6 Stealth Military Secrets to Creating an Effective Civilian Resume

Gordon’s Tips for Getting a Super Duper Job in Today’s Global Employer World

by Gordon G. Gates

When it comes to transitioning from the Military to the Civilian employment sector, the most important step is to make sure your resume is outstanding and world class. It should showcase that your military skills are transferable so that the target employer knows that your your the person for the job.

Civilian Resumes are more than just a list of qualifications and experience. They are sales tools aimed at selling your abilities and skill sets to world class employers so that you are welcomed and invited for an interview.  It’s a global market now and you have to be compeitive out there!

There are few things you need to take into consideration when writing your Military Transition Resume:

1. Use Civilian Speak: Be very mindful to the terminology you use. Often, we in the military default to our training and internal ways of doing things.  On base, that works.  In the global employment world, we need to use words that are more common. So you must submit your resume in civilian terms, not in military terms. Your Resume must be written in a Military-to-Civilian conversion format. The Military Transition format is a bridge between the military way of speaking and doing and the civilian business world.
2. Target Your Audience: Your resume must be focused. Make sure you know who it’s going out to.  Highlight your skills, abilities and accomplishments that you possess which fit the job you are applying to. If the information does not relate to the position you are applying to, simply do not include it. In other words, target your resume to your audience and make sure they get the information on you that they need to evaluate you intelligently.  Hey, if you were the Human Resource Manager and where hiring for an Airplane Mechanic, do you think it important that the prospect has skills in cooking for 1000 crazed jarheads!  Well, you get my drift.
3. Make It Interesting: Your resume has to be written in an interesting manner so that it captures the attention of the Human Resource Manage. Yeah, it should also be written in a way that makes it stand out.  In other words, make your resume different from the rest while maintaining professionalism.
4. Perfect Spelling and Grammar Please: Spell check and proof-read your resume. The one sure way to lose an Human Resource Manager’s ear is to have spelling and grammatical errors on your resume. Command on the English language demonstrates intelligence which helps you win friends and influence people. With today’s spell checking tools in Word and other applications, this task is easy and simple. Use it often and then of course, learn from it.  Even college grads I speak to use spelling checking as a way to learn how to master our lovely and complex English (American) language. 
5. Be a Pro: Send a cover letter and a thank you letter. Cover letters show professionalism and a thank you letter always shows courtesy and civility. Human Resource Manager’s and Recruiters always give special winks to the civil, polite and well-mannered.  Hey, that’s business folks!  Be competitive!
6. Make it Easy for Manager to Hire You: Would you please leave a direct phone number and make sure your voice mail greeting sounds pro! (no long sound clips or slang). Also, do not use a military e-mail address or an e-mail address featuring inappropriate content. The former is for security and respect reasons, the latter for obvious reasons.  In other words, no DrunkNakedGIJoe@yahoo.com for your email address, okay!

* Important: One more bonus tip!  Assuming you have a personal social networking site e.g MySpace.com, spruce it up and always make sure it represents you appropriately and within good taste. The first thing a shrewd Human Resouce Director will do is Google your G.I. butt and pull you up on MySpace.com. I can’t tell you how many jobs are lost because some young fun and good natured fellow G.I. forgot to salute his MySpace.com and left pictures of him and buddies lying on a Humvee lushed from a hard days night in some Baghdaddy Bar Room Tent!  Hey, it’s the new thing. Get with it and get competitive now!

About the Author:  Gordon Gates is a PPS Certified Recruiting Consultant for HireVeterans.com, America’s most important Job Board for U.S. Veterans.  He can be reached at gordon@hireveterans.com or by phone at 1(619) 819-9360