Individuals who are employed in different military departments like army, air force or naval have immense pride for contributing towards the nation. Their military career is full of outstanding accomplishments and bravery. However, these veterans often find drafting an articulate resume a daunting task post their services. They are usually concerned about employment while transitioning to a civilian role. The positive news about this is, there are multitude of opportunities available these days. To grab the same, you need to write a military resume for marketing yourself to the employer.
Basic Contact Details
This is the most essential component of your selling tool. To make it easier for the employer to contact you for an interview or even for feedback, ensure that you write basic information right at the start of the resume. Mention your full name, permanent residential address, phone number as well as email address at the topmost section.
Career Summary
To effectively market yourself to an employer for the civilian job, write a clear career summary. It should not include military jargon or combat information, but must focus more on your transferable skills which will prove beneficial for the role. Before writing a resume, research on the various job opportunities, decide on a particular career, and pinpoint your selling tool accordingly. Tailoring your resume as per the employer's needs can make you stand out of the crowd, and also develops the recruiter's interest in your application.
Highlight your strengths
While listing your traits, be mindful of translating military specific words and demilitarize them into understandable terms since hiring managers have no idea about those terminologies and acronyms. In this section, mention skills that are relevant to the profile in bullet points. Leadership qualities, communication skills, and computer expertise are few traits that are required for most civilian roles. In addition to this, you can emphasize skills like ability to pay attention to details, coordinate with team, and ability to complete assigned tasks within deadline to grab the attention of the recruiter.
Show off your military background – accomplishments
Your previous military experience can be used as an asset to demonstrate why you are the perfect candidate for the role. While in defense service, you might have taken crucial decisions during mortal combats and achieved exemplary feats, this needs to be written in your work history section so that the recruiter understands your achievements, and its measurable outcomes. Quantifying your accomplishments by using benchmarks can convey your capabilities to an employer. For example, mentioning bullet points related to finance/budgeting, or ability to organize training sessions for cadets shows your proficiency in handling accounts and managerial skills. To make an impact, scrutinize your military experience to check which strong points can be included in the document.
Mention educational qualifications
In this section, mention your highest degree, the university/college you obtained it from and the year of completion. Writing about your GPA score is mostly optional unless specified by the company. Moreover, you can also mention the military school you attended along with location and even add certifications if they are relevant to the profile.
When you are transitioning towards a civilian profile post years of service in military, you might be tempted to use heavy words and specific terms to make an impact. However, hiring managers/recruiters are unaware of these terminologies and might not get what you are trying to convey. Moreover, too much jargon can simply lead to rejection of the application in the preliminary stage. So, once you have finished writing your resume, ask for help from a person who has a non-military background.
Writing your resume as per the job description not only fulfills the employer's demands but also assists in shaping it according to the expectations. Furthermore, it can help in grabbing the attention of the recruiter and securing an interview at the earliest. For more guidance related to military resumes, scroll below and check out various samples on this page.
Checkout our sample military resumes below :