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The best resume writing services for military-to-civilian employment

By Ryan Tronier

Updated on Sep 15, 2022 10:22 AM EDT

4 minute read

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The top resume writing services for military to civilian transitioning can help members of the armed forces translate their uniformed background into private sector work experience. Many veterans can find it tricky to express their vast operational and leadership know-how to meet the needs of today’s employer. For example, resumes that state your “MOS was 11B” may mean very little to a hiring manager. But when you convert military abbreviations and jargon to show your “role in the infantry was to manage the safety of equipment appraised at over $1.5 million,” then managers have a much clearer understanding of the value you bring. 

Employers are keen to find professionals with your teamwork and critical thinking skills. And, you don’t have to transition from your military careers into the private sector alone. There are resume consultants who are eager to assist you. So if you’re ready to make the leap from chopper to cubicle, the first step is gathering hiring materials like cover letters, thank you emails, resumes, and in today’s job market — a compelling LinkedIn profile. Keep reading to discover resume writing services for military members and veterans seeking employment with civilian companies.

• Best Online Service: Find My Profession
• Best for IT: TopResume
• Best for Writing CVs: Career Confidence Resume Services
• Best for Executives: Great Resumes Fast
• Best for Federal Jobs: TopStack

TopStack Resume

Best for writing cvs, career confidence resume services, best for executives, great resumes fast, things to consider before choosing a resume writing service for military, resume writing for military service members and veterans.

Resume services can take the stress out of writing a military-to-civilian resume, but service members and veterans do have other options, many of which are free. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides an online employment toolkit with career counseling, job search guidance, and resume writing advice.

Veterans can also receive resume support through the Veterans Employment Center, as well as free online-based services through VetNet . In addition, many U.S. military bases and installations offer civilian transition instruction. You may also find resources with charitable organizations, such as HireOurHeroes , that specialize in mentoring service members as they begin their journey in the civilian workforce.

How resume writing services work

Resume-writing services create tailor-made hiring documents that are specific to the job seeker. You’ll generally work one-on-one with an expert who will use your employment history as the basis for a resume that will appeal to both human resources managers and job applicant tracking systems. Communication between you and your resume writer often takes place by phone or via email, but occasionally you’ll upload your details through the company’s website.

The cost of a resume writer varies depending on the level of service you require. However, you can typically expect to pay at least $150 for some of the more basic offerings, and upwards of $3,000 for an executive resume or a helping hand with your job search.

Evaluating resume writing services for military personnel

When choosing a resume maker for your military-to-civilian transition, look for companies that highlight the qualifications and backgrounds of their writers. Vendors that do not employ certified writers may be cheaper, but you’re potentially purchasing an inferior product. Similarly, you’ll benefit from direct correspondence with your writer, which can take place through phone calls, video meetings, or even email. It’s this type of one-on-one collaboration that will truly yield an effective resume. Also, prioritize companies that offer some form of guarantee. If a service doesn’t stand behind its product, then that’s generally a red flag that you’re working with an inexperienced team.

FAQs about resume writing services for military

Q: is it worth paying for a resume service.

A: Yes, it’s generally worth it to pay for a resume service, especially for military members who are inexperienced with the private sector. An expert can translate your military background into civilian work experience and provide a polished, ATS-optimized resume. 

Q: What are employers looking for in a resume?

A: Employers want to see resumes that show alignment between an applicant’s experience and a hiring manager’s expectations for a role with their company. Resumes should be scannable, honest, and formatted to display your qualifications in a coherent employment history.

Q: What are most resumes missing?

A: Many military-to-civilian resumes are missing relatable work experience that is expressed using modern vocabulary. It’s important to translate military abbreviations, acronyms, and jargon into qualifications and skill sets that recruiters can easily understand. 

Q: What words should not be used in a resume?

A: Military service members and veterans who are transitioning into the civilian workforce should avoid using words on their resumes such as medal, platoon, mission, and subordinates, to name a few. Instead, substitute those jargon words with terms like award, team, task, and employees.

Final thoughts

Resume-writing services for military members and veterans can relieve much of the stress from a job hunt in the civilian workforce. Many services will provide you with all of the hiring materials you need to successfully find a steady, well-paying job. Yet, those who do not want to pay for a commercial service may find support through the VA employment center or with non-profit organizations. Review your options beforehand to ensure you’re making an informed decision.

Methodology

To choose the best resume writing services for this list, the team at Task & Purpose looked at a large number of companies. We focused on cost, plan features and options, ease of use, customer service reviews, and past customer ratings as the most important factors in our ratings. Learn more about our methodology in the Task & Purpose review guide . 

Military-To-Civilian Resume Examples and Templates for 2024

• Resume Examples
• Resume Text Examples
• How To Write a Military-to-Civilian Resume
• Entry-Level
• Senior-Level

Military-to-Civilian Text-Only Resume Templates and Examples

Hideo Araki (123) 456-7890 [email protected] LinkedIn | Portfolio 123 Abrahms Blvd, West Hartford, CT 12345

A Security Guard with five years of military experience in the United States National Guard, specializing in conflict resolution and crisis management. A proven track record of managing security for high-risk personnel.

Professional Experience

Security Guard, United States National Guard, West Hartford, CT October 2019 – Present

• Manage security operations for VIPs and special military events, prepare accident and incident reports, and identify potential security threats to high-risk personnel
• Lead a tactical unit of five military police officers for surveillance operations, provide training, assign responsibilities, and ensure compliance with military security protocols
• Provide support for civil and criminal investigations

Security Guard, Connecticut Army National Guard, Groton, CT September 2017 – October 2019

• Monitored designated parameters to identify any security threats, created weekly security reports, and verified security clearances for access control
• Operated and managed complex security systems with multiple CCTV cameras and monitoring equipment, which included performing routine maintenance
• Security Operations
• Crisis Response
• Threat Mitigation
• Access Management
• Team Leadership

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Criminology University of Connecticut, Mansfield, CT September 2010 – June 2014

Raymond Ortiz (123) 456-7890 [email protected] LinkedIn | Portfolio 123 Abbington Lane, Athens, GA 12345

A Network Security Analyst with over eight years of experience identifying threats and identifying innovative solutions. A proven track record of mitigating cybersecurity threats and providing technical support to military personnel and civilians.

Cyber Security Officer, United States Army, Fort Gordon, GA October 2017 – Present

• Triage phones, password resets, and VPN and internet connectivity, identify cyber security threats, and oversee access management to ensure data integrity
• Configure, install, and maintain edge routers, firewalls, laptops, and LAN switches
• Manage a team of 25 civilian and military employees and coordinate the delivery of tactical and technical support to subordinates and superior officers

Information Technology Specialist, United States Army, Fort Gordon, GA September 2015 – October 2017

• Installed, operated, and maintained computer systems and local area networks
• Troubleshot computer systems and hardware to support military operations, which included debugging and testing new software
• Provided technical support to military personnel for a wide range of IT-related issues
• System Administration
• Information Technology
• LAN and WAN
• Network Administration
• Cyber Security

Certifications

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Coursera, 2017
• CCNA Security, Cisco, 2016
• CompTIA Security+, CompTIA, 2015

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Computer Science University of Georgia , Athens, GA September 2011 – June 2015

Jasmine Brown (123) 456-7890 [email protected] LinkedIn | Portfolio 123 Aberdeen Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 12345

A Supply Chain Coordinator with 10+ years of military experience, specializing in logistics, fleet management, and procurement. A strong history of overseeing multi-million-dollar supply chains to support military operations.

Senior Logistics Officer, United States Army, Fort Bragg, NC September 2016 – Present

• Coordinate logistics for multi-million-dollar supply chains supporting domestic and international operations for the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard
• Oversee the procurement, transport, and distribution of supplies to troops for military operations, including food, medical supplies, ammunition, and fuel
• Lead a team of 10+ army personnel to manage inventory and logistics, assign responsibilities, evaluate performance, and ensure adherence to army standards

Logistics Officer, United States Army, Fort Bragg, NC September 2013 – September 2016

• Created inventory reports, analyzed supply chain operations, and provided support to commanding officers to deliver supplies for domestic military operations
• Identified opportunities to improve delivery times and reduce fuel consumption by optimizing route planning and resource management processes
• Supply Chain Management
• Cross-functional Leadership
• Procurement
• Inventory Management
• APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), 2017
• APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), 2015

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Supply Chain Management University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC September 2011 – June 2015

How To Write a Military-To-Civilian Resume

Transitioning from a military career to a new industry as a civilian can be challenging for many veterans. Reframing your military accomplishments to align with jobs on the open market is often difficult. You’ll want to create an accomplishment-driven resume that leverages your leadership experience and technical skills to propel your job search forward during this career transition.

Rather than overwhelming the reader with complex military terminology, you’ll want to present your achievements in a way that hiring managers can easily understand. Throughout our military resume builder guide, we’ll provide expert tips to help you translate your military experience into a strong, professional resume.

1. Create a profile by summarizing your military-to-civilian qualifications

Your professional profile should open with your title, years of experience, and three to four specializations to align with the position you’re applying for. This is especially important for military-to-civilian resumes, as you must show hiring managers you have key qualifications the organization is looking for in place of industry experience.

Example 1 - Military Resume Professional Profile

Example 2 - military resume professional profile, 2. add a compelling section featuring your military-to-civilian experience.

To grab the hiring manager’s attention, you want to create compelling bullet points that showcase your strongest and most relevant accomplishments. It’s important to remember that most readers will be unfamiliar with military terminology, so you’ll need to translate your experience into language that the hiring manager can understand.

You should also quantify your career achievements using hard numbers and metrics. For instance, if you provide logistical support for a military supply chain, you should include a monetary figure to establish a sense of scope. It’s also important to keep your audience in mind when deciding what information to include. For example, mentioning that you were supporting a $38M supply chain may grab the interest of a medium-sized or large organization but could be intimidating if you’re applying to a smaller company.

Example 1 - Military Resume Professional Experience Section

Cyber Security Officer, Fort Gordon, Augusta, GA October 2017 – Present

Example 2 - Military Resume Professional Experience Section

Senior Logistics Officer, Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, NC September 2016 – October 2017

• Coordinated logistics for multi-million-dollar supply chains supporting domestic and international operations for the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard
• Oversaw the procurement, transport, and distribution of supplies to troops for military operations, including food, medical supplies, ammunition, and fuel
• Led a team of 10+ army personnel to manage inventory and logistics, assigned responsibilities, evaluated performance, and ensured adherence to army standards

3. Add military-to-civilian education and certifications

Acquiring industry certifications can be a powerful asset during your career change. Many of your skill sets and accomplishments from your time in the military are readily translatable to civilian jobs, but obtaining additional certifications goes a step further in bridging the gap. For instance, even if you have extensive experience in security from your military career, you may want to consider pursuing a cybersecurity or network security certification. This strategy can help bolster your odds of landing the interview.

• [Certification Name], [Awarding Organization], [Completion Year]
• [Degree Name]
• [School Name], [City, State Abbreviation] [Dates Enrolled]
• Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Computer Science
• WIDENER UNIVERSITY, Chester, PA September 2019 – May 2023

4. Include a list of skills and proficiencies related to military-to-civilian experience

It’s important to feature a variety of skills and keywords that match the job description as you craft your military resume. One of the most prominent challenges veterans face during the job search is showing hiring managers that their army experience is translatable to their target industry. Incorporating a strong mix of keywords throughout your resume will ensure compliance with applicant tracking systems (ATS) and show prospective employers that you’re a qualified candidate.

5. Additional military resume builder tips

Before writing your military resume, you’ll want to take some time to identify your target industry. This part is one of the more challenging aspects of the career change process. As you review your military experience and accomplishments, think about how these might translate to a civilian career. Are your skill sets more of a technical nature? Are you better suited for an operations management role? Analyzing job postings before crafting your resume will help you to identify the relevant aspects of your experience and translate them into effective bullet points for the hiring manager. Read our Veteran’s Resume and Job Hunting Guide for more military resume-builder tips.

How to Pick the Best Military-to-Civilian Resume Template

When selecting your military-to-civilian resume template, choose a straightforward and well-organized format. A limited amount of color is acceptable, but it’s better to avoid flashy graphics that may distract the reader. The top-down approach is also recommended in most instances since arranging your sections in a manner that splits the page may make reading difficult. Remember, hiring managers are focused on learning more about your qualifications and professional achievements, so you’ll want your template to support that objective rather than draw attention elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions: Military-to-Civilian Resume Examples and Advice

What are common action verbs for military resumes -.

It’s easy to find yourself running short on action verbs as you build your military resume. In many instances, you can use only a limited number of verbs to convey your professional achievements accurately. Differentiating your usage of action verbs can enhance the reading experience of your document. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of verbs you can use to keep your content fresh and compelling:

How do you align your military resume with a job description? -

Although many challenges are associated with transitioning from a military career to civilian employment, your experience as a veteran also has several unique advantages. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , the average employment rate of all veterans was 2.8 in 2022, which was lower than the 3.6 rate for non-veterans.

To effectively market your military experience for civilian jobs, you’ll need to align your resume with the job description carefully. As you craft your bullet points, you want to focus on reframing your military achievements to show why you’re uniquely qualified. This means limiting your usage of complex military terminology and instead highlighting aspects of your army experience that are explicitly relevant to the job you’re pursuing.

What is the best military resume format? -

You’ll often want to use a reverse chronological format for military resumes. This format will feature your most relevant experience at the top of your resume. However, if you feel that your military achievements are readily translatable to the industry you’re pursuing, you may consider placing your education, skills, and certifications towards the top. For instance, if you completed a computer science degree but weren’t employed as an IT officer, it may be beneficial to place relevant technical skills and certifications higher up on the document.

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Providing a cover letter can bolster the strength of your application during the military-to-civilian transition. The cover letter offers another opportunity to showcase how your military experience is relevant to your target industry. When building your cover letter, you should mention something about the organization’s reputation or work culture in the middle paragraphs of the document. This strategy will show hiring managers that you’ve researched before applying, which reflects positively on you as a candidate. For more insights, read our military-to-civilian cover letter guide .

Frank Hackett

Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW)

Frank Hackett is a professional resume writer and career consultant with over eight years of experience. As the lead editor at a boutique career consulting firm, Frank developed an innovative approach to resume writing that empowers job seekers to tell their professional stories. His approach involves creating accomplishment-driven documents that balance keyword optimization with personal branding. Frank is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) with the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PAWRCC).

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Build a Resume to Enhance Your Career

• A Veteran’s Resume and Job-Hunting Guide Learn More
• Military-to-Civilian Cover Letter Guide Learn More
• How to Build a Resume Learn More
• How to Organize Your Job Search Learn More

Essential Guides for Your Job Search

• How to Write a Resume Learn More
• How to Write a Cover Letter Learn More
• Thank You Note Examples Learn More
• Resignation Letter Examples Learn More

• • Led a team of 8 in deploying cutting-edge network security solutions for large corporate clients, increasing overall security compliance by 25%
• • Implemented a strategic data recovery plan for high-risk clients, effectively reducing data loss incidents by 40% annually
• • Facilitated the migration of 500+ workstations to a cloud-based platform ahead of schedule, enhancing operational efficiency
• • Developed a custom automation script that streamlined system updates for clients, saving an average of 15 hours of manual work per project
• • Negotiated with vendors for better pricing on enterprise software, resulting in a cost saving of $20,000 per annum
• • Conducted regular IT audits, identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities, leading to the prevention of potential data breaches
• • Oversaw the successful integration of a new ERP system across the company, improving data management and resource planning
• • Initiated a company-wide cybersecurity training program, enhancing staff awareness of best practices in digital security
• • Coordinated the upgrade of network infrastructure which supported a 50% increase in company data traffic
• • Authored a monthly IT performance report highlighting key tech stats, leading to better informed strategic decisions
• • Managed a cross-functional project team resulting in the timely resolution of critical IT incidents, reducing downtime by 30%
• • Maintained a 99.9% network uptime by monitoring and optimizing network performance across the organization
• • Implemented robust network security policies which decreased vulnerability to attacks by 20%
• • Assisted in the rollout of a new VoIP communication system, which reduced company telecommunication costs by 15%
• • Provided technical support and training for staff, significantly improving company-wide tech literacy rates

5 Military Resume Examples & Guide for 2024

When crafting your military resume, it's crucial to highlight your leadership experience. Demonstrate the scale and impact of the teams or projects you have led. Showcase your ability to adapt and overcome challenging situations. Your resume should reflect your problem-solving skills and resilience.

All resume examples in this guide

Traditional

Resume Guide

Resume Format Tips

Resume Experience

Skills on Resume

Education & Certifications

Resume Summary Tips

Additional Resume Sections

Key Takeaways

One challenge you may encounter as a military veteran is effectively translating your military experience into civilian terms that resonate with potential employers. Our comprehensive guide can provide you with tailored strategies and examples to bridge this gap, aligning your unique skills with the needs of the civilian job market.

• Get inspired from our military resume samples with industry-leading skills, certifications, and more.
• Show how you can impact the organization with your resume summary and experience.
• Introducing your unique military expertise with a focus on tangible results and achievements.

If the military resume isn't the right one for you, take a look at other related guides we have:

• Federal Resume Example
• Regulatory Affairs Resume Example
• Policy Analyst Resume Example
• Canvasser Resume Example
• Grant Writer Resume Example
• Government Resume Example

Enhancing your military resume: format and layout tips

Four popular formatting rules (and an additional tip) are here to optimize your military resume:

• Listing experience in reverse chronological order - start with your most recent job experiences. This layout helps recruiters see your career progression and emphasizes your most relevant roles.
• Including contact details in the header - make sure your contact information is easily accessible at the top of your resume. In the header, you might also include a professional photo.
• Aligning your expertise with the job requirements - this involves adding essential sections such as experience, skills, and education that match the job you're applying for.
• Curating your expertise on a single page - if your experience spans over a decade, a two-page resume is also acceptable.

Bonus tip: Ensure your military resume is in PDF format when submitting. This format maintains the integrity of images, icons, and layout, making your resume easier to share.

Finally, concerning your resume format and the Applicant Tracker System (ATS):

• Use simple yet modern fonts like Rubik, Lato, Montserrat, etc.
• All serif and sans-serif fonts are friendly to ATS systems. Avoid script fonts that look like handwriting, however.
• Fonts such as Ariel and Times New Roman are suitable, though commonly used.
• Both single and double-column resumes can perform well with the ATS.

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Always remember that your military certifications can be quantified across different resume sections, like your experience, summary, or objective. For example, you could include concise details within the expertise bullets of how the specific certificate has improved your on-the-job performance.

