Translate Military Experience into Civilian Speak
I am a curious business developer and technical sales manager for agile teams. I leverage my experience in higher education with a natural born gift to create meaningful relationships in the workplace, while helping companies solve their biggest tech challenges.
You have served our country, you have found yourself on the other side of service with all this experience, but now your path forward isn’t as clearDo you join the private sector? Do you look for work like a civilian? What does that process look like? Maybe you aim to serve in a rewarding career in government affairs and military operations? In either case, your ability to translate your experience into a resume, with modern AI and search engine algorithms in mind, can be a task any linguistics professional can find challenging. Your ability to understand the role you are applying to, while communicating with different generations through polished answers is going to make the difference from your resume being pulled out of the stack of other applicants. Unfortunately with today’s transitioning military vets, this strategy is not being discussed within digital application best practices, leaving these veterans with less likelihood for success. This article will define key strategies you can take to translate your highly adaptable, team oriented and leadership skills into “civilian speak” that any recruiter, hiring manager or industry pro in government affairs can understand. You are the best candidate for the job, the trick is proving that fact in your resume with modern formats and keyword strategies.
The soft and hard skills you acquired in the military belong on your resume, and offer a great chance for you to discuss yourself in an interview. Your government job requirements will be very specific. Industry best practices may suggest a one page resume; if you have military leadership skills that enhance your character representation, it belongs on a second page. Take credit for all the great leadership, skills, technical acumen and character traits you bring to the government careers as well as the civilian sector in finance, business, healthcare and technology. For example, most vets are quite proficient in the following areas:
- Analyzing and transferring knowledge
- Highly adaptable, change-ready
- Team driven
- Collaborative and communicative
- Strong ability to take critical feedback
These leadership skills should not be missed as your opening narrative and mission statement at the top of your resume can also tie back to these bullet points. You want the hiring team to ask you about it so you can provide examples. Chaz Mason, a Task Order Lead and program manager for General Dynamics Information Technology, is a celebrated Navy vet and mentor for transitioning military members breaking into tech careers, he is also a hiring manager. Chaz advises candidates not to miss the soft skills and leadership capabilities that they can bring to a team; which are critical for Agile software development and a key trait he looks for in his growing teams. “Most of you who are NCO’s have a boatload of experience in leadership and team dynamics; soft skills are a big thing in industry careers,” said Mason. “Prior military people; this leadership and soft skill is baked into your DNA, so take credit for it1.” Technical acumen is one thing, but your soft skills, like team leadership experience can translate into product management and scrum/Agile leads in a succinct way.
ChatGPT could help workers in the public sector avoid burnout. Many government employees struggle to accomplish their full workload in a given day.
CLAIRE ANDERSON
It is imperative that you know how to translate your military experience into jargon that civilian hiring teams can understand, however finding the right words to translate to civilian hiring teams may be hard to do. There are lots of resources to help convert military experience to civilian and government hiring teams to make your identity stand out:
- Navy Cool: Credentialing Opportunities On–Line takes your work and maps it to what industry will understand. Companies run your resume through keyword searches, more relevant keywords give you a better search result as a matching candidate. For example, don’t assume they know what CTR-A School means; break it down for them. This tool can help!
- American Council on Education will generate a college credit likeness of hard and fast career requirements based on your military record, and the classes you took in the military with the goal of awarding equivalent college credits for those experiences.
Relevant education certifications and baseline credentials can be reviewed in these tools as a way to add relevant keywords into your resume. Tools like these can serve as a great reminder of the steps you have already taken that need to be highlighted in your resume and job search while celebrating the work you do. Armed with digital tools and resources available online today, you can make your transition from the military into government and civilian industry careers seamless. The goal? Celebrate the time you served our country and make these technical and soft skills easier to understand for any civilian hiring manager who is looking for YOU as the best fit for the job.
Want new articles before they get published? Subscribe to our Awesome Newsletter.
CAREER ADVICE
GOV TALK
