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Becoming a Veterans Service Officer (VSO)

  • Want to help Veterans and their dependents take on the VA juggernaut?

  • Are you a guru on Veterans benefits?

  • Don't mind low pay or no pay at all!?

Well then do I have the job for you!

VSOs help Veterans and their dependents gather claims evidence, provide critically important advice and insight, submit Claims and Appeals, help educate people on State and Federal benefits they may be entitled to, as well as being an advocate on Veteran issues.

NOTES:

  • Some organizations call their officers County Veteran Service Officers (CVSOs), National Service Officers (NSOs), or Regional Service Officers (RSOs) instead of VSOs.

    • Further, some organizations have Chapter (CSOs) or Post Service Officers (PSOs) who are accredited through their organization. These are purely voluntary roles and provide NO benefits outside of possibly reimbursement for mileage and expenses tied to training/outreach.

    • While accredited, those in these positions do NOT have the ability to act on behalf of Veterans or the organization itself, in matters of signing paperwork or providing formal representation to a claimant in VA matters. Further, these positions are NOT granted access to VA information systems to access claim information. They may be permitted limited access that allows them to submit paperwork to the VA electronically.

Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs)

There are two kinds of organizations:

  1. Government Organizations (State/County/Territory/Tribe); and

  2. Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)

Effectively, the two accomplish the same missions. Their main differences are:

  • Where their funding comes from; and

  • Employee benefits.

State

List of state organizations.

Outlier

This organization is effectively an NGO with a national charter. In practice, you can use the accreditation from this organization to try and get a job that is funded by state, county, or tribal monies.

Territory/District of Columbia

Those places who just refuse to fully join the union!

Tribal

Be advised, currently only one tribal organization is recognized and accredited by the U.S. federal government. Tribal organizations outside this list are either unauthorized to act as a VSO OR they are accredited and functionally work under the authority of an NGO. But operate and are funded through tribal monies.

Finding an Open Position

Some organizations:

  • Are very much the - you gotta know the hiring manager or know a guy who has some pull internally. As their open positions are not posted externally. So if you don't have that in, you are not gonna get in!

  • Do NOT do direct hiring (post a notice seeking applicants, DAV is one of these organizations) outside of very rare exceptional cases. These organizations only hire via VR&E.

    • In short, you need to reach out to the organization (usually cold contacting their HR about possible employment opportunities) and get tentative approval from the organization saying they have an opening and that you need to get approved through VR&E for the Employment Through Long-Term Services track.

    • Is it a bit overly complicated and a pain in the ass? Oh, you bet!

  • Thankfully some are traditional in their hiring practices and will post an opening on their own websites, state run job portals, and/or on traditional job posting boards like Indeed.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

  • If you are using third party website to look for VSO positions - BE WARY! Con-artists and scammers do occasionally create fraudulent posting! So always do your best to verify the position you are looking at is being posted by the actual organization!

Now you may be wondering: 

 'How do I find out how the organization I want to work for handles hiring!?'

Simply said, you are going to have to contact the organization if you cannot find obvious job openings being posted on their website.

Frequently Asked Questions

    • Widely speaking - no. However, some organizations do provide hiring preference to those who hold membership.

      • For those who want to volunteer for an organization as a CSO/PSO - yes you do need to be a member of the organization.

References