The Vet2Work Job Procurement and
Advancement
Series
istock
Making Your Military Experience
Fit Civilian Employment
Vet2Work's experienced resume experts do not agree with the commonly used term “demilitarize your resume” which is often a standard used by many for transforming prior military service duties and responsibilities to the civilian resume’s vernacular. By contrast, the more compact civilian resume serves to briefly highlight experience to entice the employer, while the military resume more thoroughly articulates the military functions and responsibilities of the service member to its reader, therefore the resume should be a blend of two.
The perfect blend of a
military resume and a civilian resume is generally done in a
functional resume design to highlight talents and proficiencies
in professional categories rather than chronologically.
In no case should former military completely remove all
of their military terminology/titles from their resume.
Instead, former service members should use easily
understood “lay civilian terms” to explain/detail them.
The entire focal
point of any resume, whether military or civilian, should be
matching the specific skill sets and experience with those that
the employer is seeking.
Perhaps the hardest part of military to civilian job
hunting is transferring exemplary military experience such as
marksmanship into civilian terms on a resume. Demonstrating military job success is
achieved by presenting a qualifying measure of achievements and
outcomes which translate into civilian terms (percentages,
recognition, earned medal for developing...). Therefore, a
perfect military-to-civilian resume should be a carefully
constructed fusion of both military and civilian sectors by
highlighting the former service member’s unambiguous military
duty titles and responsibilities as they relate to a targeted
position and, most importantly, to the employer’s needs.
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