Men and women who are returning to civilian life after military service have a wealth of experience, training and education to offer civilian employers. Military members are well trained, disciplined and most often able to work in various positions on civilian teams because they have worked as both team leaders and team members in the military world.
Most military members have also received specific training and worked in a given occupation that support civilian careers. Unfortunately, though most separating service members enter the civilian job market with a wealth of experience few have little experience seeking and finding civilian jobs. Even those with skills and knowledge that should make them highly desirable to many employers find it particularly difficult to translate what they did in the military into a civilian resume that will stand them in good stead.
If you’re in the military and planning to leave, you will need a resume that converts the military skills you learned and the assets you developed into language non-military HR folks will understand. The reason is that HR personnel make most of the decisions about who should be cut from the list of applicants and who should proceed to an interview, and they make those decisions based on the resumes they receive.
HR folks aren’t usually technical experts, so your resume must communicate your skills and achievements in terms they understand. A conversion resume must show your value — what you have to offer an employer. What differentiates you from others? What will be the company’s return on investment be if it hires you? What have you accomplished that will stand you in good stead when performing the work for which you want to be hired?
A great conversion resume quantified what you did in the military.
It demonstrates the results you got by using specifics such as numbers, percentages and dollars saved. Quantifiable terms are a universal language. If you saved the government money or time, were able to cut costs or overhead, finished a project ahead of schedule or solved a particularly thorny problem, your resume should say so.
Consulting a professional resume writer is the smartest move any military person about to begin seeking civilian employment can make. Professional resume writers know how to convert your military skills and abilities to appeal to a civilian marketplace. Their career marketing techniques will help you focus your job search by grouping and presenting the skills you acquired in the military in the most appealing format. So if you will be leaving the military soon, get in touch with a professional resume writer well before your discharge papers appear. Once on the outside, you’ll be very glad you did!
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