Traditional sections, appreciated by recruiters, for your military resume:

• Clear and concise header with relevant links and contact details
• Summary or objective with precise snapshot of our career highlights and why you're a suitable candidate for the military role
• Experience that goes into the nuts and bolts of your professional qualifications and success
• Skills section(-s) for more in-depth talent-alignment between job keywords and your own profile
• Education and certifications sections to further show your commitment for growth in the specific niche

What recruiters want to see on your resume:

• Proven leadership experience and ability to lead teams in high-pressure situations
• Demonstrated excellence in tactical planning, strategy development, and mission execution
• Expertise in handling sensitive information with the utmost discretion and adherence to security protocols
• Strong understanding of military protocols, chain of command, and experience working within a military structure
• Physical fitness and the capacity to meet the rigorous demands of military operations

Essential tips for crafting your military resume experience section

The experience section is indeed the core of your military resume . It's where you present your past and current job roles. But how should you approach this crucial part?

A common error is treating the experience section as merely a list of job duties. Many candidates fall into the trap of detailing what they did without illustrating the impact of their actions.

To effectively write your military resume experience section, consider these guidelines:

• Emphasize your achievements, supported by concrete metrics such as percentages, revenue increases, or customer satisfaction rates;
• Avoid using generic buzzwords like communication, hard work, or leadership. Instead, demonstrate how these skills added value in your previous roles;
• Begin each bullet point with a strong action verb, followed by a skill, and then the result of your actions;
• Tailor your resume for each job application by selecting the most relevant experiences, responsibilities, and successes.

We have an array of resume examples that illustrate how to optimally curate your military resume experience section.

• Directed a team of 12 in executing strategic patrol operations resulting in a 30% reduction in security incidents within our area of responsibility.
• Implemented an advanced technology update for communication systems, resulting in enhanced coordination and a 40% decrease in equipment failure rate.
• Designed and supervised rigorous training programs for new recruits, improving overall unit readiness and performance metrics by 25%.
• Conducted over 150 reconnaissance and surveillance missions, providing critical intelligence that informed the strategic decisions of high-level commanders.
• Oversaw the integration of unmanned aerial systems into the unit’s operations, which improved the surveillance coverage by 50% and reduced risk to personnel.
• Managed a budget of $2 million for equipment procurement and maintenance, ensuring optimal resource allocation and zero over-expenditure.
• Led an armored vehicle crew through 100+ successful missions with a keen focus on safety procedures and threat assessment, minimizing risks during high-tension scenarios.
• Mentored and evaluated 20+ personnel, developing goal-oriented training plans that enhanced their tactical skills and operational performance.
• Organized cross-functional training with allied military units, which resulted in improved collaboration and mission success rates for multinational operations.
• Efficiently processed and analyzed over 500 intelligence reports, creating actionable strategies that preemptively neutralized threats and safeguarded troops.
• Developed a comprehensive intelligence-sharing network with regional partners that bolstered collective security efforts and reduced intelligence gaps by 40%.
• Spearheaded the modernization of the unit's intelligence database systems, which shortened report processing time by 20% and improved data reliability.
• Orchestrated the logistics for deploying 400 personnel and equipment to overseas locations, ensuring 100% accountability and zero loss of assets.
• Served as a primary advisor for sustainment operations, optimizing supply chain management and reducing logistical costs by 15% without compromising operational readiness.
• Coordinated with multiple service branches to support joint exercises, achieving seamless integration of logistical support across diverse military units.
• Piloted multiple aircraft models in a variety of weather conditions, accumulating over 1000 flight hours and maintaining an impeccable safety record.
• Developed and executed air support plans that provided critical cover for ground operations, enhancing the offensive capabilities of the unit in hostile environments.
• Trained 30+ new pilots, emphasizing aerial combat techniques and effective mission planning, which resulted in these pilots exceeding the squadron's average readiness scores.
• Deployed as part of an elite Special Operations unit, contributing to high-risk missions that disrupted enemy supply chains and reduced hostile activities by 60%.
• Initiated a comprehensive cyber-security protocol for the unit, vastly improving the security of communication channels and sensitive data.
• Led a joint humanitarian operation that provided medical and disaster relief assistance to over 10,000 affected civilians, earning a commendation for outstanding service and leadership.
• Supervised the operation and maintenance of complex radar and electronic warfare systems, ensuring peak performance during critical surveillance operations.
• Led an initiative to train personnel in advanced signal processing techniques, which improved detection capabilities and reduced false alarm rates by 20%.
• Collaborated with engineering teams to upgrade electronic defense infrastructure, greatly enhancing the operational lifespan and effectiveness of the systems.

Quantifying impact on your resume

• Quantify your leadership experience by stating the number of personnel you've managed or trained.
• Highlight the size of the budget you were responsible for to demonstrate financial acumen.
• Mention the number of missions or operations you've planned and executed to indicate organizational skills.
• Specify the percentage of efficiency improvement or cost reduction you achieved in your role.
• Detail the number of countries or regions you operated in to show your adaptability.
• Include the quantities of equipment or assets you were accountable for to showcase responsibility.
• State the number of reports or briefings you've produced to underline your communication skills.
• List the measurable improvements in performance indicators under your command or guidance.

Action verbs for your military resume

No relevant experience - what to feature instead

Suppose you're new to the job market or considering a switch in industry or niche. In such cases, it's common to have limited standard professional experience . However, this isn't a cause for concern. You can still craft an impressive military resume by emphasizing other sections, showing why you're a great fit for the role:

• Emphasize your educational background and extracurricular activities to demonstrate your industry knowledge;
• Replace the typical experience section with internships or temporary jobs where you've gained relevant skills and expertise;
• Highlight your unique skill set, encompassing both technological and personal abilities;
• Showcase transferable skills acquired throughout your life and work experiences so far.

Recommended reads:

• How To List Certifications On A Resume (Examples Included)
• How to List Expected Graduation Date on Your Resume

If you failed to obtain one of the certificates, as listed in the requirements, but decide to include it on your resume, make sure to include a note somewhere that you have the "relevant training, but are planning to re-take the exams". Support this statement with the actual date you're planning to be re-examined. Always be honest on your resume.

Featuring your hard skills and soft skills on your military resume

The skills section of your military resume needs to your various capabilities that align with the job requirements. List hard skills (or technical skills) to showcase to potential employers that you're perfectly apt at dealing with technological innovations and niche software. Meanwhile, your soft skills need to detail how you'd thrive within your new, potential environment with personal skills (e.g. resilience, negotiation, organization, etc.) Your military resume skills section needs to include both types of skills to promote how you're both technical and cultural fit. Here's how to create your bespoke military skills section to help you stand out:

• Focus on skill requirements that are listed toward the top of the job advert.
• Include niche skills that you've worked hard to obtain.
• Select specific soft skills that match the company (or the department) culture.
• Cover some of the basic job requirements by including important skills for the military role - ones you haven't been able to list through the rest of your resume.

Get inspired with our military sample skill list to list some of the most prominent hard and soft skills across the field.

Top skills for your military resume:

Weapons Handling

Tactical Planning

Physical Fitness

Maintenance and Repair

Communication Systems

Survival Training

Logistics Management

Intelligence Analysis

Problem-Solving

Adaptability

Stress Management

Decision Making

Strong Work Ethic

Effective Communication

Situational Awareness

The more time and effort you've put into obtaining the relevant certificate, the closer to the top it should be listed. This is especially important for more senior roles and if the company you're applying for is more forward-facing.

What are the best certificates to add to your military resume + how to curate your education section

The education and certification resume sections are the underdogs of your military resume.

They showcase to recruiters that you've invested plenty of time to gain valuable and specific know-how, vital for growth.

As far as the resume education section is concerned:

• Detail only advanced education, specifying the institution and timeframe.
• Indicate your forthcoming graduation date if you're in the midst of your studies.
• Consider omitting degrees that don't align with the job's requirements.
• Offer a description of your academic journey if it underscores your notable achievements.

When curating your degrees and certificates on your military resume:

• Select only accreditation that matters to the role
• Niche knowledge that could help you stand out as a candidate (as is within the past few years), should be listed towards the top of your resume
• Include any pertinent data for credibility (e.g. institute name, graduation dates, etc.)
• Irrelevant degrees and certifications shouldn't make it on your resume. Those include your high school diploma and any specializations that have nothing to do with the technical or soft skills that are required for the job

As a final note, if you feel tempted to exclude your education or certification from your resume, don't.

These two sections could help you have a better competitive edge over other candidates - hinting that your professional journey in the industry may be for a longer period of time.

Recruiters find all of these military credentials impressive:

The top 5 certifications for your military resume:

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) - (ISC)²
• Project Management Professional (PMP) - Project Management Institute (PMI)
• Certified Protection Professional (CPP) - ASIS International
• Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Civil Engineer Certifications - U.S. Air Force
• Defense Acquisition University (DAU) Certifications - U.S. Department of Defense

Highlight any significant extracurricular activities that demonstrate valuable skills or leadership.

• Perfecting the Education Section on Your Resume

Professional summary or objective for your military resume

military candidates sometimes get confused between the difference of a resume summary and a resume objective.

Which one should you be using?

Remember that the:

• Resume objective has more to do with your dreams and goals for your career. Within it, you have the opportunity to showcase to recruiters why your application is an important one and, at the same time, help them imagine what your impact on the role, team, and company would be.
• Resume summary should recount key achievements, tailored for the role, through your career. Allowing recruiters to quickly scan and understand the breadth of your military expertise.

The resume objectives are always an excellent choice for candidates starting off their career, while the resume summary is more fitting for experienced candidates.

No matter if you chose a summary or objective, get some extra inspiration from real-world professional military resumes:

Resume summaries for a military job

• Decorated U.S. Army Captain with over 12 years of experience leading high-stakes operations in challenging environments. Expert in strategic planning and cross-functional team leadership. Notable career achievement includes orchestrating the evacuation of a besieged embassy, ensuring zero casualties under volatile conditions.
• Seasoned Marine Corps Officer with 15 years of proven experience in logistical coordination, personnel management, and process improvement. Spearheaded the development of critical supply chain streamlined strategies, cutting operational costs by 25% without compromising mission-critical capabilities.
• Highly skilled cybersecurity professional eager to apply a decade of experience in IT infrastructure protection to safeguard national security interests. Advanced proficiency in network defense strategies, with a significant triumph in detecting and mitigating a complex, multi-vector cyber-attack against government systems.
• Driven financial analyst, transitioning from a successful 8-year tenure with major Wall Street firms to bolster fiscal efficiency within defense budgeting. Exceptional track record in portfolio management and predictive analytics, resulting in a 20% reduction in risk exposure for multimillion-dollar investment accounts.
• Aspiring to utilize my leadership skills and unwavering commitment to national service, cultivated through 4 years as Student Government President and extensive volunteer work, to embolden team dynamics and drive mission success in a challenging military environment.
• With a passion for technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, my objective is to leverage my software development skills, in-depth understanding of machine learning, and collaborative spirit to contribute to the cutting-edge advancements in military defense systems.

Taking your military resume to the next level with these four additional resume sections

Your military resume can feature a variety of skills (both hard and soft) in diverse sections . Choose those that align best with the job requirements and reflect your suitability for the company culture.

Consider these four additional resume sections recommended by our experts:

• Languages - State any languages you are proficient in and your level of proficiency. This demonstrates your commitment to communication and potential for international growth.
• Projects - Highlight up to three significant projects you've completed outside of work, showcasing skill development. Include a link to your project portfolio in the military resume header, if applicable.
• My Time - How you allocate your time outside work can indicate your organizational skills and cultural fit within the company.
• Volunteering - Detail causes you're passionate about, roles you've held, and achievements in volunteering. Such experiences likely have honed a range of soft skills crucial for your dream job.

Key takeaways

• The logic of your resume presentation should follow your career highlights and alignment with the role;
• Curate information within different sections (e.g. summary, experience, etc.) that helps highlight your strengths;
• Exclude from your resume irrelevant experience items - that way you'd ensure it stays no longer than two pages and is easy to read;
• Dedicate space within the summary, experience, and/or achievements to highlight precisely why you're the best candidate for the role via your previous success;
• Both your technical and people capabilities should also play a crucial role in building up your military application. Prove your skill set in various resume sections.

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• Military Resume Samples, Template & Writing Guide for 2024
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The US military provides life and work experience training far superior to most casual jobs. However, returning to civilian life after a successful military career can be daunting and overwhelming for many Veterans. Whether you've served in the Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy, Army, or Coast Guard, retaining a high-paying civilian job will require a well-written and engaging Military resume.

Let's begin by breaking down a common myth – writing a resume with military experience is NO different than any other resume. You're not required to comply with any DOD writing standards, do not have to disclose your specific Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), or only need to include your previous military work history.

In fact, the main concern for former US service members typically breaks down to learning how to list military service on a resume. This is where reviewing some previous military resume examples or using military resume templates will significantly help US service members enter the civilian workforce. This is what we intend on accomplishing in the information below.

This article will provide the ultimate guide to drafting a military skills resume. We'll provide you with a few military resume examples (one from an enlisted Navy veteran) and one from an Army officer. We will explain how to include military service on resume example documents, how to write a military resume in general and some creative ways of adding military service resume keywords.

Let's get started on creating your civilian resume post military job career.

Military Resume Example

As you begin transferring to civilian life, it's a great idea to start focusing on industries that will permit you to showcase the skills and abilities you learned during your enlistment. This should be the first item on your post-military career path.

After you've compiled a list of three or four possible employment segments, you can start to flesh out your first resume. Then you can use that base resume as a template to create industry-specific resumes if you choose. We'll explain this strategy in the content below.

The two military resume samples posted below are diverse examples of how to format your resume for specific jobs. The first example is a US Navy Petty Officer 2nd class – a fire controlman (FC) specializing in the CWIS fire control system. The second is one of our US Army resume examples from an officer who worked with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Let's review both and highlight how our team of professional resume writers tackled their resume writing project.

Navy Fire Controlman Resume Sample

The first resume is for PO2 Jackson Stewart, who recently completed his enlistment contract in the United States Navy. As an FC, he was trained to maintain, repair, and operate advanced weapons systems, such as the Mark-15 Close-In Weapons System or CIWS (commonly known as the R2-D2). Like all other resumes, his begins with an easy-to-review personal contact information section that includes his legal name, phone number, email, and mailing address.

As you continue with the resume, you'll notice his resume summary, which is directly under his contact information. This section is a general overview of his qualifications and desire to join a specific job – or explore opportunities in an industry. In this case, the primary skill he learned during his Naval career was as an electrician.

In fact, you'll notice in the first sentence that he has earned his certified electrician apprentice in The State of California and is hoping to join the team at Sparky's Electrical Service in the same capacity. He has selected the electrical trade, as his MOS taught him the basics and advanced electrical diagnostics and repairs. This gives him the core skills and training to become a certified tradesman electrician.

Further in Jackson's resume, you'll notice that he has created a Summary of Qualifications section. Here he has listed some essential qualifications that will make him a great member of Sparky's team. Some of these include his security clearance (mainly added to showcase his trust and reliability), his ability to respond to emergency situations such as being first aid and CPR certified, electrical training, and his current certification in the State of California.

You will notice his work history section as you continue with the resume. Here he has notated some of the specific job duties and critical areas of responsibility (without disclosing OPSEC details). He continues to list his education, including graduating from C-School (which provided him the practical training to earn his apprenticeship.

Finally, he has provided a few references, including his commanding officer during his last deployment on the USS Roosevelt. The resume concludes with several skills related to the electrical industry.

US Army Officer Resume Sample

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Our second resume sample is for Major Peter Jacobs, who recently retired from the US Army after 15 years of service to his country. His specialty is mechanical engineering, having graduated with a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering before enlisting in the US Army. His resume follows a similar pattern and format as our Naval candidate above. However, there are a few subtle differences to notice.

Major Jacobs has expertise in mechanical engineering and served as an officer for 15 years, so he has chosen to seek an operational management position for a company that manufactures automotive aftermarket components in San Diego.

Like PO2 Stewart, he has written a customized resume summary for the company he hoped to join. However, he showcases some of his key accomplishments as a leader vs. general skills and experience. This continues into his Summary of Qualifications and Work Experience sections.

One takeaway from these two sample military resumes is that you should always create a resume for specific employment opportunities. While we strongly recommend writing a resume summary for each job application, it's more important to write resumes targeted to specific industries.

Let's briefly provide a bit of a curveball with Major Jacob's resume. With his leadership experience, he could have written his resume for different management positions in multiple industries where his engineering education and training would be applicable.

The same statement applies to PO2 Stewart's resume. He also was trained in mechanical repairs, so he could have focused his resume on jobs requiring specific skills and traits – such as repairing mechanical equipment.

The critical point we're trying to articulate here is that you'll find better success in gaining an interview when you write resumes for specific industries vs. a general overview of your experience. Plus, you can write a detailed resume that fits nicely on one page.

How to Write a Military Resume in 2024: Full Guide to Successful Military Service Resumes

When transitioning from military service to civilian employment, you must showcase the skills, abilities, and qualities you possess in every resume you draft. One significant advantage of military personnel over standard civilians is the work/life skills you learn during enlistment.

This begins in basic training, where you learn discipline, how to follow procedures, organization, the importance of teamwork, and paying attention to details. You'll also develop a solid work ethic, learn how to problem solve, and maintain a clean and safe work environment.

These are considered hard and soft skills – or the abilities you possess that make you a great worker. They are also keywords or action verbs searched by automated applicant tracking systems often used with hiring agencies or online job search engines.

However, inserting the right buzz terms alone will not dazzle a hiring manager or job recruiter. Setting the right tone from the outset, building a case of your qualifications, and supporting your application with evidence throughout the resume is a great way to stand ahead of the competition.

Every military resume should be concise, well-organized, and easy to follow. Although specific industries and employment segments might request different information to be included on your resume, most should include the following sections.

• Personal Contact Information
• Professional Summary
• Summary of Qualifications
• Work History
• Certifications (if applicable)

One way to organize this project is to create a master resume – or a working document that permits you to write down every detail in all sections, fine-tune the content, and make appropriate edits. Plus, you can optimize the content for grammatical errors by using an online editing program called Grammarly.

So – if you're ready to learn how to create each section of your military or National Guard resume, let's get started with the specifics.

Section #1 – List Your Contact Information

It's critical to demonstrate outstanding attention to detail for any former military member. This will start when you document your up-to-date contact information at the beginning of your resume. You should include your complete legal name, email address, mailing address, and mobile phone for every post-military resume. There is no need to publish your social media pages like Facebook or LinkedIn on your contact information.

Ensure your phone is linked to your email so you can respond promptly when a recruiter or potential employer directly contacts you. Having your mobile number is crucial because many recruiters send SMS text messages to candidates to keep them up to date on the status of their applications.

*Specific Military Resume Tip: Here is something specifically applicable for future job candidates preparing to end their military service as they draft resumes. Hopefully, you've established where to move after your service contract ends. Also, make sure to update your cover letter as well.

If this information is up in the air (mainly with your physical address) - select a family member or close friend who will permit you to use their address - until you are settled. Once you have a permanent address, make sure to change your resume to update that information.

How to Format this Section

When you employ a resume template, the resume format is handled for you. Suppose you want to create a military resume by hand. In that case, we recommend including all contact information at the top of your document. This will help HR professionals contact you if your resume attracts their attention.

