Technical skill rarely determines whether a transitioning service member finds steady civilian work. More often, the gap shows up in areas the military does not emphasize, corporate communication, project management, and navigating authority without a rank structure to lean on. HX5 built its participation in the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program with that gap in mind.

Each fellow spends four days a week working directly with HX5 and one day a week in professional development training, part of the program’s 12 week structure under the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge initiative. Training sessions cover project management, corporate communication styles, and influencing without formal authority, subjects that matter broadly across industries but rarely appear in military instruction.

Howard’s Perspective on the Divide

CEO Margarita Howard, a service-disabled veteran of the Air Force, has watched this gap firsthand. She notes that government contracting itself requires its own adjustment period, separate from any civilian workplace skills a fellow might need to pick up.

“Experience in their respective fields, while supporting these agencies’ respective programs and missions, is very different from experience gained from working in the commercial world,” Margarita Howard says, describing why HX5 built professional development directly into its fellowship approach rather than leaving fellows to figure out contracting norms on their own.

A Steady Two Fellows a Year

HX5 has hosted eight fellows since 2021, holding to two per year, a pace Margarita Howard has kept steady rather than expanding based on short term hiring needs. The company’s work in advanced weapons research, sensor system reviews, and modeling and simulation for defense and space programs gives fellows real projects to apply new skills to, rather than treating professional development as a separate track from the job itself. Fellows leave the program having practiced both the technical work and the softer skills that surround it. Read this article for additional information.

Find more information about Margarita Howard on https://dataconomy.com/2026/02/23/infrastructure-as-competitive-advantage-margarita-howards-early-investment-philosophy-at-hx5/