Are military resumes appropriate for the private sector? According to professionals who help transition military personnel to corporate America, the answer is no. Military resumes are most effective within the armed services arena and need to be converted to standard resumes for best results when searching for civilian employment. The primary reasons are:
- Military resumes contain quite a bit of jargon that does not apply to the private sector. As a former military service employee, you have tremendous skills and talents that will serve you well in civilian employment. It is just a matter of translating the terms for those who have never served.
- In the military, your commanding officers and others who review your credentials are looking for maximum information to determine whether or not to promote you. The private sector does not have the luxury of spending that much time reviewing your skills and accomplishments. Your resume has to be succinct and no more than two pages to highlight your most advantageous skills and greatest accomplishments.
- More than likely, you have served your country in a variety of ways. Again, military resumes will provide detail on all of the various duties you performed and how you performed them. This experience has developed you into the person you are, yet not all of this experience is going to be necessary to share with your private sector audience. You must be selective, by including only those skills that are relevant to the specific position you are actively pursuing.
As a former member of the military, you are coveted in the private sector workforce. Your skills, your loyalty, your goal oriented commitment and your discipline are all characteristics desired in corporate America. In addition, most employers will specifically inquire whether or not you are a member of the military. Employers have long recognized the talent within our armed services and many even give preference to those who have served.
If you have completed your military career and are looking to transition to the civilian sector, you have advantages over the non-military. Change your format from using military resumes to conventional resumes to bring those advantages to the forefront and advance yourself through the application process. You have completed the hard work to get you to this step. By putting this experience on paper in a way that is clear to civilian employers, you will have greater success in getting hired.