Section #2 – Professional Summary 

The professional summary or resume overview is the section that allows you to pitch your expertise and qualifications to a future employer. This four- to five-sentence paragraph introduces you to the hiring managers or recruiting agency.

You'll want to include the relevant skills and attributes that candidates in the employment industry or career you seek possess. This is where specific examples of different industries will provide us with practical samples of how to format this section.

Electrician Resume Summary 

Let's carefully examine PO2 Stewart's professional summary. He introduces his Naval experience, current electrician apprentice certification, and desire to join a specific company. This type of personal attention to detail is a great way to separate yourself from other potential candidates.

As you continue with his summary, you'll notice that he mentions his core comprehension of circuitry, electrical panels, and electrical testing and diagnostics equipment. He further introduces his interpersonal skills - or those that make him a trustworthy employee, team member and dedicated to safety. A lot of these requirements will be posted on a job description. So, if you’re going to write a customized resume, read the job posting carefully.

Operations Manager Resume Summary

Maj. Jacobs resume summary follows a similar structure. Open with a personalized desire to join the team and support the candidacy by explaining your qualifications. However, the main difference between this sample resume summary and PO2 Stewart's is Maj. Jacobs showcases key leadership accomplishments.

When looking for a leadership or management position fresh out of the military, you need to articulate that you have the experience and interpersonal leadership skills that will permit you to hit the ground running. This has been accomplished by both candidates.

Always keep your professional summary short, sweet, and to the point. It should be simple to read paragraph, about 150 to 200 words, with a professional – yet conversational tone. Consider the professional summary as your elevator pitch. Read it aloud before you paste it into a resume template.

Section #3 – Summary of Qualifications

Your ability to articulate why you're qualified for this position on the resume can help your resume stand out ahead of others. The summary of qualifications section is a bullet-point pile of evidence that helps start building your case as the best candidate for any job you seek.

You can see in Maj. Jacob's sample resume showed that he has 15 years of leadership experience, specifically with the US Army Corps of Engineers in mechanical engineering. His summary of qualifications showcases some of his specific qualifications as a leader in this industry.

This is the key to fleshing out this section of your resume. Pick the top 5 to 6 specific qualifications you possess that will put you ahead of other candidates.

You'll see that the best military resume samples include a bullet-point-driven section near the top that emphasizes their skills - or a summary of qualifications. This is a well-structured area with the essentials required. Simply list your experience in bullet points here. It makes it simple to read and allows you to take advantage of some of the above mentioned terms.

One bonus tip is to review the job posting to find out what qualifications they are seeking in a candidate. This will guide you on which qualifications you should consider listing on your resume.

Section #4 – Employment History

It's entirely possible that you don't have much relevant job experience in the field you want to pursue after your military career. However, this isn't always the case. That said, the employment history portion of your resume must demonstrate your abilities and talents that will be displayed at a company that chooses to hire you.

If you have previous experience, make sure to list your job responsibilities that are relevant to the application. For example, they must document those achievements if they are searching for a manager with experience in the automotive sector, working with engineers, and creating solutions that improve efficiency.

Using previous job experience where you've displayed leadership qualities is highly recommended. This is what Maj. Jacobs has done this in the sample section above. He focuses on introducing some of the key leadership tasks that a US Army officer is tasked to complete with every post of command. However, since he is applying to an automotive manufacturing company, he also showcases some of his expertise in mechanical engineering.

The most crucial aspect of your employment history is what you have recently or presently done. Each related entry should be listed in reverse chronological sequence. Always include your employer's name, the dates you worked for them, and significant areas of responsibility or accomplishments to help support your case for being a fantastic employee.

Section #5 – Education

Most job candidates with military experience apply for civilian positions after completing their contracts. It's also common for recently retired military to attend college to gain an education and take advantage of GI bill benefits. The education section permits candidates to list their highest completed education. However, if the position you're seeking is looking for candidates currently enrolled in college, it would be encouraged to list that education.

You'll notice that Maj. Jacobs has listed his mechanical engineering degree and his graduation from Officer Candidate School. This is to add to his leadership experience, as that is one of the biggest reasons for OCS in the first place.

The education section should be written in a chronological format - with your current or most-recent education listed first. You are not required to add any specialty courses, GPA, or other details – unless the job posting asks for this data.

Section #6 – References

References are individuals who can speak to your work ethic, expertise, and leadership abilities. For military members, they are typically former commanding officers, NCOs, or other peers that served with you.

With civilian job resumes, it's always best to select two professional references – or one professional reference and a personal reference. This is what PO2 Stewart has listed on his resume. You'll notice that his first reference is his former CO. The second reference is a personal reference, a business owner who is also a family friend and is involved in the commercial construction industry.

How to Format This Section

Best practices for references on Navy or Army military resumes are to include the individual name and their place of employment. You don't want to document their contact information on a resume for privacy reasons. Simply write "available on request" so the HR firm or hiring agency can contact them directly.

Section #7 - Skills

When it comes to a position that requires extensive education, including your talents on your CV is more of a formality than a must-have inclusion. However, since it's good practice to include it with your engineering resume, why not take advantage of automated applicant tracking system software?

When you review the sample resume posted above, you'll notice that Maj. Jacobs has listed six relevant skills in his job search. These include process management, AutoCad expertise, Problem Solving, Organization, OSHA Compliance, and Attention to Detail. He mainly focuses on his leadership skills or engineering-specific talents.

We recommend that you list your talents in a bullet point format. Using a resume builder or template is an excellent method to arrange and customize your skills section. The skills can be displayed in one of two locations: at the bottom of your CV, in one of the side columns, or towards the end of your resume.

Related Resume Templates

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. When you're in the process of writing your military experience resume, it's always a good idea to gather some practical tips by reviewing other resume samples. We've created multiple professionally written resumes that we invite you to review before starting your own resume.

Final Points on Crafting Effective Army Military Resumes

Any resume intends to provide a blueprint or road map that guides a hiring manager through your story. As a military member, your primary task is to build an argument with your resume – from start to finish – as to why you're the best candidate for this competitive job.

Always remember – a final resume should always be written and customized for the specific job you're applying to. For this reason, we recommend using a master resume to edit and personalize your content.

Here are some specific tips.

• Make sure the resume has a smooth flow – from start to finish. Each section should lead to the next.
• Always write your resume on a plain white background with black font.
• Edit the document SEVERAL TIMES – through Grammarly or another good online editing tool and through visual inspection.
• Ensure it's well-spaced, organized, and professional.
• Finally, read it aloud a few times before you're ready to paste the content into a military resume template.

By following these tips above, you can write a military resume that is clean, organized, and attention-grabbing. Make sure to take your time, sprinkle those action verbs throughout your resume (for software optimization), and feel free to have a few peers (specifically a commanding officer or NCO) review the content before you finish.

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Military-to-Civilian Resume: How to Translate Your Service Experience

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How to write a military-to-civilian resume

• Get started by creating a master military resume
• Consult your VMET and fitness evaluations for ideas and resume content
• Translate your military titles and skills for civilian readers
• Focus on experience that is relevant to the job for which you’re applying
• Top-load your resume with targeted keywords and accomplishments
• Don’t separate your military experience from your other work experience

Get help if you need it

Military veterans transition into the corporate job market with a broad skill set and experience shouldering unimaginable responsibility. Unfortunately, most civilians have no idea what’s going on in the military or how to decipher military terminology. To succeed in a post-military job search, it’s up to a transitioning veteran to create a military-to-civilian resume that describes their experience in a way that makes sense to civilian recruiters and hiring managers.

To gain some insight, I spoke with three military resume experts:

• Jen St. Pierre , Warriors to Work Specialist at Wounded Warrior Project
• David Madden , Veterans Representative at Worksource King County
• Clif Cooper , Former Army Transition Manager

The military speaks its own languages. Each service has its own way of communicating things. “Even between the different services within the military, I can’t read some of their lingo,” said Cooper. If the Army has trouble understanding the Navy or Air Force, you can bet that a civilian recruiter will be confused by all of it.

“If the veteran went straight from school into the military and hasn’t had any type of civilian employment, when they come out, everything they speak is military language,” said Madden. “How do you go to an employer, who really knows nothing about the military, and answer when they ask, ‘What was your job description?'”

The first step in creating a strong military-to-civilian resume is to, as St. Pierre put it, “demilitarize the language.”

“What I mean by that is avoiding military terms and acronyms that civilian recruiters and hiring managers aren’t going to understand.”

Translate your titles, acronyms, equipment, skills, and anything else that could go over the head of a civilian decision-maker.

Start with a master military resume using the terms you know best

When you’re looking at a blank resume template , translating your military experience on the fly makes it a more difficult process than it needs to be. “It’d be like me applying for a job in the Hague and trying to write it in Dutch in my first draft,” explained Cooper. “I would write it in English and then translate it to Dutch.”

For veterans struggling to get started, creating a master military resume can be an effective first step. “I tell people when they write their resume , use military lingo on your first draft because that’s what you know,” said Cooper.

“In this master resume, we can speak to everything,” said Madden. “They have that opportunity to get it out of their system.”

Consult your documentation and fitness evaluations

There are records and resources available to all veterans that can provide a starting point or fill in some gaps.

“VMET stands for Vocational and Military Employment Training,” explained St. Pierre. “That is a document that every single [service member] receives when they transfer out. They don’t really realize that they have access to it. It’s basically their military resume. It contains every MOS [military occupational specialty] they were in with a description. Not only that, but every single course and certification they took.”

“A lot of information is available on your fitness reports or evaluations and quarterly counselings,” added Cooper.

“It’s different in every branch of the service,” continued St. Pierre. “It could be a ‘fit eval,’ or a ‘fit rep.’ These are performance reviews. … These contain such valuable information for a resume. They contain measurable results, number one. And number two, real specifics about their accomplishments , spoken from their leader’s point of view.”

Digging up these documents can make a world of difference when it comes to creating a strong resume foundation.

Translate your military ranks, titles, and duties

Civilians do not understand the hierarchy or responsibilities of military titles. One of the most helpful things you can do on your military-to-civilian resume is to change your titles into something a civilian reader will find familiar.

“Most corporate and profitable environments aren’t going to have any idea how to translate E1, E2, first sergeant,” warned St. Pierre. “Instead of taking the time to research it, they’re going to count the candidate out of the lot because they don’t understand.”

St. Pierre shared these examples:

“For instance, E7 to E9 … the civilian equivalent could be director, supervisor, department manager, senior advisor. Below that is an E4 to an E6, which depending on what service they’re in [would be a] corporal, specialist, petty officer, or sergeant. That translates over to assistant manager, line supervisor, section leader, task leader, foreman. Same things with the lower ranks, like E1 to E3. Maybe they were private or a seaman recruit or a seaman apprentice. That could be a production worker, an assembler, a technician, an apprentice, or a team member. So even when they’re lower ranks, you can still give it a strong civilian title.”

This practice also extends beyond official titles to roles and duties.

“If I was a main battle tank crew member, in the civilian world, we would translate that to ‘heavy equipment operator,'” explained St. Pierre. “We’re taking those titles and we’re civilianizing them.”

This can be a tough pill for veterans to swallow. It’s not just heavy equipment, after all. The responsibility of human safety or millions of dollars in equipment that comes with performing any number of military duties won’t be found in your average civilian job description. “The military gives you an immense amount of responsibility that you will never be responsible for again,” said Cooper, but making your military resume accessible for civilian hiring personnel will make a big difference in your job search.

Perhaps the most powerful tool for this type of translation is O*NET’s Military Crosswalk search .

Enter your service branch and classification code or title to receive a detailed report including all the tasks, skills, technology, and knowledge associated with the position, as well as a list of civilian-equivalent job titles.

“A lot of times, individuals do not even know Military Crosswalk exists,” said Madden.

Translate everything you can on your resume. St. Pierre suggested spelling out any necessary acronyms and even replacing the word “soldiers” with “personnel.”

Tailor your resume to the job description

“A veteran thinks, and rightfully so, they can do human resources, operations, logistics– kind of the whole gamut,” said Cooper. “While that’s true, and there’s nothing wrong with that mindset, it actually hurts them in the search.”

Veterans are trusted with a great deal of responsibility and can serve in a wide variety of roles throughout their military career. It’s tricky to narrow all that experience down. Referring to some of the resumes she receives from her clients, St. Pierre jokingly said they’re “like eight pages long.”

Once a transitioning veteran decides which direction to take their career, they benefit from removing as much unrelated experience as possible . A targeted resume is not a list of everything you’ve done. Rather, it answers the questions asked in the job description. Tailoring your resume to the job description makes it fast and easy for the recruiter to see how you’ll make an impact.

“Look at the things that are important to the employer [in the job description],” said Madden. “It’s great that you’ve done these things [in the military], but the employer is looking for XYZ.”

“We really want to focus on speaking the language of the employer,” added St. Pierre.

Both St. Pierre and Madden advocate for using Jobscan to home in on what the employer wants to see. Jobscan analyzes your resume against the job description to see which skills and requirements you’re missing.

“That’s what we’ve been able to help them do time and again [by] using Jobscan,” said Madden. “We’ve been able to really take the game to another level because we’re speaking the language and we’re showing [the veterans] live, this is what it looks like.”

“I bring up the Jobscan report and I walk them through it,” said St. Pierre. “Every single section, what it means, how to incorporate those keywords into the resume. It makes sense to them.”

Include your military measurable results

Accomplishments and achievements are a great way for anyone to make their resume stand out. A military veteran’s experience is full of opportunities to include these measurable results.

“Usually what I do is talk [veterans] through stories and really figure out, what are the results?” said Cooper. “It needs to have a number … whether it’s man hours, reduction in steps, or additional steps for compliance.”

For some veterans, aspects of their roles might overshadow seemingly mundane results, making it difficult for them to see the value. “Nobody [in the corporate world] cares that you were a fighter pilot,” pleaded Cooper. “How much money did you save by buying doors or surfboards or windshields last year?”

“We all deal with money because [the military] a global force now,” continued Cooper. “Simple things like government travel cards, saving money, coming up with better ways to save money” can make for quality measurable results on a military-to-civilian resume.

“There’s so much project management within the military,” St. Pierre used as an example. “A strong action verb would be, ‘C ollaborated with a team of six senior leaders to develop a security action plan that resulted in zero incidents within the command for the year of 2017.'”

As previously mentioned, some of these results can be found in the VMET or fit evals. “Sometimes I take exact sentences from them because their leaders did a great job of quantifying and explaining [the veteran’s] accomplishments,” said St. Pierre.

Measurable results should be sprinkled throughout your resume, from your summary section down through your work experience.

Military-to-civilian resume formatting tips

Formatting your military resume presents a unique challenge. You might have served through a series of diverse roles with increasing responsibility all around the world. How do you sum that up on a resume in a way that makes sense?

“The first top half of the resume is the most important,” said St. Pierre. “That is what a recruiter will spend their six-to-seven seconds on.”

After your name and contact information, St. Pierre recommends having a strong summary statement that introduces that you’re a veteran as well as your areas of expertise. She also recommends including a skills section “so that the recruiter can easily find those resume keywords that they need.”

If you went back to school after leaving the military and you’re not far removed from earning a degree, your education section can come next.

When it comes to your experience section, “I wouldn’t separate it out, military and civilian,” advised St. Pierre. “I would just put ‘Work Experience.'”

St. Pierre recommends breaking up your different roles within the military, but underneath a single heading for the service branch, resulting in something like this:

This format helps keep the resume in a format familiar to the recruiter, and should help to minimize confusion.

“Seek out assistance,” concluded St. Pierre. “[Veterans] aren’t expert resume writers and that’s okay. Seek out subject matter experts and mentors. Like the Wounded Warrior Project Warriors to Work program, there are many, many VSOs out there that help .”

There are also people online willing to help. Create a LinkedIn profile and follow or reach out to veteran career coaches and advocates like Michael Quinn , Leslie Coffey , Daniel Savage , Maggie Cutler , Tom Cal , Jacqueline Contreras , and others for tips, resources, and mentorship during your transition.

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Military to Civilian Resume Example for Veterans [Updated 2024]

Transitioning from a military lifestyle to that of a civilian is far from easy.

According to a Pew Research Center study, 95% of veterans seek employment after serving in the military.

26% of veteran respondents, however, found shifting from the military to the civilian lifestyle to be somewhat difficult.

Coincidentally, one of the biggest struggles for veterans is creating a compelling military to civilian resume that’s going to help them get a job that’s well-paid and enjoyable.

To help solve that problem, though, we wrote this guide. Read on to learn everything you need to know to create a compelling veteran resume, including:

• Military to Civilian Resume Example
• How to Write a Military Veteran Resume (8 Simple Steps)
• Free Military to Civilian Resume Template
• Essential (Free) Job-Search Resources for Veterans

In case you’re looking to brush up on the resume basics, watch the video below.

If you’re ready to get started, though, let’s start by reviewing a well-written military to civilian resume example.

Military to Civilian Resume Example (for Veterans)

Compelling, right? Here’s what the above military to civilian resume example does right: 

• Follows a functional resume format. The functional resume format focuses more on your skills and strengths rather than work experience. It helps convey how your military experience is going to help you perform well in the civilian role you’re applying for.
• Lists the contact information the right way. It includes the applicant’s full name, email, location, phone number, and even a LinkedIn URL while skipping out on a photo.
• Captures the hiring manager’s attention with a resume summary. The summary on top of the military to civilian resume example offers a brief snapshot of the candidate’s career, instantly showing the recruiter their value.
• Focuses on transferable skills instead of work experience. Instead of mentioning military buzzwords that civilians wouldn’t understand in the first place, the resume example instead focuses on how the candidate's experiences helped them develop valuable skills.
• Mentions achievements when possible. Achievements help convince the recruiter that they’re not just any candidate - you’re an overachiever who plays to win.
• Uses bullet points to make the resume easier to skim. The recruiter doesn’t have all day - they have hundreds of other resumes to review just for a single role. Making the resume easy to skim makes it more likely to be read.
• Includes educational history (in brief). The military to civilian resume example describes the candidate’s educational background, which includes taking a leadership course and basic training.
• Makes use of the optional sections. The achievements and interests sections help shed light on the candidate’s personality outside of work, as well.

Now, let’s talk about how YOU can make your resume as impressive as the example above.

How to Write a Military Veteran Resume (8 Easy Steps)

In this section, we’re going to walk you through the 8 steps to creating a powerful military veteran resume, starting with:

#1. Pick a Functional Resume Format

These are the 3 most popular resume formats out there:

• Reverse-chronological . This format focuses on your work history over education or skills.
• Functional . It focuses less on your work background and more on your skills and how they make you a qualified candidate.
• Combination . This format is a mix of the other two formats. It puts equal emphasis on skills and experiences. 

As a military veteran, you’re better off with a functional format .

As you can see above, the resume example focuses more on key strengths instead of just listing out work experiences.

This improves your odds of landing a civilian job for one important reason: 

Most recruiters aren’t really familiar with military lingo.

Your experiences in the military might be super compelling, but chances are, most recruiters won’t understand how these experiences make you a good candidate for the role.

