Author: Angela Malagon

resume, Veterans

Resume Writing Tips for Veterans

Angela Malagon

Original Posting by Monster: Kim Isaacs, Monster Resume Expert

You’ve gained a wealth of experience and skills in the military. Now you need to prove that on your resume.
 

You’re leaving the service and are faced with the daunting task of developing your resume. Your military career is filled with accomplishments, but even the most decorated veteran needs to figure out how to effectively communicate those successes in civilian terms. Monster’s resume-writing tips for veterans will show you how to draft a high-impact resume that describes how your military experience is transferable to a civilian job.

As with all other resumes, you need to kick things off with a professional summary—about three or four sentences—that quickly lets the reader know what you’ve accomplished and the value you’d bring to an organization. From there, follow Monster’s basic resume format to cleanly and clearly demonstrate your skills and experience. Make no mistake: Although companies are eager to hire veterans, that doesn’t mean you can skip the fundamental elements of a strong resume.

Simple Resume-Writing Tips for Veterans

  1. Define your civilian job objective.
  2. Create a resume that speaks to employers’ needs.
  3. Assume readers have no knowledge of the military.
  4. Showcase your accomplishments.
  5. Flaunt your military background.
  6. If you were in active combat, leave out the details.

1. Define Your Civilian Job Objective

You can’t effectively market yourself for a civilian job if you don’t have a clearly defined goal. Because so many service people have diverse backgrounds, they often make the mistake of creating resumes that are too general to be effective.

Before writing your resume, do some soul searching, research occupations, and pinpoint a specific career path. If you’re having trouble with this step, tap into your local transition office or solicit the help of a career coach. If you’re torn between two or more potential goals, set up different resumes.

2. Create a Resume That Speaks to Employers’ Needs

Now that your objective is defined, you’re ready to create a winning resume. Consider a resume’s purpose: To answer the employer’s question, “What can this person do for me?”

A great way to start thinking about employers’ needs is to research your target job. Look at jobs on Monster, scour company websites, and read as many job postings as possible. What types of skills and experiences are employers seeking? What aspects of your background are most relevant?

Any information that does not relate to your goal should be eliminated or de-emphasized, and this includes any unrelated military awards, training, and distinctions. For example, your marksmanship badge, while impressive, may not have any bearing if you’re applying to an office position. This is often the hardest step for former military personnel, which is why it’s so common to see their resumes span five pages or more.

As you decide which information to include, ask yourself, “Will a potential employer care about this experience?” Consider this the top among resume-writing tips for veterans: Include only the information that will help you land an interview.

3. Assume Readers Have No Knowledge of the Military

Demilitarize your job titles, duties, accomplishments, training, and awards to appeal to civilian hiring managers. Employers with no exposure to the military don’t understand the terminology and acronyms, so translate these into civilianese.

Show your resume to several nonmilitary friends and ask them to point out terms they don’t understand. For additional resume-writing tips for veterans, refer to job postings and Military.com’s skills translator for help substituting civilian keywords for military terms.

4. Showcase Your Accomplishments

Your military career has offered you excellent opportunities for training, practical experience, and advancement. Tout these accomplishments on your resume so the average civilian understands the importance of your achievements and the measurable outcomes.

Here’s an example of a demilitarized accomplishment statement:

  • Increased employee retention rate by 16 percent by focusing on training, team building, and recognition programs. Earned reputation as one of the most progressive and innovative IT organizations in the Army’s communications and IT community.

Here’s an example of incorporating a military award so employers understand its value:

  • Received Army Achievement Medal for completing 400+ medical evaluations and developing patient database using MS Access. Database improved reporting functions and tracked patient demographics, records, medication, appointments, and status.

5. Flaunt Your Military Background

You might have heard you need to develop a functional resume to mask or downplay your military experience, but the opposite is true. Your military experience is an asset and should be marketed as such. Many employers realize the value of bringing veterans on board.

Attributes honed in the military include

  • dedication
  • leadership
  • teamwork
  • positive work ethic
  • cross-functional skills

If you fear a potential employer won’t realize the significance of your military experience, make sure your resume clearly communicates the value you bring to the table.

