sector, 79% considered it attractive. Among those less familiar with it: 46%. That is a massive difference.

As a recruiting company, our takeaway is pretty simple: You can't expect people to choose an industry they don't understand.

If European defence companies need to compete for engineers, software developers, AI specialists and other technical talent, posting vacancies isn't enough.

The industry needs to get much better at showing people what the work actually is, what kind of careers exist and why someone should choose them.

Sometimes the recruitment problem isn't a lack of interested people; what if they never thought of you as an employer in the first place. That's what we call an awareness problem.

Source: European Comission / Defence Industry & Space