By framing your experiences around your skills, on the other hand, your resume becomes more understandable for a civilian.

Once you’ve decided on the format, you also need to sort out your resume style, layout, font, and more. Here’s what this includes:

• Don’t go over one page . Your resume should be concise and to the point. More often than not, if you’re going over one page, you’re probably including information that isn’t relevant for the role.
• Pick the right font and font size . In terms of size, go for 11-12 pt for body text. For the font, pick something like Ubuntu, Times New Roman, etc. That way your resume will look professional AND stand out at the same time. 
• Use the military-to-civilian resume template . Want to skip the hassle of formatting a resume? Hit the link and pick from one of our free templates! Our templates are easy to use AND look much more compelling than the conventional black-and-white ones.

#2. Include Contact Information

Now that we’ve got the formatting hassle out of the way, let’s talk about resume content.

The first thing in your veteran resume is the contact information section.

Here, you need to include:

• Descriptive title. This should include your title in the military, as well as the title you’re applying for. Something like “Security Officer Seeking a Role as Customer Support Specialist.”
• Phone number.
• Professional email address. Think, [name][lastname]@gmail.com
• Location. City and state are good enough, you don’t need to include an address.
• (Optional) LinkedIn URL. If you have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile, you can include a URL in the contact information section.

And finally, make sure NOT to include a photo in your military to civilian resume. In the US, employers prefer that you don’t include a picture to avoid unconscious bias during the hiring process.

Here’s what your resume contact information section should look like at the end:

Security & Customer Service Professional

[email protected]

416-821-9879

Seattle, US

linkedin.com/in/john.doe

#3. Capture the Hiring Manager’s Attention with a Military Veteran Resume Summary

When reading your resume for the first time, the recruiter will spend roughly 7 seconds skimming it to make sure that you’re qualified for the role.

If the resume catches their attention, they’ll give it a more in-depth look.

If it doesn’t, they’ll simply move on to the next one.

This is where a compelling resume summary can come in handy.

A resume summary is a 2-4 sentence “summary” of your past work experience. It helps the recruiter understand your skill-set and whether you’re relevant for the role in a single glance.

Here’s what a convincing military to civilian resume summary looks like:

Dedicated professional with over 9 years of outstanding performance and results in the U.S. Military. Earned three promotions and excelled as a leader. Seeking to apply the skills I gained in the military as a Customer Support Specialist at Company X.

When writing your resume summary, make sure to include the following information:

• Your title in the military and the role you’re applying for.
• Years of experience.
• Top achievements and experiences.

#4. Summarize Your Experiences with a Key Strengths Section

This one’s arguably the most important part of your military to civilian resume.

At the end of the day, the main deciding factor in whether you get invited for an interview or not is if your resume manages to convince the recruiter that you’re capable of doing the job…

And that’s where the key strengths section comes in handy.

To create yours, start by listing out your top strengths as section headers. Then, underneath each header, list your achievements and responsibilities that prove you actually have the relevant skill.

Here’s what this looks like on a resume:

Customer Service

• Promoted within a short period by demonstrating an over-achieving dedication that maximized results for the entire team. 
• Proved internal customer service by relating to all personnel in a professional manner that facilitated the development of a diversified group. 
• Enhanced soldiers’ individual and professional growth, developing them into independent decision-makers.
• Accounted for the safety of equipment valued at over $1.3 million. 
• Secure the personal safety, training, and performance of fifteen U.S. Army soldiers.

Operations and Administration

• Organized schedules for over 45 soldiers. 
• Implemented new routes, resulting in savings in gas time and reduced work time. 
• Prevented over 10 cancellations and negotiated over 20 contract renewals with the local government.

Applying for a Military or Private Security Role? Do This

Now, in case you’re applying for a role that’s somewhat related to your experience in the military (e.g. in private security), then you can simply create a conventional Work Experience section instead of Key Strengths .

If that’s your case, here’s how you should format the section:

• Create a section header called “ Work Experience .”
• Start by listing your most recent role and go backward in time from there.
• For each entry, include your title, company name, dates employed, and 3-5 top achievements.
• For older positions, you can include fewer achievements and responsibilities.

Now, if you want your work experiences to stand out from the rest of the candidates, we recommend you to include achievements over responsibilities.

• Achieved a 99.5% average delivery rate on all assignments, resulting in no losses of materials or assets.
• Conducted deliveries of materials and assets.

The first example shows just how the candidate stands out from other applicants. The 2nd, on the other hand, does not.

#5. Mention Your Education (the Right Way)

On to the next section!

The next step to creating a convincing military to civilian resume is mentioning your educational background .

This is where you mention your higher educational degrees, as well as training (e.g. boot camps) and any personal development courses you’ve taken.

First things first, here’s how you’d go about the formatting part:

• Create a header called “Education”
• Add your latest degree right on top. Then, include older degrees underneath.
• If you have a B.A. or an M.A., you can skip your high school degree altogether.
• You can skip mentioning a GPA. These days, no one cares about your grades.

Here’s how the end result would look like:

B.A. in Communications Boston University 08/2016 - 05/2020

Now, if you don’t have the relevant experience needed for the role you’re applying for, you can use your education section to show off your knowledge or skills.

You can do this by including:

• Any honors you might have earned.
• Exact courses you’ve attended.
• Any other way you’ve excelled during your education.

#6. Include In-Demand Skills (For the Industry You’re Applying for)

Another must-have of a military to civilian resume is the skills section.

This is where you list out all of your hard and soft skills and (optionally) grade them by knowledge level.

The key here, though, is not to simply list out random skills like:

• Critical Thinking
• Microsoft Word

Rather, you want to include the skills relevant to the role . 

E.g. applying for a role in accounting? You should probably mention payroll tax accounting, cost reduction strategies, budgeting and forecasting , and so on.

You wouldn’t want to mention your Adobe Illustrator skills, for example (even if you’re an expert at it).

So, how can you know which skills are essential to your resume, and which ones aren’t?

The best way to understand this is to read the job ad you’re applying for. More often than not, they include an exact list of skills required for the role, and all you have to do is mention them in your resume (as long as you possess the said skills, of course).

#7. Take Advantage of the Optional Resume Sections

If you still have some space on your military veteran resume, you can take advantage of some optional resume sections.

While these sections won’t land you the job on their own, they can definitely help you stand out from other applicants seeking the same role.

Some optional sections you can include are:

• Projects. Any type of personal project you’ve worked on. This can be a local business you started, a side-gig, freelance work, and so on.
• Certifications. Any type of certification you might possess. If you don’t have the experience for the role you’re applying for, certifications can help show the recruiter that what you do have is the right skill-set.
• Volunteering Experience. If you’ve volunteered in the past, you should definitely include it in your resume. Employers love candidates who love to help others (even if there’s no monetary incentive for it).
• Hobbies & Interests. Including hobbies or interests in your resume helps the recruiter see more of your personal side. While your hobbies won’t land you the job, they might help you build rapport with the interviewer.

#8. Make Sure Your Military to Civilian Cover Letter is as Impressive as Your Resume.

At this point, your military veteran resume should be quite compelling…

But you’re not done just yet!

To have both a complete and compelling job application, you need to pair your resume with a cover letter that’s just as good.

Here are our top tips on how to write a quality cover letter :

• Start the cover letter by addressing the hiring manager directly. Sure, you could go with the default “Dear Sir or Madam,” but mentioning the hiring manager’s name shows that you’ve done your research and really care about working at the company.
• In your introduction, mention the most important parts of your background. E.g. years of experience, key achievements, top skills, and why you’re applying for the job in question.
• In the body section of your cover letter, expand on whatever you mentioned in the introduction. This is where you can also explain how the experiences mentioned in your resume make you a good candidate for the role.
• Conclude the cover letter with a call to action . E.g. “Looking forward to hearing more from you!” or “I’d love to discuss how I can help Company X as a Support Specialist over a call or an interview.”

Want to learn more? Check out our step-by-step guide on how to write a cover letter .

Essential Job-Search Resources for Veterans

There are a lot of free job-search resources for veterans on the internet - everything from dedicated job boards to free tools, programs, and more.

Here’s a comprehensive list of some of the very best resources:

Veteran Job-Search Resources

• Job board that helps you find federal organizations that prioritize hiring veterans over other candidates.
• Lots of quality resources to help you transition into civilian life.
• If you’re not sure what kind of career you want to focus on, you can use this website to discover different occupations and learn what they’re about.
• Website for finding veteran job fairs in your area.
• Free career consulting and job search help for veterans.
• American Corporate Partners matches you with a free, year-long mentor to help you build your career.
• For group discussions for veterans on resumes and gaining employment after service. (Veterans only/ screened and weeded out by questions and profile)
• For discussing Skill Bridge opportunities and military transitions. Skill bridge is a military program for giving veterans an opportunity to learn and work at civilian companies for 6 months before leaving the military.
• LinkedIn offers its Premium program to veterans for free for a year. You can use the platform to learn new skills, kick-start your career, as well as find and apply for jobs.
• A website dedicated to helping veterans transition into a civilian lifestyle. You can use it to find jobs, discover career events, attend job fairs, and more.
• Job board for US federal jobs. While it’s not specifically made for veterans, the US government prioritizes hiring veterans over other candidates.
• Job board for veteran-friendly roles and companies.
• Job board for roles in the private security industry.
• Another veteran-only job board.

Key Takeaways

And that’s all you need to know to create a strong military veteran resume!

Before you go, though, let’s do a quick recap of the key learning points we just covered:

• For a military to civilian resume, use a functional resume format to show off your skills instead of work history.
• Use a “Key Strengths” section to explain how your military experience distills into valuable skills for a civilian role.
• Don’t include every skill under the sun on your resume. Instead, pick the ones relevant for the role you’re applying for.
• Take advantage of the optional resume sections to show the recruiter that you’re an individual and not just a resume.
• Finally, make sure that your cover letter is just as impressive as your resume by following the tips we mentioned above.

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Navigating from the military world to the civilian workforce can seem like a complicated course-change—with our military resume writing service, we’ll guide you through your career transition by making sure your skills and accomplishments are applicable to new and exciting job opportunities. 

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Military to Civilian Resume: Example, Template, and Pro Tips

When transitioning from the military to the civilian workforce, one of the most critical documents you need is a well-crafted resume. A military to civilian resume allows you to showcase your unique skills, experience, and qualifications that make you a valuable asset to any employer.

Creating a military to civilian resume can be a challenging task, especially if you have spent several years in the military. With this in mind, this article aims to provide insight, guidance, and tips on how to write an effective military to civilian resume.

In this article, we will discuss the importance of a military to civilian resume and provide examples and templates to help you get started. We will also offer professional tips and advice to ensure your resume stands out in a competitive job market.

Whether you are a transitioning veteran or a military spouse seeking to enter the civilian workforce, this article is for you. Keep reading to learn how to translate your military experience into a compelling civilian resume.

Understanding the Transition

Transitioning from military to civilian life is a challenging experience that requires careful planning and preparation. Military personnel face unique challenges when they return to civilian life, such as finding new employment opportunities, adapting to a new work environment, and adjusting to civilian culture.

One of the most crucial aspects of transitioning to civilian life is crafting a well-designed resume. This document serves as a critical tool for military personnel in their job search process. It needs to showcase skills, education, and experience in the most attractive way possible.

However, military and civilian resumes differ considerably in their structure and content. Military resumes tend to be more detailed and include military-specific terminology that may not make sense to civilians. Hence, it’s vital to create a tailored resume that can help recruiters and hiring managers understand the transferable skills and experience one possesses.

Another challenge that military personnel face is understanding what non-military workplaces would look like. Employers in the private sector may have different expectations and work cultures. While military service is highly respected and valued, the language, rank structure, and acronyms used within it differ from non-military workplaces.

Therefore, it is essential to create a well-crafted resume that highlights transferable skills and soft skills. Retirees or recent military veterans must be aware of their unique value proposition and the qualities that they can bring to a prospective employer.

Transitioning from military to civilian life is a significant life-changing event that takes time and effort. For military personnel, crafting a well-designed resume is the key to securing a civilian job role. Knowing the unique challenges that they will face during this transition will better equip them to succeed in their job search. It is vital that military personnel understand the differences between a military and civilian resume to tailor it effectively based on the skills learned in their service.

Identifying Transferable Skills

Transferable skills are abilities and knowledge that can be applied in various scenarios, regardless of the industry, role or job function. They are typically acquired through previous work experience, education or life experiences. The majority of transferable skills are soft skills, such as communication, leadership, problem-solving, and time management but can also include hard skills, such as technical proficiency.

Identifying transferable skills is an essential step for those transitioning from military to civilian careers. To determine transferable skills, examine both the technical and soft skills that you employed in your previous role. Start by reflecting on your daily work routine, listing your duties and responsibilities, and identify the skills you utilized. Then explore how these skills could be applied in a new industry or position.

To identify your transferable skills, start by following these steps:

Evaluate your military experience: Focus on the skills you applied in your military role, and assess how they could potentially be applied outside the military sector.

Analyze job descriptions: Review job descriptions in civilian roles you are interested in and compare them to your current military job requirements. Identify any overlaps or similarities in skills.

Consider your achievements: Think about your accomplishments in your previous military role, what skills did you use to accomplish them, and how could you apply these skills in a new role?

Conduct informational interviews: Speak with individuals who work in the industry or role you are interested in, ask about their job duties, and what skills they feel are critical to their success.

Some examples of transferable skills include:

Leadership: Managing a team, supervising colleagues or coordinating projects.

Communication: Effectively conveying information, negotiating or managing conflicts.

Problem-Solving: Analyzing data, creating strategies, and making complex decisions.

Time Management: Prioritizing tasks, managing schedules, and meeting deadlines.

Interpersonal skills: Cooperating with colleagues, demonstrating empathy and active listening.

Technical proficiency: Programming, information technology, and other specialized skills.

Transferable skills are abilities that can apply to multiple industries, roles, or job functions. Identifying your transferable skills is a critical step in your military to civilian career transition. By evaluating your military, analyzing job descriptions, considering your accomplishments, and conducting informational interviews, you will develop a clear understanding of the transferable skills required to succeed in a new role. Ensure that you highlight your transferable skills in your resume, cover letter, and during interviews to increase your chances of a successful military to civilian career transition.

Military to Civilian Resume Example

If you’re a veteran looking to make a transition into the civilian workforce, crafting a compelling resume is one of the most important steps you can take. However, making the transition can be daunting, as the terminology and priorities in the military differ from those in the private sector. Below is a step-by-step guide to creating a military to civilian resume, along with tips on how to use military-friendly language and an example resume to inspire your own.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Military to Civilian Resume

Translate your military experience: Start by translating your military experience into civilian terminology. Focus on your key job functions and accomplishments that demonstrate your leadership, discipline, and problem-solving skills.

Use simple language: Avoid using military jargon or acronyms that could be confusing to someone outside of the military. Instead, use simple, clear language that anyone can understand.

Highlight transferable skills: When listing your experience, be sure to highlight transferable skills that will be relevant to the civilian job you’re applying for. For example, if you have experience managing a team, that could translate to a civilian management position.

Quantify your achievements: Use data and numbers to quantify your achievements wherever possible. For example, if you were responsible for managing inventory, include information on how much inventory you managed and how you improved the process.

Tailor your resume: Tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for by emphasizing the skills and experience that are most relevant to the position. Use the job description as a guide to help you choose which skills to highlight.

Military-Friendly Language to Use in the Resume

• Use action verbs that demonstrate leadership and initiative (e.g. managed, led, supervised, initiated, organized)
• Mention relevant training and certifications, such as leadership training, security clearances, or technical certifications
• Use terminology that is familiar to civilians (e.g. “team” instead of “squad,” “budget” instead of “funding allocation”)
• Emphasize the results of your work and the impact you had on your team or organization

Example of a Military to Civilian Resume

Below is an example of a military to civilian resume that demonstrates the tips outlined above. This is just one possible format; be sure to tailor your resume to your specific experience and the job you’re applying for.

Name:  John Smith Contact Information:  (555) 555-5555 | johnsmith.

Military to Civilian Resume Template

When transitioning from military to civilian life, creating a resume that can effectively showcase your skills and experience can be challenging. That’s why we have created a comprehensive military to civilian resume template to guide you through the process.

Overview of the Template

Our military to civilian resume template is designed to highlight your accomplishments and transferable skills in a clear and concise manner. It is formatted to be easily scannable by hiring managers and ATS systems. The template includes the following sections:

• Contact Information
• Objective Statement
• Summary of Qualifications
• Professional Experience

Tips for Customizing the Template to Fit Individual Needs

While our military to civilian resume template is a great starting point, it’s important to customize the template to fit your individual needs. Here are a few tips for personalizing your resume:

• Use keywords and phrases that are relevant to the job you’re applying for
• Quantify your accomplishments whenever possible
• Focus on the skills that are transferable to the civilian workforce
• Use clear and concise language
• Keep your resume to one or two pages

Section-by-Section Breakdown of the Template

This section includes your name, phone number, email address, and physical address. Make sure your contact information is up-to-date and professional. Avoid using nicknames or unprofessional email addresses.

Your objective statement should be tailored to the job you’re applying for. It should be a brief statement that highlights your qualifications and career goals.

This section is where you can showcase your skill set and achievements. Focus on transferable skills that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Use bullet points to make this section easy to read.

In this section, you will list your work experience in reverse chronological order. Include the job title, company name, location, and dates of employment. This is also where you can showcase your accomplishments and how they relate to the job you’re applying for.

List any relevant education and training you have received. Include the school name, degree or certificate earned, and dates of attendance.

Use this section to highlight any additional skills you have that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. This can include language proficiency, technical skills, or certifications.

By following our military to civilian resume template and customizing it to fit your individual needs, you can create a strong resume that highlights your skills and experience. Don’t forget to have someone proofread your resume for errors and clarity before submitting it to potential employers.

Pro Tips for Military to Civilian Resumes

Transitioning from military service to a civilian job can be challenging. Military veterans, especially those who have spent many years in service, often have difficulty converting their military experience into civilian terms. One of the most important steps in this process is creating a military to civilian resume that highlights relevant experience and accomplishments. In this section, we will discuss three pro tips for creating a successful military to civilian resume.

Adding Accomplishments

When creating a resume, it’s important to highlight your accomplishments, not just your job duties. Accomplishments show what you’ve achieved in your roles and how you’ve impacted your organization. In the military, there are many accomplishments that are worth noting, such as awards, medals, and successful missions.

To translate these accomplishments into civilian terms, think about how these achievements benefited your team or organization. Did you save money? Did you improve efficiency? Did you lead a successful project? These are all accomplishments that will impress civilian employers, so be sure to include them on your resume.

Highlighting Leadership Skills

In the military, leadership skills are highly valued and often developed early on in a servicemember’s career. These skills, including the ability to motivate and guide a team, are highly transferable to civilian roles.

When listing your leadership skills on your resume, be sure to highlight specific examples. For instance, if you served as a team leader in a mission, discuss the leadership strategies you employed to ensure the success of your team. It’s also important to emphasize your ability to work well under pressure and make critical decisions in a timely manner.

