Employer surveys always come back that employers don’t understand how to convert military experience to fit a civilian job description. The resume is the document that employers use looking to see if someone has both the skills and experience as outlined in the position description. A good resume has simple and easy to read skills and experiences and shows career progression and stability in a way that employers can understand. Simplify the resume so it’s exciting and relevant to your job search and here are three easy tips to help with that process:
1. The job history should not cover every single job held. Employers are looking to see job progression and while every job is important, covering a 20 history line by line is repetitive. Keep each job description short and relevant with concise summaries that show transferable and valuable skills. The average HR person spends 30 seconds a resume so it needs to be clear and concise.
2. The resume objective is an introduction and should help a recruiter see why you’re a great fit for the organization. Rehashing experience listed on a resume is a bad idea. The objective should tell a future employer why they should hire you. If you don’t get excited looking at it then imagine how a recruiter views it after seeing the same line “seeking dynamic employment opportunity to use my skills to their maximum ability.”
3. Acronyms, jargon and military specific abbreviations. While NCOIC is an important job that denotes responsibility in the Army the 99% of employers have no idea that it stands for Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge. It’s best to speak the language of civilian employers by converting military experience to terms they can understand such as Supervisor, Leader, Manager of…
