We want you to have a smooth transition from your military to civilian career. One of the first and vital steps in this career transition is in creating your resume.
And this is why we’re here – to give you the information you need to write a great resume and to support you as your veteran’s employment services expert. Because we communicate with corporate clients on a daily basis, we know what employers are looking for in candidate resumes.
We’ve put together our top resume writing tips that will help you convert your military experience, education, and skills to a civilian career.
Before we get into specifics, want to remind you of one key point about every single resume: you absolutely cannot have spelling or grammatical errors or have a disorganized and poorly formatted resume. It doesn’t matter how talented you are, if the hiring manager or human resources specialist struggles to read and understand your resume, it quickly goes to the bottom of the pile.
Follow our advice to create a great resume that stands out, gets you noticed, and hired.
Research The Civilian Job Requirements
It’s important that you do more than read the job description and title – you have to really understand what the employer is looking for. This means, reading between the lines and paying attention to mandatory skills and education, nice-to-have skills, and bonus criteria that can give you an edge.
- Pay attention to the language used in the job description. Is it very formal or more relaxed and friendly? This can tell you a lot about the company, the people you’ll be working with, and the type of person the company is looking for.
- Look for keywords and repeated emphasis on skills, education, etc. Does the job description use words like leadership, management, people person, responsive, time management, etc.? These are clue words that can tell you more about what the job is likely to entail.
- Is there an emphasis in the job description on education, experience, or both? This is important especially when you’re converting your military experience to civilian. Make sure you have a list of all of your military training, education, courses, workshops, etc., these can be useful when a job description puts a big emphasis on education.