Emphasizing Relevant Experience

One of the biggest challenges in creating a military to civilian resume is translating military experience into relevant civilian terms. However, it’s essential to highlight your relevant experience to show civilian employers that you have the skills they’re looking for.

To do this, review the job description carefully and highlight the skills and experience that the employer is seeking. Then, review your military experience and think about how it translates to that job description. Focus on key skills that match the job requirements and include them on your resume.

A successful military to civilian resume requires translating military experience in civilian terms, highlighting your accomplishments, highlighting your leadership skills, and emphasizing your relevant experience. By following these pro tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating a winning resume that highlights your unique skills and experience.

Writing Accomplishments

Before diving into how to write strong accomplishments for military personnel, it’s important to define what constitutes an accomplishment. Accomplishments are specific achievements or results that an individual has achieved within a particular role or job. They showcase an individual’s unique contributions, skills, and experience.

When writing accomplishments, it’s crucial to focus on tangible results rather than just listing responsibilities or tasks performed. Begin each accomplishment statement with an active verb and quantify the results whenever possible.

Below are some tips on how to write strong accomplishments:

• Use specific numbers and percentages to illustrate the impact of your actions. This helps to demonstrate the scope and scale of your achievements.

Example: Increased unit efficiency by 25% through implementing new logistics procedures.

• Highlight your individual contributions and leadership skills in team achievements.

Example: Led a team of 10 in successful completion of a high-priority project three weeks ahead of schedule.

• Use action-oriented language to focus on your proactive and results-driven approach.

Example: Initiated and executed a cost-saving measure that resulted in a $50,000 reduction in annual expenditures.

Now, let’s take a look at some examples of accomplishments for military personnel:

Led a platoon of 30 soldiers in combat operations, resulting in zero casualties and successful completion of all mission objectives.

Developed and implemented a safety training program resulting in a decrease in workplace accidents by 50%.

Instrumental in the successful execution of a multinational joint training exercise, increasing overall readiness and strengthening partnerships with allied forces.

Writing strong accomplishments is an integral part of crafting a successful military to civilian resume. By focusing on specific results and using action-oriented language, individuals can effectively showcase their experience and skills to potential employers.

Relevance of Military Service

If you are someone who has served in the military and is now transitioning to civilian employment, then it is important to understand the relevance of military service on a civilian resume. Military service offers a unique set of skills that can be valuable in the civilian workforce. What’s more, it shows dedication, discipline, and a willingness to work hard.

To incorporate military service into your civilian resume, it is typically recommended to take a skills-based approach. This involves highlighting the skills and experiences gained from your military service, and demonstrating how they would be relevant to the position you are applying for. One approach is to use relevant military language and terminology that aligns with your new line of work.

Additionally, it is important to translate military-specific jargon into language that civilians can easily understand. This makes it easier for a hiring manager to clearly see the value of your military experience.

Here are some examples of how to incorporate military service into your resume:

Use relevant military language: For example, if you were trained in the use of weapons as part of your military service, you could use language such as “weapon systems training” or “small arms proficiency” on your resume.

Highlight your experience in leadership: Military service often involves leading teams of people, so it is important to highlight this experience on your resume. Describe specific instances where you took charge and made important decisions.

Show off your dedication and work ethic: Military service is characterized by a sense of duty and responsibility. Highlight your ability to work hard and get things done.

Demonstrate your adaptability: The military requires individuals to be able to adjust to new environments quickly. Highlight your adaptability by demonstrating how you have succeeded in different roles or assignments.

The relevance of military service on a civilian resume cannot be overstated. By taking a skills-based approach and highlighting the valuable experiences and training gained from military service, you can make yourself a strong candidate for a civilian position.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

As military personnel transition into civilian life and job search, one of the critical steps is creating a civilian resume. However, military servicemen and women often make common mistakes that can hurt their job search endeavors.

Here are some of the common pitfalls and how to avoid them:

Mistake 1: Using military lingo or jargon

One of the most significant mistakes military personnel make when creating a civilian resume is using military jargon and acronyms. Unless the civilian employer has a military background, they may not understand the military language, and it can be off-putting. It’s essential to translate military jargon into terms that the civilian employer can understand.

Mistake 2: Focusing on duties rather than accomplishments

Military personnel often list duties and tasks they performed rather than highlighting their significant accomplishments. It’s essential to show how your skills and experiences transfer to the civilian workforce. Quantify your achievements, and showcase how you contributed to the success of your unit or team.

Mistake 3: Too much information

Military personnel have a whole set of skills, training, and experiences that they have accumulated over the years. It’s tempting to include every piece of information in the resume. But the truth is, not every experience is relevant to the civilian job market. Focus on the skills and experiences that relate to the job you’re applying for.

Mistake 4: Lengthy resumes

A standard militarized resume can range from three to ten pages. However, civilian employers prefer shorter and more concise resumes. A two-page resume should be sufficient to showcase your skills and experience.

Mistake 5: Not tailoring the resume to the job

Job descriptions vary from company to company, and not tailoring your resume to the job can reduce your chances of getting an interview. Read the job description, identify the skills and experiences the employer is looking for, and match them with your qualifications.

To avoid these common mistakes, military personnel can seek assistance from career counselors, veterans support groups, and civilian mentors. These professionals can guide them on translating their military experiences into civilian language, highlighting their accomplishments, and tailoring their resumes to the job description. Creating a civilian resume is a crucial step in military-to-civilian transition, and avoiding these mistakes can increase your chances of landing a job.

Cover Letter Writing for Military to Civilian Resume

When transitioning from military life to civilian employment, having a well-written cover letter is essential to getting noticed by potential employers.

Importance of a Cover Letter

A cover letter serves as your introduction to the hiring manager and is your opportunity to showcase your qualifications and explain why you are the best fit for the job. A well-written cover letter can significantly increase your chances of getting an interview and landing the job.

Tips for Writing an Effective Cover Letter

Research the company – before you start writing your cover letter, take the time to research the company and the job you are applying for. This will help you tailor your cover letter to the specific needs of the employer.

Use the right format – your cover letter should follow a standard business letter format, with your contact information at the top, followed by the date, the employer’s contact information, the salutation, the body of the letter, and a closing.

Highlight your qualifications – focus on your most relevant qualifications and experiences that match the requirements of the job.

Keep it concise – your cover letter should be no more than one page and should quickly and succinctly explain why you are the best candidate.

Edit carefully – take the time to proofread and edit your cover letter for spelling and grammar errors before submitting it to the employer.

Example of a Cover Letter for a Military to Civilian Resume

Dear Hiring Manager,

As a former Army Sergeant with experience in logistics and supply chain management, I am excited to apply for the logistics coordinator position at XYZ Company. In my 8 years of military service, I honed my skills in organization, communication, and problem-solving, which I believe will make me an asset to your team.

During my time in the military, I was responsible for the successful management of a large-scale logistics operation, overseeing the distribution of critical supplies and equipment to multiple units across various locations. I am well-versed in the intricacies of coordinating complex and time-sensitive logistics operations, and I thrive under pressure.

In addition to my military experience, I have also completed a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on supply chain management. My education, coupled with my military experience, has prepared me to hit the ground running in a civilian logistics role.

I am thrilled at the opportunity to bring my skills, experience, and work ethic to XYZ Company and am confident that I would be a valuable asset to your team. Thank you for considering my application.

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• 5 Best Military Resume Writing Services (2024)
• Federal Resume Guide
• Military Resume Help

Last Updated on 04/10/2024

When you starting a transition from a military career to a civilian one, it may seem that you have limited options, but it doesn’t have to be so hard. Global companies are looking for candidates who are loyal, hardworking, resilient, adaptable, they are looking for you.

As a veteran, you might struggle to describe your work experience in a way that private-sector recruiters understand. Military.com reported that skills translation was the number one thing holding veterans back from new employment. The military acronyms and terminology that you’ve become familiar with often fail to connect with civilians.

Fortunately, a military to civilian resume service could allow you to overcome this difficulty. Browse this list of military transition resume writing services to begin comparing top service providers.

Make your first life-changing steps with the help of professionals.

Table of Contents

• 1 Military to Civilian Resume Writing Services
• 2.1 Which Payment Methods are Supported by Military Resume Writing Services?
• 3.1 Establish Direct Contact
• 3.2 Search for Feedback
• 3.3 Certification
• 3.4 Prepare to Work With a Military Resume Writer
• 3.5 Resume Writing for Veterans
• 4.1 Can I Find Military Resume Writers Near Me?

Military to Civilian Resume Writing Services

The companies presented in a chart were selected due to several positive feedbacks from satisfied customers and good professional reputation, including guarantees, several free military resume revisions, a low rejection rate, on-time orders delivery, and excellent value for many.

Check out our military resume writing service reviews for the next companies:

• Find My Profession
• Professional Resume Services
• Great Resumes Fast

Below, we will evaluate each of the resume writing services focusing on some of their key features.

• Turnaround: 3-5 business days 
• ATS compliance: Yes 
• Revisions: Unlimited, 1 week 
• Cost: $695-$1095
• Turnaround: 7-14 days
• ATS compliance: Yes
• Revisions: 2 rounds
• Cost: $795-$1595
• Executive Resume Package may vary from $2695 to $4295
• Turnaround: 4-7 business days
• Revisions: 2 rounds, 1 week
• Cost: $995-$2999
• Cost: $279-$479

Cost of Resume Military Service

Prices for professional resume writing services for military veterans start at about $130. For officers seeking executive-level jobs, resume prices climb as high as $3000. A professionally written resume represents an investment. The cost, however, is a good value when it leads to years of ongoing employment.

You can expect to pay a premium when you need a resume fast. This could be appropriate if an open position is about to close applications. Otherwise, it’s usually best not to rush things unnecessarily. A resume requires attention to detail, and you want one that sells your skills effectively.

The Military Skills Translator at Military.com lets you enter your branch of service and job title. It takes your MOS/AFC Rating and delivers pertinent job results.

Which Payment Methods are Supported by Military Resume Writing Services?

The major part of military resume writing services accepts MasterCard, Maestro card, Visa, American Express, Amex, Discover, and Wire Transfer.

How to Evaluate Military Resume Writers

Establish direct contact.

Choose a writer specializing in military transitions. Give preference to a former military officer with the Master Military Resume Writer credential who knows how to translate military jargon into language that is attractive for the private sector. Make sure your resume professional is sophisticated in writing ATS-friendly resumes as well.

Search for Feedback

Military resume writers reviews will reveal clues about the writer’s suitability for your goals. Look for feedback like “The writer understood my skills” or “The resume I got landed me a job.”

During initial communications with potential writers, ask specific questions. You want to determine if a person has a good grasp of military terminology and job descriptions.

Good questions for vetting a military resume writer are:

• Which branches of military service are you most familiar with?
• Did you serve in the military?
• How many resumes have you written for veterans?
• What are your writing credentials?
• Can you provide any references from satisfied customers?

Certification

Another credential that could help you identify the best professionals is a certification from the National Resume Writers Association. Credentials like these indicate that a writer is serious about resume writing and it’s not just a side hustle.

The best choice for you might not necessarily be the best choice for everyone. A writer who excels at military skill translation for Marines might struggle with someone transitioning from the Navy.

The civilian industry where you’re seeking work should influence your choice. Not all military resumes writers specialize in the same things. Look for someone who understands what recruiters in your desired field want to see in a job candidate.

Certified resume writers often develop specialties, such as engineering or finance. They’ve learned what job recruiters in certain industries are looking for. Most importantly, the best military to civilian resume writers know what words to use to capture the attention of hiring managers.

Before accepting a resume from a writing service, ask someone you trust to look at the draft. An outside opinion could help you know if you should ask for a revision.

Prepare to Work With a Military Resume Writer

Even when you outsource resume writing, you still need to fill questionnaires or provide your work history. An exception is Great Resumes Fast , which doesn’t ask its clients to complete any worksheets but offers 60-90 minutes conversation to discuss the work experience. But as for the rest military resume writing services , be ready to provide the next data:

• Last 10 years of NCOER/OERs/EPRs
• Fully updated ERB or ORB
• ATRRS, VMET Document
• Training certificates and licenses
• Academic level and degree (i.e., BA, BS, MBA, etc.), including GPA
• Security clearance status
• Your contact information ( address, phone number, and email address).

Request a Verification of Military Experience and Training from the Department of Defense Transition Assistance Program. This record provides a summary of your skills.

Resume Writing for Veterans

If you are transitioning from a military position to the civilian workforce, writing a resume and cover letter can be challenging. Fortunately, help is available from professionals who specialize in resume services for veterans and providing assistance that goes beyond veteran resume help.

The Veteran’s Administration is an excellent resource for veterans and their spouses. It provides training and resources to help you find employment after your military career is complete. The Veterans Employment Center connects veterans to local career fairs, places to find internships, and access to personalized career counseling.

Ready to Build Your Own Business?

If you are a veteran who is thinking about starting your own business, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Veteran’s Business Development (OVBD) helps veterans and their family members begin the journey to business ownership. Veteran-owned businesses can receive assistance by connecting you with supply chains, special funding, and access to capital. You can access these resources through special centers across the nation. This is an excellent way to get what you need to get your business up and running at a low cost. The SBA also provides federal resume writing for veterans and contractors who need to learn to navigate the system and present their company as the most qualified for the position.

How to Choose Military Resume Writing Service?​

We hope, now you have a clear idea of how to determine professional military resume writer. Let’s see what to take into consideration while choosing the best military to civilian resume writing service.

• Website design and content: guarantees, turnaround time, working process and contact information.
• Testimonials: make sure the person is real, just browse name and surname, occupation in Google or on LinkedIn.
• Direct contact with a writer is a must. Even if you’ve got a first-class writer, make a double check if you’re both looking at the same direction of your career transition.
• Resume review is an essential part of the process. Make sure, you’ll have the possibility to revise the document for further improvement.
• The lack of direct contact with a writer, unskillful communication during a chat with your writer. Writer’s reluctance to get into details of your military transition.
• No guarantees: on-time delivery guarantee, revisions guarantee, quality guarantee. Usually, military resume writing services provide 100% satisfaction guarantee or 60-day interview guarantee.
• Fictional information or overstatement of your skills, years of experience and achievements, which can be easily revealed during a job interview.

Can I Find Military Resume Writers Near Me?

If you’re in an area with a large military presence, like Fort Bragg or Fort Hood, local employment agencies could offer resume writing assistance. Do an internet search for resume writers for military transition along with the town where you live. The search could return results for resume writing services for veterans .

You might not even have to look off base. The majority of U.S. military installations have a transition assistance office. A convenient source of resume help might be closer than you think.

Finding someone locally might feel more comfortable. You’ll have the chance to meet the writer in person. If you’re not pleased with the services available locally, don’t dismiss using an online company. Thousands of people employ these services with good results.

The nonprofit organization Hire Our Heroes could also connect you with transition resources. Veterans founded this nonprofit for the sole purpose of helping veterans transition to civilian employment. The group sponsors group training and networking events throughout the country. Volunteers at Hire Our Heroes can mentor you and aid in your job search.

• Best Federal Resume Writing Service Reviews

As a person with military experience of more than 20 years, I will say only one thing. In the world there is a clear regulation for everything, including a resume. Especially for a military man this is his face. Writing a resume is like sending to a hot spot. The slightest mistake can cost you everything. I do not believe in magical resume builders, free resume services for veterans as well as a tooth fairy. There is a quest, its qualified execution and proper reward – this is how it works in the real world.

Hi Tom, Totally agree with you! Thank you so much for your feedback! We’ll improve our list of the best military writing services soon. Let’s keep in touch)

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Your ambition to serve the country is attainable

[ Click here to directly go to the complete military resume sample ]

With an industry-relevant military resume.

Have you optimized your resume just yet?

If you haven't, don't panic. This blog has got you covered.

This blog holds the promise of elevating your military resume to the realms of industry perfection.

The 10+ military resume examples & military resume samples that we have embedded in this blog are designed to help you curate a resume that gets you shortlisted.

All you have to do is follow the guidelines in this blog and your perfect industry-relevant military resume is good to go.

Here’s a summary of our Military Resume Blog:

• Use the month & year format to illustrate relevant dates in your army resume (enrolment & graduation dates, D.O.J, and D.O.L dates, etc).
• Keep your email ID strictly professional. Avoid using childish email IDs as it attracts unwanted attention.
• Don't use paragraphs to compose your military to civilian resume. Instead, use one-liner points to communicate your roles & responsibilities and begin each point with an action verb (Led, Directed, Consolidated, Optimized, etc).

That's not all.

In this blog, we have also gone the extra mile to help you illustrate your military experience on resume with perfection.

The military to civilian resume examples that comes with this blog will also give you a better idea of what each section of your resume should look like once you have inculcated the rules of resume writing to frame your resume.

By the end of this blog, you will be able to write a job-winning resume while simultaneously learning:

• How to optimize each section of your military to civilian resume.
• How to add military experience to a resume.
• Whether to add military resume summary or military resume objective.
• What your US army address for resume should look like and which details to include and not include.

. . . All so you can get the job that you want!

With this blog, you will transform into impeccable military resume writers and you will be able to write professional-looking military resumes in no time.

Optimize your shortlist chances by perfecting your military to civilian resume by making the most of the 10+ military resume examples that we have mentioned in this blog.

On the contrary, if you're looking for a quick solution to your problems, use Hiration's Online Resume Builder .

The military resume template that comes with it is designed for ATS compatibility. It also has pre-filled sections which will help you craft an impeccable resume in no time.

Moving on, here’s a list of all that you will learn in this blog:

What is a Military Resume & why do you need it?

A military resume or army resume is a resume for army professionals and aspiring citizens who want to join the US army.

It consists of important details regarding your educational and professional life.

To get shortlisted for the military job of your dreams, you need to optimize your resume by making it ATS-compatible.

So let's get started! There's a lot of learning left to do!

In the meanwhile, get your existing military to civilian resume professionally reviewed by Hiration’s Resume Review Service.

With us, your existing military to civilian resume will be reviewed based on the following parameters:

• Resume Length
• Resume Keywords
• Core Section
• Resume Name
• Bullet points
• Contact Information
• ATS Compatibility

Does this seem exciting? If it does, keep an eye out on the bottom left corner of this page to get an in-depth review of your military to civilian resume within minutes!

Military Sample Resume

[ Back to Table of Content ]

Before we begin, here's a sample military resume showcasing the ideal army resume. We have made this using Hiration's Online Resume Builder .