6. If You Were in Active Combat, Leave Out the Details

Defending your country and its interests is among the most admirable pursuits, but the sad truth is actual references to the horrors of combat leave many employers squeamish. While you might have worked in a short-range air defense engagement zone, this experience might not relate to your future goal. Instead of including details of your actual combat experience on the battlefield, focus instead on any awards and the team-building experience that you developed in combat and how those can apply in the civilian world.

Before You Deploy Your Resume, Get It Inspected for Free

After reviewing these resume-writing tips for veterans, it’s time to write your own and get it out there in the world. But before you do that, it’s smart to double-check that everything is in order. Need some help with that? Get a free resume review from Monster. We can show you how to strengthen your resume so that all your skills and experience get the recognition they deserve.

Career Tests

Free Career Aptitude Tests

Angela Malagon

The following tests are available for free online and can be a good start to identifying your next career.

123 Career Test: This popular aptitude test can help you gain insight into the careers that best fit your personality. It will help you learn what kind of work environments and occupations suit you best.

CareerOneStop Interest Assessment: Answer 30 quick questions online to get a list of careers that might be a good fit for your interests.

CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher: Answer questions about different aspects of a job or workplace to help you find your ideal work environment.

Test Color: With this test, a team of psychologists and human resources experts leads you through a two-part color selection process to determine your personality and aptitude. While the initial results are free, you can pay extra for a more in-depth analysis.

Keirsey Temperament Sorter: This test helps you to understand your personality type and discover what type of temperament you have. Test results suggest a predominant personality type, including Artisan, Guardian, Rational, or Idealist. Your temperament influences career satisfaction, job search strategies, and job performance. A free description of your profile will be provided with an option to purchase the full report.

Human Metrics: Using both Jung’s Typology and Myers-Briggs insights (see below), Human Metrics takes you through 64 questions to rate you on both scales. The results explain to you how each piece relates to your personality type.

O*NET Interests Profiler: My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler is administered by the United States Department of Labor. Users take a 60-question interest inventory that yields a profile of interest tendencies, including six areas: Realistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, Conventional, and Artistic.

You will see a list of careers related to each cluster and can then sort those careers into five job zones representing different levels of preparation ranging from little job preparation to extensive preparation. The site also has extensive career information related to a variety of careers.

PathSource: This free career exploration solution helps students and job seekers make better career choices with its free mobile app. Users can produce lists of careers based on personality characteristics and an interest profile. Lifestyle issues and income expectations are factored into the analysis. An extensive collection of 2,600 informational interviews on video provides an insider’s view from workers in a broad range of professions.

A database of careers related to various academic majors helps students to explore the implications of their academic choices. Users also can search for colleges based on academic offerings, financial aid, average test scores, and other admissions data.

16 Personalities: Using the Myers-Briggs Model (hence the name), 16 Personalities is a site designed to help you understand yourself, contribute valuable data to researchers, and take tangible steps in your personal and professional relationships. While the test is completely free, most of the tools require that you join for a fee.

Red Bull Wingfinder: Take a free 35-minute online personality assessment to identify and leverage your strengths in four different areas of your personality, including connections, creativity, thinking, and drive. Wingfinder test takers immediately receive a free 19-page feedback report containing an analysis of their strengths, along with advice, and coaching from Red Bull athletes who have the same strengths.

Skills Matcher: The Department of Labor has developed this resource to enable users to assess the skills they want to incorporate into their careers. You will rate basic skills like reading, writing, speaking, scientific reasoning, and critical thinking, as well as more specialized social, technical, analytical, computer, problem-solving, and resource management skills.

Truity: Truity offers a variety of tests you can use to explore your personality career interests. There’s a free short report on the results, and there’s a fee to unlock the full report if you want more information.

CareerExplorer: CareerExplorer is a free platform for users to assess their interests, personality types, abilities, career values, and preferred work and social environments in order to find matches that will lead to satisfying careers. The assessment suggests careers after users respond to a series of questions. There’s detailed information available on each of the suggested career options. In addition, users can browse occupations by clusters like health and nutrition, law, arts and entertainment, animals, food and drink, politics and law, sports, travel, music, engineering, and science.

