Military-to-Civilian Resume Example

Serving your country is no easy task, and neither is transitioning to a civilian job once you’ve been discharged from the military. Although the military doesn’t require writing resumes to move up in rank, you’ll need to write a military-to-civilian resume to move on to your new civilian career.

Writing a successful military-to-civilian resume depends on what industry you want to enter upon exiting the military. Each industry requires relevant work experience and will want to see a set of industry-specific skills on your resume. Unfortunately, there’s no “one size fits all” approach here.

However, there are some basic ways to show employers how your military experience is relevant and improve your chances of landing a civilian job.

Here are three tips any MOS, NEC, or AFSC should keep in mind when writing a military-to-civilian resume. Examples will be listed throughout the text to give you a rough idea of what to write about (even if your industry isn’t listed).

1. Plan your career path before being discharged

This might sound obvious, but it’s essential that you know what you want to do before being discharged from the military. It’s common for veterans to find themselves lost when entering civilian life, and unsure how to start their career.

You need to have a plan for what you’re going to do once you transition out of the military, so you can target a certain industry when writing your military-to-civilian resume.

Different industries will require certain skills sets and experience, and it’s good to know how the experience and skills you gained in the military will transfer to a relevant civilian career.

If you’re not sure where to start, there are a multitude of veteran employment services run by the VA and other organizations that can help you transition from military to civilian life.

2. Focus on your transferable military experience and skills

Depending on what job you performed in the military, you likely have a variety of transferable hard and soft skills.

For example, a prior Air Force Technical Aircraft Mechanic specialist has skills that translate directly into aviation maintenance and repair. Targeting airlines or logistics companies like FedEx and UPS, as well as aircraft manufacturers like Boeing, will likely be an easy career transition.

However, not every veteran is going to have directly transferable skills. What if you were an infantryman and now you want to become a financial analyst? Convincing employers that you’re the right person for the job won’t be so easy.

If you’re confused about what skills and qualifications will be needed for the industry you’re looking to transfer to, you can look at job postings and advertisements. Most employers will state exactly what qualifications they’re looking for in the job description.

However, regardless of the industry, here’s a list of ten great soft skills that any employer will love to see on your military-to-civilian resume:

• Oral and written communication
• Teamwork
• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving
• Leadership
• Creativity
• Interpersonal skills
• Time Management
• Work ethic & attitude
• Attention to detail

Additionally, if you’re unsure what type of career might be appropriate for you, try using military.com’s skills translator to see what types of civilian jobs your skills are transferable to.

3. Don’t overuse military acronyms or jargon in your resume

In the military, you’re trained to speak using acronyms or jargon that wouldn’t make much sense to a civilian. For example, if you tell your friend that your MOS was 11B in the Army, they likely won’t understand what either acronym means unless they’ve been around a lot of veterans. This concept goes for hiring managers as well.

Now, in the above example you could swap 11B for “infantry”, but hiring managers may also not know what exactly an infantryman does. It’s important to make your military experience clear by translating military terms into words that civilian hiring managers will understand.

To help you, we’ve included an example of a combat engineer’s summary of qualifications, and an infantryman’s work experience, with some military acronyms translated in civilian-friendly terms.

Combat Engineer’s summary of qualifications example

Summary of Qualifications

• Excellent understanding of structural engineering of steel bridges, timber structures, tunneling, and retaining walls
• Extensive knowledge of explosive demolition materials and techniques
• Consistent exemplary individual and team reviews
• Proven desire to excel demonstrated by being awarded the Super Sapper award administered by the Army Engineer Association in 2019

Notice how the combat engineer in the example states exactly what structures they worked with (steel bridges, timber, tunneling and retaining walls). Additionally, instead of “OER” or “counseling statements”, “individual” and “team reviews” were used. This makes the candidate’s experience easier to understand for employers who have no military background.

Infantryman’s work experience example

Professional Experience

• Led 5 junior soldiers and was solely responsible for their health and welfare 24/7
• Increased retention of team members by 20% through positive mentorship and guidance
• Coordinated with a team from the Afghan Army during assignments to improve public relations and provide security for US personnel
• Trained Afghan 300+ soldiers on physical defense tactics, SOPs, and proper use of weaponry
• Provided base security on rotation basis, identifying potential threats and any irregularities to document and log or immediately report to the base manager

Notice how the candidate mentions “junior soldiers”, instead of using words that might be more difficult for people to understand such as “squad” or rank insignias. You could also swap “junior soldiers” with “junior employees”, but either will do. “Base manager” was also used to represent the Tactical Operations Center (TOC). “Assignments” was chosen instead of “mission”.

Additionally, when writing about your work experience it’s important to use action verbs and to quantify your accomplishments using hard numbers. Notice how the number of junior soldiers (5 in total) was listed, and exactly by how much (20%) retention increased because of the candidate’s leadership skills.

Hard numbers help hiring managers grasp exactly how much of an impact you made at an organization.

Lastly, here are some more examples of common military terms and how they’re translated into civilian-friendly language.

• Combat = Hazardous Conditions 
• Company = Department, Section
• Mission = Task, Objective 
• OER / Counseling Statement = Review 
• Reconnaissance = Data Analysis or Data Collection 
• TAD / TDY = Business Trip, Leave 
• Service Member = Employee
• Infantryman = Security Manager or Security Enforcer 
• Squad Leader = Team Leader
• Executive Officer = Deputy Director or Assistant Director 
• Senior NCO = Supervisor or Coordinator 
• Supply Sergeant = Logistics Manager 
• Operations NCO = Operations Supervisor, Operations Manager
• Commander = VP or Director