Converting Military Experience to Job Experience

I have a lot of experience from my time in the military, and I'm unsure how to translate that into civilian job experience on my resume. Are there any strategies or examples I can follow to make this clearer?

Certainly, your military experience is indeed valuable and it can absolutely be translated into civilian work experience! Here are some general strategies that may be of help:

1. Translating Military Jargon: Military terms and acronyms might not be known by civilians, so it's important to translate these into civilian language. For example, you could change "Squad Leader of 20 personnel" to "Supervised and managed a team of 20."

2. Highlighting Transferable Skills: Many skills you learned in the military are highly desirable in civilian jobs. Aspects like leadership, discipline, teamwork, adaptability, and risk assessment are a few examples. Make sure to highlight these on your resume.

3. Use of Action Verbs: Start your bullet points with action verbs. For instance, 'led', 'managed', 'organized', 'developed', etc. These words can help make your experience sound more active and impressive.

4. Quantifiable Achievements: Wherever possible, quantify your achievements. For example, instead of writing "Managed logistics for training missions," you could write "Oversaw logistics for 50+ training missions with up to $100,000 in assets."

5. Relating Military Positions to Civilian Jobs: It's also useful to draw a parallel of your military position to a civilian job. For example, an "infantry platoon leader" could relate to "team leader or manager," a "signal officer" could translate to "communications manager or IT specialist".

6. Tailoring Your Resume: Tailor your resume to the job you're applying for. Essentially, highlight the experiences and skills that are most relevant to the job description.

In general, your effectiveness, results, skills, and accomplishments should always be the focus over specific military experiences. Good luck with your job search!