• Administered disciplinary actions in the team to cut incidents by 30% in a time span of 3 months
• Rendered daily surveillance & security for headquarters and oversaw safety inspections & security checks
• Negotiated with vendors to acquire food supplies & inventory for the army headquarter at a 15% subsidized rate
• Oversaw the upkeep of army equipment and researched market trends to assess the need to procure new weapons
• Coordinated with first-class sergeants to achieve 100% team goals before the stipulated deadline
• Trained 5 new sergeants on individual and collective security tasks to bolster overall team performance
• Mentored a team of 30 operations & security sergeants on the correct usage of latest equipment & weapons
• Received " Most Diligent Staff Sergeant Award " twice in Jun '18 and Jun '17
• Communicated with the management and supervised accountability of 30+ trainees
• Directed surveillance & security for headquarters and provided external security for internment corrections
• Promoted from a position of Security Specialist to Security Forces Staff Sergeant in just 2 years due to 5 star performance
• Among the top 2 % of the class
• CPR/First Aid Certification | ECC | Jun '13
• Weapon Certification
• M240b Machine Gun
• M780 Shotgun
• Received National Defense Service Medal | Jun '18
• Secured National War on Terrorism Service Medal | Jun '17
• Won Joint Meritorious Award | Jun '16

How to write a Military Resume

Most people tend to write their military resumes just to re-write them all over again. Following the right approach to resume writing helps you write your army resume while optimizing the time it takes you to curate it.

Mentioned below are the 3 stages of resume writing that you should follow:

• Stage 1: Master Military Resume
• Stage 2: First Draft of Military Resume
• Stage 2: Final Draft of Military Resume

Master Military Resume

The first stage of resume writing involves making the master resume.

In this stage, your only job is to compile information. Doing this has the added benefit of helping you write your military to civilian resume in the present and future timeline.

Having a library of information with you, the need to explicitly look for information gets eliminated. Thus, writing your resume in the present and making any updates to it in the future becomes an easy process.

First Draft of Military Resume

In the second stage of drafting your military resume, compose the following sections:

• Personal Information
• Profile Title
• Professional Experience
• Certifications (if any)
• Awards & Recognition (if any)
• Additional Information (if any)

Final Draft of Military Resume

In the final stage, compose the sections we have mentioned below:

Summary/Objective : In this section, you have to impactfully summarize your military experience on resume. Composing your resume summary/objective towards the end helps you identify the best highlights of your career, thereby helping you make a well-informed summary/objective for your resume.

Key Skills : Right before composing your military resume summary/objective, draft the key skills section. Composing this section second-to-last helps you write an impeccable military resume skills section.

Military Resume Sections

The key to a perfect ATS-compliant army resume lies in information presentation. How you present important information in your resume matters.

This is why resume sections are important. It helps you organize information and present it impactfully.

Attached below are the must-have sections of your resume:

• Summary/Objective

You can also put your information under the sections that we have mentioned below:

For a better understanding of resume sections, read Hiration's 2022 Guide to sections in a resume .

Additionally, you can use Hiration’s Online Resume Builder to stand a better chance of getting shortlisted for the job of your dreams.

It comes with a huge library of pre-filled military resume templates that you can personalize to suit your professional needs and work history.

Read on and look out for the military veteran resume examples that we have attached in this guide to learn what each section should ideally look like.

Military Resume: Professional Experience

The hallmark of a great veteran resume is perfect readability and relevant information. You can meet these criteria by following the below-mentioned points to communicate your roles & responsibilities:

• Frame points
• Use the STAR format
• Use Bucketing & Bolding

Framing Points

It is a common consensus that you should not use paragraphs to compose the details of your work experience. Instead, one-liner points have been commonly suggested by resume experts globally to present your work-centric information in your military to civilian resume.

Using one-liner points radically enhances the readability of your resume too.

Don't believe us?

Take a look at the military veteran resume examples given below to decide if one-liner points are a better alternative to using paragraphs.

Military Resume Example 1

"As part of my roles & responsibilities as a security forces staff agent, I was responsible for researching logistics operations, engineering and technical evaluations for defense projects. I also advised senior agents on important aspects like safety, disposal, and decontamination procedures. Part of my daily responsibilities included constantly cooperating with sergeants to achieve the team goals of the security forces within the assigned deadline. Additionally, I have also played a key role in coaching a team of approximately 29 operations & security sergeants on how weapons & latest equipment should be used".

Military Resume Example 2

• Collaborated with first-class sergeants to achieve 100% team goals before the stipulated deadline
• Advised senior agents on safety, disposal, and decontamination procedures involving chemical weapons
• Researched the logistics operations, engineering, and technical evaluations for defense projects

Framing Points: Analysis

The above-listed military resume examples present us with the following observations:

• Example 1 uses a long paragraph and Example 2 uses crisp one-liner points to communicate the same information.
• Example 1 (which uses paragraphs) is hard to read & comprehend. Thus, it fails to satisfy the bare-minimum requirement of great readability that is needed in any ideal military to civilian resume.
• On the contrary, Example 2 (which uses one-liner bulleted points) has aced the readability test due to its reader-friendly nature. Moreover, it uses action verbs to begin each point which gives your resume a confident tone of professionalism.
• Using one-liner points is an easier alternative to using paragraphs. It is thus highly recommended.

STAR Format

Now that you know how to enhance the readability of your work experience, let us now optimize it using the STAR format.

STAR stands for the following:

Situation : The situation/backdrop/context of your contributions Task : The actual task that was assigned to you Action : The strategy you used to execute the assigned task Result : The result/outcome of your action in the form of an achievement figure

STAR format encourages the use of numbers to quantify your achievement under each one-liner point. Thus, it enhances the effectiveness and relevance of your roles & responsibilities.

Our recommendation: Use the STAR format to optimize each one-liner point.

Bucketing & Bolding

By now, you have a highly reader-friendly and effective resume. But what's the point if it still goes unnoticed?

Nothing. Your hard work goes to ground zero.

This is why bucketing & bolding is important.

Observe the military to civilian resume examples given below to understand the merit behind our argument:

• Received "Most Diligent Staff Sergeant Award" in Apr '17
• Managed safety inspections & security checks to ensure daily surveillance & security in headquarters
• Facilitated the upkeep of army equipment and researched market trends to assess the need to procure new weapons
• Negotiated with vendors to acquire food supplies & inventory for the army headquarter at a 25% subsidized rate
• Enforced disciplinary actions to cut incidents by 50% within 6 months
• Trained 10+ sergeants on individual and collective security tasks to bolster overall team performance

Surveillance & Inventory Management

Discipline Enforcement & Training

Key Achievements

• Received " Most Diligent Staff Sergeant Award " in Apr '17

Bucketing & Bolding : Analysis

• Example 1 uses simple one-liner points and Example 2 uses bucketing & bolding to organize each point.
• By grouping similar points under unique subheadings (bucketing) and marking the important elements in each point in bold (bolding), Example 2 succeeds at enhancing the visibility of your work experience. It diverts the recruiter's attention to an applicant's key responsibilities & achievements in one go.
• Thus, you should use bucketing & bolding alongside one-liner points to illustrate your military experience on resume.

Military Resume Sample for Professional Experience

Learn how to add military experience to a resume with Hiration's Blog on how to compose the work experience in your resume . It is a detailed explanation of this section and contains the best tips to perfect it.

In the meanwhile, look out for our military to civilian resume examples to get a better grip of resumes and what they should ideally look like.

Here's a military experience on resume example illustrating a perfectly composed professional experience section:

Military Resume: Key Skills

Are your skills good enough to land you a job as an army personnel in the US army?

If it is, put them down in the 'key skills' section of your resume.

If it isn't, get skilled.

As a rule of thumb, your key skills section should be crisp and to the point as doing this helps a recruiter quickly identify your functional skills & proficiency.

Do not use phrases like 'experienced in' or 'expertise in' to endorse your resume skills. Instead, summarize your skills into 1-3 words of action. Eg: 'Surveillance & Security', 'Weapons Training', 'Discipline Enforcement', etc.

Read Hiration's 2022 Guide on what skills to put on a resume to get a better understanding of how to efficiently curate this section.

Here's a sample military resume showcasing the perfect key skills section:

Military Resume Summary or Military Resume Objective?

Should you write a military resume summary? Or should you write a military resume objective?

Read on to find out:

• Write a military resume summary if you have over 3 years of work experience.
• Write a military resume objective if you have no work experience or less than 3 years of active work experience.

Now that you have identified which one to write, follow the guidelines we have outlined below:

• Write your summary/objective at the end: Doing this saves you both times and effort as you wouldn't need to revisit these sections all over again.
• Pick the best highlights of your career from the work experience section of your army resume and talk about your unique strengths & skills that make you fit for the military job you are after.
• Keep the length of your resume/summary limited to a 3-5 line paragraph.

For a better understanding of both resume summaries and resume objectives, refer to Hiration's Resume Summary Guide and Hiration's 2022 Guide to Resume Objectives .

Attached below is a sample military resume illustrating the ideal summary for your veteran resume:

This is a snapshot of a veteran resume that we have compiled with the pre-designed & pre-arranged military resume template on Hiration's Online Resume Builder .

Military Resume: Header

Next up, we will discuss the resume header.

Here are some steps you should follow to perfect your army resume header:

• Position it at the topmost part of your resume.
• Write it in the largest font size of 16-20 points .
• Give a single space between your first name and last name.
• If you have a middle name, initialize it. Eg: "Mary L. Baxter".

For a better understanding of this section, read Hiration’s 2022 Guide To Writing The Perfect Resume Header to learn the art of curating the perfect header for your army resume.

Here's a military experience on resume example illustrating the ideal resume header:

This is a snapshot of an army resume that we have composed using Hiration’s Online Resume Builder . The ideal resume header should ideally look like this.

Make use of our military to civilian resume builder now!

Military Resume: Personal Information

The personal information section of your military to civilian resume is a compendium of important contact-centric details such as:

• Updated mobile number
• Professional email ID

Current Location

Hiration Protip : Don't flood this section with extremely personal details such as your passport details, date of birth, sexual preference, religious beliefs etc. (unless explicitly asked to do so) as it may lead to unbiased hiring and you don't want to be on the receiving end of THAT.

Updated Mobile Number

Most recruitment-centric activities such as an interview or a shortlist announcement happen over the phone. A minor typo can keep you from a potential shortlist. Thus, the details of your mobile number must be presented accurately.

Here are some few tips that you should follow to document your contact details:

• Use your country’s ISD code as a prefix before your phone number.
• Put a plus sign (+) before the ISD code.
• Eg: +1 37648 21511.

Professional E-mail Address

Your email ID is the official communication channel between you and the recruiter and is thus extremely important.

Make sure that it is professionally presented. Do not use fancy email IDs as it would look extremely unprofessional (and you don't want that).

A simple way to go about composing your email ID is by using your name followed by your domain name. Example: '[email protected].

In the language of writing resumes, location is indicative of an applicant's city & state of residence.

Here are some points that you should remember to compose your location correctly in your military to civilian resume:

• Follow the city/state code format to showcase location in your army resume.
• DO NOT INCLUDE your house number, street number, and your locality name as part of your location.
• For job applications in the country of your residence, use the city/state code format . Example: If you live in Albany, New York; your location should be written as 'Albany, NY'
• For job applications in other countries, use the city/country code format to showcase your location. Example: If you live in Newark, New Jersey; your location should be written as 'Newark, US'.

Military Resume Sample for Personal Information

For a better understanding of this section, read Hiration's 2022 Guide to composing your contact information .

Our military to civilian resume examples visually communicates what each section of your resume should ideally look like.

The sample military resume we have mentioned below showcases the ideal personal information for your military to civilian resume:

This is a snapshot of a veteran resume that we have built using Hiration’s Online Resume Builder .

Use our Online Resume Builder to explore the pre-designed & pre-filled military resume template that comes with our military resume builder.

Read on to learn about the rest of the resume sections for your veteran resume from the 10+ military to civilian resume examples that are attached in this blog.

Military Resume: Profile Title

Another important section of your veteran resume is the profile title. It communicates the following career-specific information about you:

• Your current designation.
• Your functional industry.
• Your level of seniority in your line of work.

Use the second-largest font size ranging 14-16 points to compose your profile title. This enhances the visibility of your profile title which helps a recruiter identify the above-mentioned information about you in one glance.

Here's a military experience on resume example showcasing the perfect profile title for your veteran resume:

In the meanwhile, give your army resume the touch of professionalism. Use our AI-powered Resume Review Service today.

Military Resume: Education

Textbook knowledge is just as important as practical knowledge, especially if there is a minimum educational criteria for a given job position. As such, you should always include your educational details in your veteran resume.

Making an 'education' section with the following mentioned details is a must:

• Name of the school/university you have attended.
• Name of the courses you have pursued.
• The location of your school/university.
• Enrolment and graduation dates in month & year format .

Refer to Hiration's 2022 Guide on how to list education on your resume to read an exhaustive guide on how to correctly curate the education section.

Here's a resume sample showcasing the ideal education section for your resume.

This is a snapshot of a veteran resume that we have made with Hiration's Online Resume Builder .

Our military to civilian resume builder has an optimized military resume template that you can easily modify to suit your professional needs & requirements.

Military Resume: Certifications

As an aspiring army man, being certified in weapon certifications such as the following will give you an advantage over other applicants:

If you have done these certifications (and more), don't shy away from putting them in your military to civilian resume.

Once you do, make sure that you give the following details regarding your certifications in your veteran resume:

• Certification course name.
• Name of the institute of affiliation.
• Location of the institute of affiliation.
• Enrolment and completion date of the course in month & year format .

Arrange these points in the below format:

{Name of Certification} | {Affiliating Institution} | {Location} | {Date} (month & year format)

For a better understanding of this section, refer to Hiration's Guide to listing certifications on a resume .

Here's a military resume sample showcasing the ideal certification section for your resume:

This is a snapshot of a veteran resume that we have composed using Hiration's Online Resume Builder .

The military resume builder is embedded with an ATS-optimized and pre-filled military resume template which shows you what each section of your resume, and the content in these sections should ideally look like in your resume.

Military Resume: Awards & Recognition

Are you an awardee of the National Defense Service Medal?

Or have you been recognized for a job well done?

If the answer is yes, make a separate "Awards & Recognition" section in your army resume and put this information here.

Here's an example of what the perfect sample military resume should look like:

In the meanwhile, write a stellar resume to boost your chances of a shortlist with Hiration's Online Resume Builder :

Military Resume: Additional Information

Perhaps you speak multiple languages?

If you do, putting this information in your veteran resume is a great idea.

When you work for the US army, you can always be deployed to other countries, and if you are sent away for service abroad, knowing the local language would prove to be a big asset in your hands.

Bottom line is, being multilingual is a plus point. So make sure that you mention this skill in your resume but only if you think it will help advance your job application.

Here's a military resume sample showcasing what your additional information would ideally look like in your army resume (must you choose to include this section):

In the meanwhile, boost your chances at getting shortlisted with Hiration's Online Resume Builder .

Resume Review & Free Military Resume Templates

Get your military resume professionally reviewed by our resume experts at Hiration for a constructive analysis of your military resume.

Evaluate how well your veteran resume is performing based on the below-mentioned parameters:

• Compliance with industry norms
• Content Relevance
• Recruiter Friendliness
• Design Compatibility
• Conversion Scope
• ATS Compliance
• Global Compatibility
• Performance Assessment
• Resume Formatting (font, margins, the order of sections, etc.)

Here's the kicker:

You will get 2 resume templates for free!!

Online Resume Builder for Military Resume

Hiration's Online Resume Builder is designed to help you write an ATS-compatible veteran resume.

Alongside this, you will also get these resources with our Resume Builder :

• Option to save unlimited resumes
• 25+ resume designs
• Full rich-text editor
• Unlimited PDF downloads
• 100+ resume templates
• 1-click design change
• A sharable link
• Live resume editor

Key Takeaways

• Follow the 3 stages of resume-writing to optimize the time you take to curate your resume.
• Stick to a one-page veteran resume if you have less than 10 years of relevant work experience. If you don't, write a two-page resume. Make sure that you adhere to the two-page limit.
• As a rule of thumb, always use your name as your resume header and position it at the top-most part of your military resume.
• Your resume header should be composed in the largest font size of 16-20 points and your profile title should be composed in the second-largest font size of 14-16 points . Doing this enhances the visibility of these components in your resume.
• Knowing what to put in your resume is not enough. Knowing how to organize them is important too. So make sure that you compile your information under the relevant sections that we have mapped out in this guide.
• The professional experience is an integral component of your veteran resume. Make sure that you do justice to this section by communicating your roles & responsibilities using crisp one-liner points.
• Use action verbs to begin each one-liner point. Doing this gives your resume a tone of assertiveness and professionalism.
• Quantify your achievements wherever possible. Doing this helps you endorse the feasibility & utility of your skills.

With this, you have reached the end of this blog.

For a better understanding of each section, go back and evaluate the military to civilian resume examples that we have endorsed at the end of each section in this blog.

Go to Hiration resume builder and create a professional resume for yourself. Additionally, reach out to us at [email protected] and you can get 24/7 professional assistance with all your job & career-related queries.

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10 Best Military to Civilian Resume Writing Services (2024)

Find the best professional military resume services. Compare costs and customer reviews of the top military transition resume writing services for veterans.

2024 Winners: Add your badge to your marketing materials.

Looking to make the transition from the military into the civilian world? Well first and foremost, thank you for serving our country.

If you’re preparing to enter the civilian workforce and stand out in a competitive job market, you may very well be searching for the best military to civilian resume writing services.

As you already know, military jargon is different than civilian jargon. If your resume is filled with military keywords that the average hiring manager cannot understand, it won’t take you far.

Believe it or not, most companies love hiring veterans. There is a work ethic that is instilled in military professionals that you just can’t find elsewhere.

The hard part isn’t proving your worthiness. The hard part is translating your skills and experience gained in the military into simple language that the civilian hiring manager can understand.

As a small thank you for your service, it is our privilege to bring you a shortlist of the very best military to civilian resume writers in America.

If you are transitioning to a federal government career, check out our list of the Best Federal Resume Writers .

Best Military Transition Resume Writers

Best resume services for military to civilian transition.

How We Choose Winners

Each of the military-to-civilian transition resume services below was reviewed by a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) taking into consideration the following:

The cost of the service compared to other military-to-civilian resume writers.

The speed at which the resume is completed.

Overall experience, awards, and certifications.

The design, style, and overall look of the resume.

Guarantees, number of edits, and reviews.

This list was hand-curated to serve all military transition professionals. Whether you were O-1 to O-10, W-1 to W-5, or E-1 to E-9, we have resume writers on this list that will be perfect for your career needs.

Average Military to Civilian Resume Cost

Military to civilian resume writer reviews.

Find My Profession

Find My Profession is much more than a resume writing service. They are a global career services company whose work has been featured on sites like Forbes, Inc., Zety, Fast Company, and more.

With their team of elite resume writers who have experience in over 85 industries and professions, they can match you with a writer who understands your unique background and experience. Additionally, every resume comes with a one-on-one phone consultation with your writer.

Find My Profession has an impressive track record of successfully landing clients jobs at top companies such as Apple, Amazon, EA, Oracle, GM, Facebook, DoJ, Morgan Stanley, and Tesla.

Their 900+ 5-star reviews speak to their commitment to delivering high-quality service. They also offer a 60-day interview guarantee and ensure that every resume created is Applicant Tracking System (ATS) compatible and highly customized to meet your specific needs.