Career Tips, interview, networking, resume, Skills

How To Get Your Dream Job

Angela Malagon
BY ALISON DOYLE | Updated on November 08, 2021

Are you looking for a new job, or starting to think about job hunting? Sometimes a job search can feel overwhelming, especially if you need a job right away. It often feels like there is too much to do in a very limited time.

One way to manage this stress and enhance your job search is to break the process down into small, manageable steps. Doing so can help you feel like you have accomplished a little piece of your search every day and you’ll make slow and steady progress towards your goal of finding work you want to do, instead of work you have to do.

How To Use This Series

The series offers simple, practical steps for job seekers to follow in order to prepare themselves for the job market and land a job. If you read and apply one tip per day, you can accelerate your job search and find a job quickly.

The tips are organized in such a way as to move you from the very first stages of the job search (writing a resume, reaching out to contacts in your industry) to the final stages (preparing for an interview, sending a thank you note, accepting or rejecting a job).

Each tip suggests one thing you can do per day to help your job search. Doing something every day to find work helps keep you from becoming frustrated and focuses your job hunt on work you are qualified for.

Here’s how the series is organized and how to use it to find your dream job.

How the Tips Are Organized

The “Dream Job” series contains steps to help you find the job you want the most. The tips are organized in a specific order, beginning with advice on how to start a job search, and ending with tips on how to decide whether to accept or reject a job offer.

There are a number of stages to any job search journey. The tips in this series are organized into six sections to cover six unique stages in the job search process.

Get Started

This is an important stage in which you prepare yourself—and your resume—for the job search ahead. The tips offer advice for getting your job search started, including refreshing your resume and developing necessary skills.

Prepare to Network

Networking is a critical part of the job search—by reaching out to contacts, you can get advice on your search, and even hear about job openings that might be a good fit for you. These tips offer a variety of strategies for good networking, including using LinkedIn, creating business cards, and getting active on Twitter.

Start Your Job Hunt

This is where your job search begins in earnest. After consulting with a career counselor or exploring options on your own, you narrow your job search by creating an employer target list and finding contacts at those companies.

Use Your Network

Get advice on how to use your network, from contacting friends and family to set up informational interviews.

Find Job Listings

Gain advice on how to find jobs, both online and through other means (such as job fairs). It also provides advice on how to keep your job search organized.

When feeling the stress of needing work, it is easy to begin applying for everything you see. Try to be patient and work to control the anxiety that comes with needing a job, so that you can focus on adjusting your profiles and resume for the specific jobs you are applying for.

Interview and Follow up

Learn all you need to know about preparing for the interview and following up afterward.

Skip Steps if They Don’t Apply

The tips are organized to be most helpful when followed in order. But you can skip ahead if certain tips do not apply to you, or jump ahead to the specific tip that you would like help with. There is no wrong way to use this information.

Career Tips, Skills

Top Skills and Attributes Employers Look For

Angela Malagon

The Best Skills to Have for Your Job Search

BY ALISON DOYLE | Updated on July 16, 2021

Getting a new job is about more than just your past experience. Most employers are looking for people with the right types of skills to make them a fit for the job.

Learn more about the types of skills employers are looking for.

Soft Skills and Hard Skills

When applying for a new job, there are some skills and qualities employers seek in all their employees, regardless of the position.

These are called “soft skills,” and they include the interpersonal skills and attributes you need to succeed in the workplace. They are also commonly referred to as professional skills, those that maintain a healthy workplace environment. Examples of soft skills include flexibility, determination, and critical thinking.1

In addition to soft skills, there are other, more tangible skills that most projects require. These are called hard skills or technical skills. They are the specific knowledge and abilities required to do the job. Examples of hard skills include computer coding, equipment operation, and painting.

You’ll need both soft and hard skills for any job. It’s important to show employers that you have the combination of hybrid skills they need when you’re applying and interviewing for jobs.

Top Skills Employers Look For

In order to get your application noticed, be sure to incorporate in your resume and cover letter the skills you have that are required for the position. Highlight your most relevant skills during job interviews by being able to provide real-life examples.

If you’re switching jobs or industries, you’ll need to focus on the skills that are transferable from your old position to the new one.

