Military to Civilian Resume Writing
Whether you’ve been in for only a few years, or you’ve spent your entire career within the military, when it’s time to become a civilian again and find a regular 9-5, how do you know what skills and experience can earn you an interview? There are effectively two ways you can directly translate your experience.
Relevant Military Skills
Many military jobs have an equivalent industry in the civilian world. Consider your individual role within the military and seek civilian industries where your specialist knowledge can make you an ideal candidate. Examples of these include logistics, mechanics, communications, medical/healthcare, etc. This provides a direct stepping stone into a civilian career, where you will likely be one of the more experienced applicants.
Transferrable Skills
If your military role doesn’t have a direct civilian equivalent it may initially feel like all your experience is very specific and only useful in a military role: handling fire-arms, maintaining military vehicles, battle strategy, etc. However, your time within the military will have equipped you with a wide range of transferable skills. Many of these are highly desirable in a civilian job. Some key examples of this include:
- Leadership
- Communication
- Logistics
- Organization
- Data analysis
- Decision making
- Planning
Consider what transferable skills you possess and make these your key selling points. By marketing yourself as a multi-skilled job seeker, your resume focus can be shifted away from technical military experience that civilian recruiters won’t understand, and moved towards a clear presentation of the range of transferable skills you possess. The best thing about taking this approach is that your skills can be applied to pretty much any line of work.
It’s important to remain positive about your job search and feel confident about each application you make. A career in the military produces people with a strong work ethic, that are adaptable, motivated, disciplined, strong of character, are able to follow orders, and possess many other great characteristics. For this reason, hiring managers look favorably upon ex-military job applicants – keep this in mind when conducting your job search.
With a wide range of skills, strengths and experience gained from a military career where you learned more than just vocational skills, you are in a good position to impress in interview also. Be sure to reference your experience in the forces, use specific examples to highlight your range of abilities, and focus on showing your motivation to perform and achieve.
Military to Civilian Resume Writing Services
We have specialist writers that understand how to translate military experience to find a civilian job. Our writers understand military jargon, know the different roles and duties within the armed forces, and are able to explain these in civilian language that hiring managers interpret well.
Our senior writer explains:
“Military-to-civilian resumes require translation of, typically, highly complex military jargon and skill sets. In most situations, our clients are providing a number of performance reports to serve as the source material for the resume. These documents are very technical, saturated with unique acronyms, and generally take a long time to fully review. Writers work to distill this information into easily reviewed, civilian-based terminology.”
Special Military Discount!
Why not get your resume written by an expert resume writer? We can provide an new resume, specially crafted to market your skills and experience and overcome your job search obstacles. Whats more, we offer a 10% discount on your service! Visit our Plans & Pricing page or view our professional military transition writing plan), and use the discount code: blogreader when you place your order. Chat to a resume expert today! Call 1866-706-0973 10am-6pm EDT (M-F).
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