Career and Professional Success for Veterans

• The most common type of resume is chronological with the most recent job experience at the top followed by all previous places of employment. This type of resume is not always the most effective for veterans, especially if you are entering a new career field.
• When beginning a new career, a functional resume might better demonstrate your skills to an employer. Rather than emphasizing previous job positions, a functional resume emphasizes categories of skills(e.g. Leadership, Communication, and Management).This allows you to market entire groups of skills, regardless of where you developed them.

Acronyms: Spell them out and consider simplifying them
Example: Use the word “Base” rather than “FOB” or “AFB”
Use “Non-Commissioned Officer” or “Supervisor” rather than “NCO”

• Occupational Designator: State your job title rather than the MOS/MOC designator
  Examples: Use “Infantry Squad Leader” rather than“11B”
  Use “Aircraft Load master” or “Cargo Manager” rather than “1A2X1”
• Technical terms: Put them into the simplest possible terms
  Example: Use “Military Helicopter” rather than“AH-64”
  Use “Operations Department” rather than “S3”

Create a section called “Additional Education and Training” and list the schools you attended, where they were, and the length of the course. If the name of school is not self-explanatory, describe the program. Also,state why that experience was valuable and any accomplishments you achieved.

Example:

Warrior Leadership Course,Fort Bliss,TX | February 2012

• Two-week course that used experiential learning to teach valuable skills in leadership,teamwork,and critical thinking
• Recognized as “Soldier Leader of the Class” for outstanding physical and academic performance

Serving in the military gives you many great experiences and skills. But which ones are useful to employers?
Here are some skills common to veterans that would be valuable in any job position:

• Leading
• Motivating
• Critical Thinking
• Communicating
• Adapting
• Working under pressure
• Training
• Organizing
• Working in team
• Facilitating
• Inspecting
• Decision making
• Planning
• Supervising
• Multi-tasking
• Improvising
• Evaluating
• Managing

Provide specific statements of how you used these skills, why you used them, and for whom.

For example:

• Trained over 20 soldiers in first aid techniques, which facilitated deployment readiness for the unit
• Used critical thinking skills on a daily basis to ensure communications equipment functioned properly
• Worked on a team of five people for three years, succeeding through stressful work conditions