How To Craft A Winning Military Resume

Let us explore how to create a military resume that boosts your chances of getting called for an interview.

During tough economic times, job opportunities are scarce, and competition is fierce. That's why it's crucial to present your military resume in a way that recruiters can easily understand. Additionally, it's essential to grasp how recruiters utilize the latest technology, including LinkedIn, job portals, professional platforms, and even social media like Facebook, to find the right candidates.

Know Yourself Before Crafting Your Resume:

When asked if we know ourselves, the obvious answer is usually yes. However, when it comes to showcasing our strengths on our resume, we often overlook key skills.

A well-crafted resume typically highlights three critical aspects:

• Your work experience,
• Your skill sets (both soft and hard skills),
• And your values.

Since every individual is unique, no two people will have identical resumes. Each of us has a distinct personality, different skill sets, and individual values, resulting in varied experiences and achievements. These distinctions are a reflection of our unique personality.

While many military professionals follow similar work routines for years, their energy levels, interests, and passions can vary depending on the type of work and work environment. Consequently, your resume should reflect your distinctive personality, and to achieve this, it's essential to have a clear understanding of yourself.

Before you start writing your resume, it's helpful to list all your work experiences from the moment you began working. Identifying what you've accomplished so far can help you connect the dots and understand your personality better. It's extremely important to know your strengths and weaknesses, your values, skills, likes, and dislikes before you build your profile.

This approach not only makes resume writing easier but also ensures that your resume accurately represents your personality. While it might seem time-consuming at first, it aligns your resume with your personality, leaving no gap between who you are and what's highlighted in your resume, ultimately increasing your chances of being hired.

Military Soft Skills You Must Include:

Military professionals possess several soft skills that recruiters expect and value. These intangible soft skills, learned and refined during your military career, can give your resume a competitive edge over civilian counterparts whose resumes primarily feature professional certifications and qualifications. While there are numerous soft skills, some of the most common among military professionals include:

1. Leadership and Team Building

2. Mission-Oriented Self-Starter

3. Self-Discipline and Organization

4. Team Player

5. Flexibility, Adaptability, and Multitasking Ability

6. Honesty, Loyalty, and Integrity

LinkedIn - Your Online Resume:

You may be surprised to see LinkedIn mentioned in a resume-writing section. However, it's essential to remember that your LinkedIn profile is essentially an online version of your resume. If not used correctly, technology, in this case, LinkedIn, might be the reason you're not receiving many interview calls.

Many recruiters check candidates' LinkedIn profiles, especially for middle and upper management positions.

Ideally, your LinkedIn profile should complement your resume. For example, if you're applying for an HR role and your LinkedIn profile emphasizes security and administration, it can work against you.

To illustrate, consider the case of Lt. Col. A, who is open to opportunities in various domains. He has created three industry-specific resumes—one for security, one for admin, and one for HR—and uploaded them to various job portals. His LinkedIn profile should highlight his experience in each of these domains and the relevant key skills for each. Neglecting to cover one or two domains in his LinkedIn profile could put him at a disadvantage if a recruiter in those domains reviews his profile and finds no relevant information.

In contrast, Lt. Col. B, a civil engineer with experience in the engineering domain in the military, wants to pursue a career as a project manager in real estate. His resume reflects this aspiration, so his LinkedIn profile doesn't need to delve into his other domain experiences as extensively as Lt. Col. A's.

LinkedIn has become a highly valuable platform for professional hiring, so it's essential to understand how to leverage it effectively to increase your chances of getting hired.

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