While this list is not exhaustive, these are some of the top skills employers say are most important when recruiting and hiring employees.

Analytical Skills

Employees need to be able to confront a problem, think it through, and decisively apply solutions. These are known as “analytical skills.” The level of analytical skills required will vary, depending on the job and the industry. Closely aligned with analytical skills, employees are expected to organize, plan, and prioritize effectively.

Communication Skills

The ability to communicate effectively—both verbally and in writing—is both essential and rare. Those with strong communication skills are in high demand, regardless of the job or industry. You need to be able to communicate successfully with employees, managers, and customers in-person, online, in writing, and/or over the phone.

Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills, also known as “people skills,” are the skills you use to interact and engage with others. Many are hired quickly based purely on their ability to connect with people. Interpersonal skills can sometimes trump the other skills employers are seeking, so be sure yours are up to par.

Your interpersonal skills will be evaluated during job interviews, so be sure you prepare for the interview. You can develop the emotional intelligence and self-awareness you need to connect with a hiring team.

Leadership Skills

When companies hire for leadership roles, they seek employees that can successfully interact with employees, colleagues, and customers. Even if you’re not applying for management jobs, leadership is a valuable skill to bring to the employer. Many companies prefer to promote from within, so they’re often looking for strong leadership qualities, even when hiring for entry-level positions.

Positive Attitude

Attitude may not be everything, but it’s extremely valuable. Employers want employees who are positive even in stressful and challenging circumstances. Positivity shows your level of resilience. Employers want to hire applicants with a “can-do” attitude who are flexible, dedicated, and willing to contribute extra effort to get the job done in the face of challenges.

Teamwork

Regardless of the job, employers want to hire people who are team players—people who are cooperative and work well with others. They don’t want employees who are difficult to work with. When you are interviewing, be sure to share examples of how you worked well on a team. Your level of teamwork indicates your ability to collaborate effectively with a wide variety of people.

Technical Skills

The technical skills you need will vary, of course, depending on the job. However, most positions require at least some technical skills, including experience using industry software, completing higher-level education (such as college degrees or vocational certifications), or being experienced at highly specific tasks.

Other Important Job Skills Today

Scan any of the job postings online, and you’ll probably notice a trend: Technological skills are vitally important.

These days, technology shapes the world we live in. That’s why many employers want the people they hire to come already equipped with certain technological skills.

If you lack technological skills within your industry, it’s a good time to brush up on the following:

Social Media Skills

If you’re working in a specific field that involves communication, you’ll likely need to sharpen your social media skills. That doesn’t just mean learning how to use the platforms, though. You should also know how to use social media sites effectively, and employers may ask you to demonstrate that you are a “power user” of a particular social media channel. Learning how to get your message across on social media can help make you an attractive candidate.

Computer Skills

Having at least some computer skills is a given in almost any job out there. Most jobs now require some computer literacy, whether using Word, Excel, or even more advanced software. If there’s specific software that a company is using, you’ll probably get trained on it, such as content management systems (CMSs) or specific data entry tools. If you are not experienced in all the software programs highlighted in the job posting, it would be helpful to demonstrate to the employer your ability to learn new software quickly.

Skill-sharing has become increasingly popular, allowing people to connect online or in their communities, and to exchange useful tips, valuable information, and invaluable skills. Find out how skill-sharing can help you upgrade your skills.

Problem-Solving Skills

These may seem a little like analytical or interpersonal skills, but problem-solving is often considered a separate skill. You may have to deal with problems that require a quick response and resolution. Being able to think on your feet and solve problems at a moment’s notice is an important quality many employers are looking for.

Showcase Your Skills

To be sure you are showing your top skills during your job search, make a list of the skills and qualities that best reflect your background. Incorporate them into your resume and cover letters.

Think of real-life examples where you applied these skills to achieve success on the job, in the classroom, or in volunteer work. Share these examples with your interviewer so they know exactly how much of an asset you will be when you’re hired.

Identifying your best skills, finding jobs that need people with these skills, and highlighting your experience in those areas can help match you to the right career.

ARTICLE SOURCES

  1. Career One Stop. “Skills Assessment.” Accessed July 16, 2021.