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Transitioning from Military to Civilian
Employment:
How To Best Present Yourself to Companies
By Peter Newfield, President, Career Resumes
Military personnel can offer a great deal of experience
and dedication to prospective commercial employers. Yet
their capabilities are often discounted if they adhere to a
formal military-style resume. With some analysis and
innovation, individuals making the transition from military
to civilian careers can effectively position themselves as
the well-qualified, capable candidates they are. From the
written materials to the first telephone contact, and
finally through the stages of the interview, military
applicants need to almost "re-invent" themselves to be
competitive in the market they have selected.
Why do recruiters or hiring managers overlook well-qualified
military applicants? First, they may not be able to
establish (or understand) a matched skills set from the
military resume, perhaps because the language and “buzz
words” do not equate. If the recruiter is forced to decipher
too much technical information or military jargon, he or she
may be unable to see the qualifications they are looking
for. Second, recruiters may be distracted by the military
resume format. Military resumes tend to be long and do not
consolidate background and experience as it relates to the
open position.
Assessment of Strengths. The first step for the
transitioning applicant is to understand his or her talents,
skills, and abilities and how those attributes relate to
business and industry. Military personnel develop traits
beneficial to commercial enterprises because they are held
to high standards of performance and operations. Recruiting
professionals polled agreed that military personnel make
excellent leaders, once given a specific task: they are
decisive, resourceful, and tremendous team players; and they
perform well under pressure.
In the military, an individual who has demonstrated
outstanding leadership qualities is targeted for intense
training and development. The individual may be assigned to
managing a troop, then to human resources, and then to a
position responsible for policy-making and strategic
planning. The intent is to develop a top-notch trained
officer who can function in a large structured organization.
Because of the size, structure, and nature of doing business
in the military, this individual has great potential for
success in operations management in almost any industry. And
depending on his/her length of service, the applicant could
immediately transition into first-line supervision or
senior-level management. The challenge is correlating the
different assignments to private sector roles, including
financial planning and analysis, operations management,
purchasing, human resource management, systems
administration, and administrative support.
Creating the "Civilian" Resume. As with any other
specialized field, military applicants need not only to
prepare their resume and cover letter in “lay terms” but
also to strategize how they will "fit" and "market"
themselves throughout the process. The military resume
should stay away from the textbook traditional format and
style. The last thing the applicant wants the recruiter
focusing on is military rank or title. The focus should be
on the professional capabilities the applicant will bring to
the company.
Therefore, in most cases, military experience is best
handled in a modified functional resume, because it
highlights capabilities in professional categories as
opposed to chronological achievements by job title or rank.
This resume has an objective right up front that explains
the applicant's skills and experience, as well as other
outstanding areas of expertise. Then, statements following
the objective should categorize the experience in particular
commercial areas, such as "Management Expertise,"
"Operations Expertise," "Human Resources Expertise." This
format allows the writer to tie together the pieces of his
experience into a complete story that comes across clearly
and immediately. In this way, seemingly fragmented
assignments are read as parts of one position, with
"progressively more duties and responsibilities" along the
way.
Readers should be immediately impressed with how different
the presentation looks from military resumes they've read in
the past and should soon forget they are reading a military
resume altogether. The applicant should use the language and
industry terms specific to the chosen industry and
profession. It is not necessary to repeat the military
information at the closing of the resume, if it is the
primary source of employment and therefore already noted in
the dates and headings that come before.
Creative Cover Letter. The cover letter can carry a
one-liner about the honorable discharge but should not
repeat what has already been stated in the resume. It should
be used to answer the question all recruiters ask: "Why
should I call this individual, and how can he or she benefit
our company?" The cover letter gives the military writer the
opportunity to show his "non-military" side, to dispel the
reader's pre-conceived ideas of a military candidate, and to
distinguish him- or herself as a industry-savvy candidate
who is upbeat, personable, and ready for the new challenge.
Check out our Free Cover Letter
Tips.
excerpt from
CareerBuilder.com
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