You will work one-on-one with an elite and certified resume writer based in the U.S. Find My Profession is committed to ensuring that every client is 100% satisfied with their resume, which is why they do not limit the number of edits or time spent working with your writer.

Find My Profession is a virtual company allowing them to provide services worldwide. While they do not have a physical office for in-person visits, they ensure direct communication with your writer through email and phone calls.

4.9/5 based on 521 Trustpilot reviews 4.9/5 based on 319 Sitejabber reviews 4.9/5 based on 151 Google reviews 5/5 based on 52 Facebook reviews

3 – 5 business days (can expedite to 2 business days)

$395 – $995

(831) 888-0967 or [email protected]

Check out some of our 5-star reviews:

Resume & linkedin profile, terrific experience, exceptional resume, findmyprofession helped me, excellent job, 10/10 service & experience, highly recommend, incredible work.

ResumeZest is trusted by professionals from companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, Oracle, GE, Adobe, Uber, and Facebook. Their resume writing team has written resumes for more than 75 industries. A 60-day interview guarantee backs up every resume they write. Each resume is also ATS compliant and keyword-optimized.

ResumeZest is a very well-rounded company. They offer affordable pricing and quick turnaround times. You will work with a high-quality, certified writer and receive excellent customer service. They are also members of the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PARW/CC).

ResumeZest is one of the newer companies on this list. While they do a great job and their writers have many years of experience, the company was only founded in 2020.

4.8/5 based on 175 Trustpilot reviews 4.8/5 based on 93 Google reviews 4.9/5 based on 91 Sitejabber reviews 5/5 based on 12 Facebook reviews 5/5 based on 4 Yelp reviews

$279 – $479

(888) 530-4911 or [email protected]

Need Help With Your Job Search?

Did you know there are companies you can hire to help with your job search? Whether you need resume help or want someone to apply to jobs for you, we’ve reviewed the 20 best agencies to help you find a job.

A Word’s Worth

A Word’s Worth is owned and operated by Nina Ebert, a Certified Professional Resume Writer, Career Coach, and Military Reward Partner. Nina has had a series of resumes and cover letters selected for inclusion in 23 nationally published books. She started her business in 1989 and has since been able to help countless military professionals transition into civilian jobs.

A Word’s Worth has a special focus on military resumes. She also provides a handful of resume samples on her site including a military to civilian transition resume. If you are in the New Jersey area, Nina is more than happy to meet with you in-person to write your resume.

A Word’s Worth resume packages didn’t seem to be available on the website. You must call this company in order to receive an exact quote. Also, we are unsure if Nina is the only writer on the team or if she works with other writers.

4.8/5 based on 26 Google reviews 4.7/5 based on 15 Yelp reviews

$375 – $950

(609) 758-7799 or [email protected]

Masterpiece Resume

Masterpiece Resume was founded in 2008 by Kirstin Olsen. Kirstin is a professional resume writer who specializes in government, law enforcement, and military transition resume writing. With such a special focus on military resumes, you can rest easy knowing you are in great hands with Masterpiece Resume.

Masterpiece Resume has a special focus on military resume services. Founder Kirstin Olsen personally writes each and every resume and never uses ghostwriters for her work. They even mention that they offer military and returning customer discounts.

Masterpiece Resume does not feature any resume samples on their website. It would be great to be able to see the quality of work that Kirstin provides. Also, you will need to schedule a call in order to get more of an exact quote.

4.5/5 based on 13 Yelp reviews 4/5 based on 5 Google reviews

2 – 7 business days

$350 – $120

(760) 453-1448 or [email protected]

A Platinum Resume

A Platinum Resume is one of the finest military to civilian resume writing services around. Based in Colorado Springs, Kara Varner, the owner and writer, has three different resume certifications to translate your military service into an amazing civilian resume. They also offer discounted military spouse resumes which can really help out your significant other!

Kara is a Certified Military to Civilian Transition Resume Specialist (CRS-MTC) and member of the Military Spouse Resume Writers’ Coalition. That is a rarity when it comes to resume services. Kara has worked in both the Army and Air Force and now assists service members with their transition into civilian life.

A Platinum Resume has a long turnaround time, which could be a turnoff to some clients. If you need a resume ASAP, you will end up paying a significant cost to receive your resume in your desired time frame. Pricing is rather expensive if you want a more extensive package.

4.9/5 based on 19 Google reviews

8 – 10 business days (can expedite to 1 or 3 business days)

$417 – $477

(719) 339-2659 or [email protected]

1-Day Resume

1-Day Resume has the experience that many other resume writers dream of. Every single one of their resume writers has at least a Bachelor’s degree and has written at least 3,000 resumes. Based in Knoxville, they have worked with clients from all over the world –– including Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Your resume is in great hands with this military to civilian resume writing service.

1-Day Resume has collectively written over 15,200 resumes since its inception. They have a vast number of 5-star reviews online to backup their boisterous claims. Military to civilian transitions are one of the specialties they have listed on their website.

1-Day Resume does not have any standard pricing. That can be worrisome since you have no idea what they are charging their other clients. There is also no information on who is specifically writing your resume, which is a downside.

4.9/5 based on 81 Google reviews 5/5 based on 11 Facebook reviews

1 – 2 business days

$395 – $595

(865) 691-3796 or [email protected]

Is Your Resume Working Properly?

If you are having trouble landing interviews, it might be time to hire a professional resume writer. Check out our list of the 750+ best resume writers and start landing more interviews!

Empire Resume

Empire Resume understands how difficult the transition from military to civilian life is. The owner and writer, Phil Gold, was an Air Force captain who knows how to translate your service into skills that are positioned as attractive to employers. Phil Gold also has his PhD, so you will be on the receiving end of military to civilian transition resume writing that is top-of-the-line.

Empire Resume is dedicated to getting you a job. If you do not land an interview after 30 days, they will edit your resume for free. After another 60 days, they will edit it once again. Empire Resume cares about helping you secure a job and ensuring that your transition goes smoothly.

Empire Resume is a one-man show. That is great from a service standpoint as everyone will receive the same level of resume. But if Phil is too overwhelmed with resumes, he may not be able to take your resume on.

5/5 based on 207 Google reviews 5/5 based on 86 Bark reviews 5/5 based on 11 Facebook reviews 4.7/5 based on 3 Yelp reviews

3 business days

(801) 690-4085 or [email protected]

EBR HR Experts

EBR HR Experts was established in 2015 by Krystal Yates. The company helps military members convert their skills into corporate skills so that they can land interviews in the civilian world. As an SHRM Veterans At Work Certificate holder, EBR employs resume writers that have military experience themselves.

Krystal is a member of the Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches who has also been a recruiter since 2010. You can easily check out the details and certifications of their resume writers through their website. Depending on your location, you can meet face-to-face with your writer.

There are no military to civilian resume samples on their website for potential customers to check out. You cannot purchase resume packages directly from the company’s website. To do that, you’d have to schedule an appointment or phone consultation first.

4.9/5 based on 33 Google reviews 5/5 based on 7 Facebook reviews

5 business days

(972) 855-8009 or [email protected]

Career Confidence Resume Services

Career Confidence Resume Services is led by Cassie Hatcher, a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW), Certified Veteran Career Strategist (CVSC), and contest-winning resume writer. Her company specializes in executive and senior leader military resumes. They have worked with all military branches and across various Military Occupational Specialties (MOS’s).

Career Confidence Resume Services is a growing resume-writing boutique that only accepts a set number of clients at a time to ensure high-quality services. If they are over capacity, you might have to wait to start your resume.

4.8/5 based on 39 Trustpilot reviews

$600 – $2,400

[email protected]

Di4Resume was founded by Dianne H. Millsap all the way back in 1984. That is longer than many resume writers have been alive. All jokes aside, Dianne has seen it all when it comes to resumes and thus knows the ins and outs of the game. It is safe to say that Dianne can whip up one of the best sales professional resumes out there.

Di4Resume does not up-charge their clients at all and there are no hidden costs associated with their service. Dianne has helped hundreds of Marines (of all ranks) throughout the years with a smooth career transition from the Marine Corps to corporate America.

Di4Resume does not have any sample resumes on their website, so we don’t have any idea as to what their resumes look like. The turnaround time is also quite long compared to others on the list.

5/5 based on 6 Google reviews

5 – 15 business days

(760) 687-6466 or [email protected]

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CareerProPlus provides you with several resume services to choose from, including corporate, government contractor, military transition, federal government, SES application resumes and civilian resume writing for Veterans!

Federal Resumes

Military resumes, corporate resumes, government contractor resumes, senior executive services [ses], executive core qualifications [ecqs], career coaching, career training, certification programs.

Federal Resume

These resumes are built to include important compliance information, keywords, specialized experience, and accomplishments using our signature HEADLINE FORMAT for targeted federal job announcements. If you use our federal government resume-writing service, we’ll help you create a resume package that is easy for Human Resources (HR) to read and that will earn you Best Qualified status and interviews. Understanding the federal hiring system is complex; our team is here to guide you through the process.

Our resume services for transitioning military members and Veterans are built to first “demilitarize” military language and translate your experience, skills, training, and accomplishments for civilian HR to understand. We specialize in developing: Military to Corporate, Military to Government Contractor, and Military to Federal Resumes. Positioning your military experience in a way that’s applicable to civilian job responsibilities can be difficult. Let us help you turn your military experience into a competitive and value added resume that earns interviews.

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Thousands of military members and Veterans come to us to develop a professional corporate resume to use to apply for government contracting jobs. We successfully land our clients interviews at top corporations like Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Booz Allen Hamilton, Boeing, Raytheon, SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation), Google, IBM, HP and the list goes on.

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CareerPro Global, Inc. is proud to share almost four decades of experience in federal hiring and application development by offering our training to federal agencies, military installations, colleges, universities and career centers, and/or individuals who wish to assist job candidates find, apply for, and land federal jobs.

Types of resumes

Corporate, military transition, federal & government contractor resumes.

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5 Military Resume Examples Made for Success in 2024

Best for senior and mid-level candidates

There’s plenty of room in our elegant resume template to add your professional experience while impressing recruiters with a sleek design.

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Military Resume

• Military Resumes by Experience
• Military Resumes by Role
• Write Your Military Resume

 Your multifaceted role in the military could cover anything from groundwork or combat to manufacturing or communications. With unmatched expertise, you anticipate challenges and avert conflicts proactively, making decisions under pressure with ease.

The skills you amass during your service—leadership, adaptability, and teamwork—are invaluable. Now the question is: how do you describe your courage and discipline when writing an effective cover letter or one-page resume ?

Not to worry—we’re here to help. With our military resume examples , you can transform your raw experience into a captivating application that will get you the attention and the interviews you deserve.

or download as PDF

Why this resume works

• Therefore, you should mention in your military resume your contribution to decreased equipment downtimes to underline your input to team support.

Military Veteran  Resume

• To make such an achievement count in your military veteran resume, highlight how much you helped reduce equipment downtime to sustain uninterrupted workflows.

Retired Military Resume

• Speaking of your experience, list your missions and other roles in reverse chronological order, with your most recent positions and more impactful achievements taking precedence. Finish off this outline with side columns highlighting your military coursework, skills, and certifications.

Military Police  Resume

• For instance, “Assisted in slashing response times” could be better put as “Instituted advanced emergency protocols using NEC NeoFace, slashing response times by 44%.”

Military to Civilian Resume

• It underscores your ability to communicate effectively and ensure that all objectives are met within set timelines; attributes that make you an easy pick for joining the civilian workforce.

Related resume examples

• Officer Manager
• Operations Manager
• Office Administrator

Create a Military Resume That Fits Your Dream Job

Your military personnel resume should focus on showcasing skills vital to defense and strategic operations. Precision is paramount, so avoid vague terms like “team player.” If your role is technical, zero in on hard skills instead. 

Some of the things you could discuss include your proficiency in various weaponry, tactical strategies, and specialized equipment operation. You can also consider highlighting soft skills like leadership, communication, and crisis management. 

Ensure your skills resonate with the job’s requirements, whether it’s combat tactics or logistical coordination. Highlight the elevated level of discipline and stress management skills your service in the military has helped you develop, be it for another role within the military or a civilian job.

Looking for guidance?

15 best military skills

• Tactical Strategy
• Weapon Proficiency
• Logistical Coordination
• Military Comms 
• Cybersecurity
• Foreign Languages
• Crisis Management 
• Radio Operations
• Risk Assessment
• Joint Tactical Terminal
• Blue Force Tracker

Your military work experience bullet points

Between orchestrating strategic missions and leading successful teams, your military service showcases exceptional achievements. Rather than rehashing routine tasks, spotlight your impactful contributions. 

Your role directly influences the stability and security of operations, safeguarding national interests, and minimizing potential risks. While the nature of your experiences varies, harness this section to highlight your proudest moments, whether enhancing emergency response efficiency or mitigating adverse consequences. 

Make sure to back up your claims with quantifiable metrics to zero in on the magnitude of your successes. These could be anything from your budget optimization to the number of personnel you’ve trained—it all depends on your specific role and achievements. 

• Demonstrate your leadership and strategic skills with mission success rates.
• Showcase your ability to make quick decisions under pressure with metrics on your average response times.
• Highlight your commitment to operational readiness by presenting the percentage decrease in equipment downtimes after implementing maintenance protocols.
• Show off your adaptability by mentioning the varying shifts you’ve worked, deployments you’ve been sent on, and languages you’ve learned.

See what we mean?

• Created a comprehensive training program for recruits, resulting in a 78% reduction in onboarding time
• Conducted an employee satisfaction survey, resulting in an 88% satisfaction rate with internal communication efforts
• Maintained an 91% incident resolution rate by handling a variety of security issues and ensuring the safety of personnel and facilities
• Implemented a new internal communication system, which resulted in a 28% reduction in information gaps among employees

9 active verbs to start your military work experience bullet points

• Coordinated
• Implemented

3 Tips for Writing a Military Resume Without Much Experience

• Emphasize the significance of every role you’ve undertaken, regardless of your experience level. You can include relevant skills and accomplishments from your military service, training, and related roles. For instance, if you’re transitioning to a civilian logistics position, highlight your experience coordinating complex missions and managing supplies.
• Use your military projects to showcase your skills and flexibility. Mention specific initiatives or tasks you’ve executed during your service that align with the new position or civilian job you’re applying to. For example, discuss leading a team to establish a forward operating base, demonstrating your leadership and strategic planning abilities.
• Utilize internships, relevant coursework, or hobbies to spotlight transferable skills. Highlight leadership, teamwork, adaptability, and technical proficiencies that align with the role. For example, when applying for a communications role, discuss your experience with working in large teams and communicating under stress.

3 Tips for Writing an Experienced Military Resume

• If you have specialized military skills like leadership, logistics, or intelligence analysis, show them off. Next, tailor your accomplishments and metrics to align with the specific role you’re pursuing, highlighting your expertise and achievements in those areas.
• Adding relevant metrics really makes your achievements stand out more. Highlight your mission success rates, operational efficiency improvements, and leadership impact. This is good if you’re transitioning away from the military; for instance, in a logistics role, you can discuss how you optimized supply chain processes, reducing turnaround time by 39%.
• Include relevant military certifications that demonstrate your expertise and training. Whether it’s command certifications, technical training, or specialized courses, these credentials highlight your readiness for the civilian role or a promotion up the military ranks. 

While optional, a tailored career objective or summary can be valuable, especially if you’re switching to a whole new career. Emphasize your military experience and skills that align with the job, such as leadership, logistical coordination, or crisis management.

Make sure to use relevant keywords from the job description . Highlight your military accomplishments, skills, and specialized training that match the job requirements. ATS looks for keyword matches, so use terminology from both your military background and the civilian role you’re applying to.

Emphasize mission success rates, response times, equipment maintenance improvements, and any other quantifiable achievements. These metrics demonstrate your effectiveness in critical situations and your ability to impact operations positively.

• svg]:fill-accent-900 [&>svg]:stroke-accent-900"> 1.4M
• svg]:fill-accent-900 [&>svg]:stroke-accent-900"> 104K
• svg]:fill-accent-900 [&>svg]:stroke-accent-900"> 10.6K

Rarest military jobs you’ve never heard of

By Bethaney Phillips

Posted on Jul 17, 2024 7:35 AM PDT

4 minute read

When it comes to the U.S. military, most of us know to never be surprised at what you might find, even if it’s a decade after an event took place. However, that doesn’t mean events are any less interesting to learn about … or jobs that are no longer in existence. From pigeon couriers to ice tunnel planners to titles so strange you would only think to see them in the movies, these were real positions created by the American government. Even though some no longer exist today, it’s an interesting look at how they came to be and how they molded departments into what they are today.

Take a look at these rare, often unheard-of military gigs. 

1. combat weathermen .

Imagine a weatherman, but if he were at war. If you think about it, weather conditions are an important part of carrying out military missions. And you can’t just rely on the local news to give you the stats, especially if you’re in a remote location. Thus, the need for the Combat Weatherman. This job is usually aligned with Special Forces. The Weatherman carries tech that allows them to set up and pinpoint key weather factors. Their data is then passed on so others can plan out assignments like attacks, air and fire support, and other military operations. 

2. Instrument Repair Technician

The military is known for its impressive bands, which are present at graduation ceremonies, retirements, and more. But when something goes wrong with those important instruments, someone has to fix them. Enter the Instrument Repair Technician. These highly skilled soldiers are able to fix a number of issues with brass, string, and woodwind instruments. Thankfully, it’s up to them to keep the music alive and sounding like it should. 

3. Entomologists

Studying bugs isn’t just for zoos, or when you’re stateside. In fact, knowing what types of bugs are around you is important when you’re in a new space, especially soldiers settling into a new deployment or location far from home. Having an expert check out the local bugs can give great insight into environmental factors, terrain, and potential dangers that wouldn’t have otherwise been obvious. And most importantly, the entomologist can point out which insects are dangerous.

4. Ground Sensor Marines

When you’re driving on the highway, you’re likely to see small black cords that collect data. The government puts these in place to track traffic counts, speed, and more. That’s exactly what Ground Sensor Marines do, but while being way more sneaky. Since Vietnam, a group of Marines have placed small ground sensors to track enemy movement. They camouflage themselves to place in-ground sensors that report on whatever crosses their path. In all, there are less than 100 Marines in this position at any given time. 

5. Parachute Riggers

Someone has to get parachutes ready to go, right? And more importantly, they have to get them safe. Parachute riggers do just that. They are in charge of repacking and ensuring that jumping apparatuses are ready to be used. They also are expert jumpers themselves, having to retrieve parachutes and fly to new locations to get the job done. In fact, they usually get more jump time than most other military members. Considering everyone’s safety relies on their skills, it’s good they are using the same chutes! 

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By Miguel Ortiz

How vets, Gold Star families and mil spouses can work in Congress How vets, Gold Star families and mil spouses can work in Congress

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Newly Graduated Army Data Experts Could Help the Service Reverse Its Recruiting Slump

The first of the Army 's talent acquisition technicians graduated Thursday, the products of a new warrant officer program seen as the second major phase in a recruiting overhaul aimed at overcoming a historic slump in enlistment.

The new career field is in its infancy and is still being hammered out, but it will broadly serve as a liaison between recruiting efforts on the ground and the upper echelons of the service, which make the major decisions on where to allocate funding for recruiting and advertising tactics.

Those specialists will focus on data analytics, marketing and understanding how the service can capitalize on broader labor trends -- as the Army lacks any serious efforts on targeted marketing or targeted recruiting. Instead, the service has relied heavily on generally outdated, broad television-style advertisements and recruiting campaigns that don't reach any particular demographics or region, methods that have not been fruitful in nearly a decade.

Read Next: Feds Say Air Force Employee Skipped Key Maintenance Ahead of 2017 Plane Crash that Killed 16 Troops

"The Army is ultimately a brand, just like any other company," Col. Christine Rice, who oversees the new career field's development, told reporters. "We have to analyze the market out there to identify demographics and what those people are into and what motivates them. That's the type of thing we're looking at diving deeper into."

The Army graduated 25 warrant officers into the new job and hopes to bolster them with about 100 more soldiers. But the scope of the role could grow, depending on whether Army planners see the early days of the field as a successful investment.

The new talent acquisition role comes after the Army's implementation of the Future Soldier Preparatory Courses, its first major attempt at curtailing recruiting woes, has become a key tool to address recruiting shortfalls . In those pre-basic training courses, the service takes applicants who are out of compliance with academic or body fat standards and gets them up to standards before boot camp.

The service can graduate some 23,500 applicants through those courses and into basic training who otherwise would not have qualified for service -- more than enough for the Army to make up its recruiting deficit. Last year, it came up 10,000 soldiers short of its goal of bringing in 65,000 new active-duty troops.

In a response to a question from Military.com at a press event in May, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Army's projections show it will meet its recruiting goal of 55,000 active-duty soldiers this year, but noted those projections aren't completely solid.

"There's never certainty when it comes to recruiting," Austin said. "All [services] projected they're going to meet their year-end goal; I feel really good about it."

A major challenge of the Army recruiting slump has been finding ways to communicate with Gen Z, a problem worsened by a ban on federal dollars being used for advertising on TikTok, where young Americans spend the bulk of their viewing time.

For example, the Army's 3rd Recruiting Brigade, which covers the Midwest, underperforms when it comes to recruiting women. In 2022, women made up only 14% of that brigade's recruits, an underrepresentation, as female troops make up about 18% of the service as a whole, according to Army data.

In all other regions of the country, women made up at least 17% of the recruiting pool. The 2nd Recruiting Brigade, which covers much of the South, had the largest cohort of new female recruits -- women made up 22% of its recruiting pool.

A Military.com investigation found that the recruiting slump is almost entirely attributable to men being unwilling or ineligible to don the uniform. Since 2013, male enlistments have dropped 35%, from 58,000 male enlistees in 2013 to 37,700 in 2023.

Meanwhile, female recruitment has stayed relatively flat, hovering around 10,000 recruits each year.

But that data is not as clearly articulated behind the scenes, and almost never acted upon, Army staff with direct knowledge of recruiting and marketing efforts have explained to Military.com. The publication also reviewed five years of marketing materials from the service and found no consistent effort to tailor its advertising to specific demographics or regions.

Instead the Army has leaned into old school-style television ads, most notably ads in sports that decrease in popularity with each generation. Gen. Randy George, the service's top officer, urged an $11 million deal with the United Football League -- despite recommendations from his own marketing staff that the move was ill advised due to low viewership.

"I think what we need to do for our formation is target those demographics where we're struggling so we can learn from them, the gaps that we need to fill in as an Army," Rice said.

Related: The Army's Recruiting Problem Is Male

Steve Beynon

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Microsoft-CrowdStrike Outage Causes Chaos for Flights, Hospitals and Businesses Globally

A faulty cybersecurity update from CrowdStrike wreaked havoc across the medical and travel industries, with flights and medical procedures canceled and delayed.

Hospitals, banks,  airports, airlines  and broadcasters worldwide were impacted by a massive, ongoing IT outage Friday. Thousands of Windows PCs, which many companies and organizations rely on as part of their critical internet infrastructure, were hit by the  CrowdStrike outage . Perhaps most concerning, several US states reported that their emergency 911 call centers were also hit.

The outage was blamed on a faulty update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The company handles the security of many Windows PCs and services around the world. In a statement Friday morning, CrowdStrike said the issue had been "identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed."

Passengers at Germany's Dusseldorf Airport during the global outage. 

Microsoft Regional Director Troy Hunt called it "the largest IT outage in history " in a post on X.

"Earlier today, a CrowdStrike update was responsible for bringing down a number of IT systems globally. We are actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Many services and businesses continue to be affected, including hospitals and flights, even though the initial cause of the outage has been fixed by CrowdStrike. Here's how to fix your Windows PC affected by the CrowdStrike blue screen of death . CrowdStrike also outlined all of the steps people could take to fix their PCs  in its statement . "This is not a security incident or cyberattack," the company added.

Read more:  Stuck During the Worldwide Outage? See If Your Credit Card Has These Travel Protections and Insurance

Microsoft first said on X that it was aware of an issue affecting people's ability to access 365 services late on Thursday. In an update issued around 1 a.m. PT (4 a.m. ET), the company said , "Multiple services are continuing to see improvements in availability as our mitigation actions progress." The company didn't immediately respond to request for further comment. In one update , it said some people had success overcoming the issue by rebooting their computers up to 15 times.

The outage also took down the London Stock Exchange. 

The last time there was an internet outage this widespread was when a service called Fastly went down in 2021 . It's a reminder of how much of the internet is underpinned by shared infrastructure, which leaves it vulnerable to widespread issues such as this. The share price of many companies took a nose dive following Friday's outage, but it also affected many people on an individual level, from disrupting vacation plans to preventing access to emergency services.

"All too often these days, a single glitch results in a system-wide outage, affecting industries from healthcare and airlines to banks and auto-dealers," Federal Trade Comission chair Lina Khan said in a thread on X . "Millions of people and businesses pay the price. These incidents reveal how concentration can create fragile systems."

Are hospitals affected by the outage?

Hospitals in the US reported problems on Friday morning with their IT systems, affecting many patients. "A major worldwide software outage has affected many of our systems at Mass General Brigham, as well as many major businesses across the country," a spokesperson for Massachusetts General Hospital told Newsweek . "Due to the severity of this issue, all previously scheduled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits are cancelled today."

In the UK, medical services have also been affected, including the National Health Service system for booking appointments and pharmacies, which were struggling to take payments. 

Is 911 working?

Across the US, state troopers were reporting that 911 lines were down, starting in Alaska . Unconfirmed reports suggest that some lines in Minnesota, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio and New Hampshire had also been hit. 

Many people were reporting issues through the Down Detector website , with outages appearing to peak around midnight PT. If you live in one of the affected states, check with your local state troopers or police department for alternative emergency numbers. Alaska State Troopers issued an update later on Friday, saying their service had be reinstated as of 4:23 a.m. local time.

Alaska State Troopers listed alternative emergency numbers on Facebook.

Television channels around the world have been hit by the outage, with Sky News in the UK broadcasting from a phone after its studio equipment failed. The Paris Olympics organizing committee also said it had been hit by the outage, but that it had contingency plans in place. 

Are flights still grounded?

Thousands of flights have been delayed or canceled Monday -- and real-time data shows only  23% of flights departing on time as of 5 p.m. ET Friday afternoon. Here's  how to track the status of your flight directly from your iPhone's text messages , and  three steps to take when your flight is canceled or delayed .

Airports from New Zealand to the UK reported issues in the early hours of Friday morning, particularly with their scanning technology, which couldn't register passengers' boarding passes. In India and Northern Ireland, departures boards and boarding passes were being written by hand. Airlines, including Europe-wide budget airline Ryanair, were reporting issues with online check-in. Ryanair advised all passengers to arrive at least three hours early for their flights. 

In the US, the Federal Aviation Authority has  grounded some flights  from American Airlines, United and Delta. Many US airlines haven't yet issued statements about how they expect the day to pan out, but it might be wise for passengers hoping to fly from US airports today to check with your airlines before setting off and also get there earlier than usual to allow extra time to check-in.

Passengers at Berlin Brandenburg Airport in Germany were affected by the outage on Friday.

The biggest airlines operating in the US have been issuing regular updates, with Delta saying in a statement : "Delta has resumed some flight departures after a vendor technology issue impacted several airlines and businesses around the world. That issue necessitated a pause in Delta's global flight schedule this morning while it was addressed." The airline added that additional cancellations and delays would be expected on Friday, but that it had issued a travel waiver, which would allow passengers scheduled to travel today to rebook their flights for little or no cost, depending on date.

American Airlines

In a statement on X, American Airlines said: "We're aware of a technology issue with a vendor that is impacting multiple carriers. American is working with the vendor to resolve the issue as quickly as possible." In an updated statement to CNET it said that as of 5 a.m. ET it had managed to "safely reestablish our operation."

United Airlines

United Airlines issued a statement saying, "A third-party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United." Initially the airline said that it would be holding all flights at their departure points, but later on Friday morning managed to get its flights moving again. 

"We are resuming some flights but expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday," said a company spokesperson. "We have issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travel plans via United.com or the United app."

Dutch airline KLM said that the outage had made flight handling "impossible," and until the issue was resolved, it largely had to suspend operations. In an update on X, the airline added: "Customers should expect delays and cancellations. We urge passengers to stay away from airport if their flight is not departing or is seriously delayed. We realise this is very inconvenient for customers, particularly because the busy summer holiday season has just started."

It added that it's working hard to restore operations and that passengers should keep an eye on KLM.com or the airline's app for updates.

What is CrowdStrike?

The company at the root of the outages isn't actually Microsoft at all. The source of the issue has been identified as a faulty update issued by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

Founded 11 years ago out of Austin, Texas, CrowdStrike is often called in by organizations following major cybersecurity breaches to investigate what went wrong. These include the 2014 Sony Pictures hack and various events targeting the Democratic National Committee between 2015 and 2016.

Many companies around the world rely on CrowdStrike for critical cloud workload protections. In this case, CrowdStrike issued an update for Windows PCs (it confirmed Mac and Linux users hadn't been affected) that contained a single defect. PCs displayed the "blue screen of death," indicating a critical error, and were forced into a boot loop, which prevented them from turning on.

Exacerbating the problem further is the fact there doesn't seem to be a universal, easy fix for the issue. Most affected PCs will need to be manually reset to an earlier point in time one by one. Until they're able to turn on, they won't be able to receive the latest update from CloudStrike. "We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website," said a spokesperson for CrowdStrike.

"We further recommend organizations ensure they're communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels," they added. "Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

In a letter posted online to customers and partners late Friday, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said he wanted to "sincerely apologize directly to all of you for today's outage."

"All of CrowdStrike understands the gravity and impact of the situation. We quickly identified the issue and deployed a fix, allowing us to focus diligently on restoring customer systems as our highest priority," Kurtz wrote. "The outage was caused by a defect found in a Falcon content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This was not a cyberattack."

Kurtz had confirmed  earlier Friday on X that the outage was caused by an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts. "We have mobilized all of CrowdStrike to help you and your teams," he added. "If you have questions or need additional support, please reach out to your CrowdStrike representative or Technical Support.

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Who is the director of the Secret Service? Kimberly Cheatle has led agency since 2022

A House Republican leader is planning for an oversight hearing with the U.S. Secret Service after President Donald Trump was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening.

Sunday morning the FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as the gunman who opened fire at Trump's rally . The Secret Service reported that the shooter and one rally attendee are dead. Two spectators are critically injured following the shooting.

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, made the request for a briefing with the Secret Service and said he would call Kimberly Cheatle, the agency's director, to testify at a hearing.

"My prayers are with President Trump and the victims of the assassination attempt at today’s rally in Pennsylvania. I thank the brave Secret Service members who put their lives at risk to protect President Trump and for the American patriots in the audience who helped innocent victims," Comer said in a news release Saturday. "Political violence in all forms is unamerican and unacceptable. There are many questions and Americans demand answers. I have already contacted the Secret Service for a briefing and am also calling on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to appear for a hearing. The Oversight Committee will send a formal invitation soon.”

So who is Kimberly Cheatle?

Who is in charge of the Secret Service?

Kimberly Cheatle was sworn in as the 27th director of the U.S. Secret Service in September 2022. She was selected by President Joe Biden in August 2022.

Cheatle has served more than 25 years with distinction for the United States Secret Service across a number of leadership roles. She worked on the Vice Presidential Protective Division, and in 2021, Biden awarded Cheatle with a Presidential Rank Award.

What does the director of the Secret Service do?

In Cheatle's role as director of the U.S. Secret Service, she is in charge of executing protection and investigations for the agency.

The workforce is composed of multiple divisions within the Secret Service including Special Agents, Uniformed Division Officers, Technical Law Enforcement Officers and Administrative, Professional and Technical personnel, according to the Secret Service's website .

What did Kimberly Cheatle do before the Secret Service?

Prior to becoming the Secret Service director, Cheatle worked for PepsiCo as the senior director in Global Security, according to her biography with the Secret Service . There, Cheatle oversaw and directed security protocols for the company's facilities in North America.

Cheatle was the agency's assistant director of the Office of Protective Details, prior to joining PepsiCo. She also served as the Special Agent in Charge of the Secret Service's Atlanta Field Office. In that position, she provided oversight for all missions related to investigation, protective intelligence and protective visits in the state of Georgia.

When will the director of the Secret Service testify?

🚨BREAKING🚨 @RepJamesComer has invited U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a hearing on Monday, July 22. Americans demand answers about the assassination attempt of President Trump. pic.twitter.com/zKia2oIxCf — Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 14, 2024

The hearing is expected to take place July 22, 2024, according to a letter from the Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

When was the Secret Service created?

Established in 1865, the U.S. Secret Service is one of the country's oldest federal law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division protects the White House Complex and Naval Observatory, according to the Secret Service's website .

One of the newest expansions of the Secret Service's protective missions includes the issuance of Presidential Decision Directives. This established the agency as the lead for coordinating the development and implementation of security plans for National Special Security Events. This covers presidential inaugurations, State of the Union Addresses and other events of national significance.

Kate Kealey is a general assignment reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at  [email protected]  or follow her on Twitter at @ Kkealey17 .

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College credit for working your job? Walmart and McDonald’s are trying it

Alina Selyukh

College credit for job experience

Bonnie Boop is now a people lead at Walmart in Huntsville, Ala. She received college credit for a company training program, graduating with a bachelor's degree last year. Andi Rice for NPR/Andi Rice for NPR hide caption

When Walmart stopped requiring college degrees for most of its corporate jobs last year, the company confronted three deep truths about work and schooling:

A college diploma is only a proxy for what someone knows, and not always a perfect one. A degree's high cost sidelines many people. For industries dominated by workers without degrees, cultivating future talent demands a different playbook.

Some of the nation’s largest employers, including Walmart and McDonald’s, are now broaching a new frontier in higher education: convincing colleges to give retail and fast-food workers credit for what they learn on the job, counting toward a degree.

Behind the scenes, executives often paint a grander transformation of hiring, a world where your resume will rely less on titles or diplomas and act more like a passport of skills you’ve proven you have.

For now, companies and educators are only starting to chip away at one of the first steps: figuring out how much college credit a work skill is worth.

Getting credit for Walmart training

Something unusual happened to Bonnie Boop one semester.

She’d returned to college in her late 40s using Walmart’s tuition-assistance program after joining the company as a part-time stocker. In her younger years, she had gotten two associate degrees, so her children used to joke that she might as well say she’d gone to school for four years. But to her, it wasn’t the same.

“Bachelor’s degrees tend to open more doors,” Boop says. Plus, she says, she persisted for “the principle of it all.”

At Walmart, Boop stocked health and beauty aisles in the evenings after another day job. Later, she went full time and got promoted to supervise others. This required new training at “Walmart Academy”: brief, intensive courses on leadership, financial decision-making and workforce planning.

Walmart and a few other companies are working with colleges to figure out how to convert skills — or at least trainings — done at work into college credit. Andi Rice/for NPR hide caption

Then one day, looking at Boop’s upcoming business-operations class at Southern New Hampshire University, which Boop attended online from Alabama, her adviser found the record showing she’d already taken the course.

“But I didn’t,” Boop says. “And she said, ‘Yes, you got credit from Walmart Academy.’ And I said, what?”

Through corporate training and certificates that convert to college credit, Walmart Academy aims to get workers as far as halfway to a college degree, the organization’s chief told NPR. Boop had done several such programs, which let her bypass two college courses.

At her rate of study, “that would have been two semesters’ worth,” Boop says. “I was like, wow!”

Help Wanted: Where Are The Workers?

Retail jobs are treated as a temporary bridge to something better. but why.

Studying while also holding down a job meant staying up late after her shift that ended at 11 p.m. and keeping a meticulous schedule of big school projects to do on her days off. After 2 1/2 years of this, expedited by her associate degrees, Boop watched her photo slide across the screen at the virtual graduation in December.

Wearing her cap and gown, she posed for photos with her new diploma: Bachelor of Science in business administration, with a concentration in industrial organizational psychology. Today, Boop is her store’s “people lead” overseeing more than 200 workers.

What’s in it for corporations?

Many American universities have long offered credit for corporate training by companies like Google, IBM or Microsoft. For work in retail and fast food, the process is nascent.

McDonald’s is working with several community colleges to build a path for converting on-the-job skills, like safe food handling or customer service, into credit toward degrees in culinary arts, hospitality or insurance. Walmart has over a dozen short-form certificates and 25 training courses — in tech, leadership, digital operations — that translate to credit at partner universities. The car-service chain Jiffy Lube has its own college credit program, too.

“For adults who feel like they weren’t college material, what we are able to do is say, ‘You are. And you’re doing college-level work already,’” says Amber Garrison Duncan, who runs the nonprofit Competency-Based Education Network that connects employers and higher-education institutions.

Educators hope this brings more students into the fold — expanding access to education and allowing more people to achieve better-paying, more-secure careers with less debt and fewer years of juggling work and study.

For companies that offer tuition assistance to employees, the idea that work skills should count toward college credit makes financial sense: It means a student spends less time in school and doesn’t have to pay for classes that would teach them something they already know.

And paying for tuition can attract workers in a competitive labor market and keep them longer, slowing turnover, saving money on recruitment and training, and cultivating more loyalty to the employer.

Bonnie Boop became her store's people lead within weeks of completing her courses for the Bachelor of Science in business administration, with a concentration in industrial organizational psychology. Andi Rice/for NPR hide caption

McDonald’s and Amazon executives say this is exactly their motivation, noting that many people use their jobs as stepping stones to elsewhere. Walmart’s executives differ, saying that their goal is to build a pipeline of talent from the front lines to open positions within the company.

The U.S. military paved the way, but it’s not the same

Counting existing knowledge toward a degree is not a radical idea. Plenty of high school students get a head start on college with credit for AP, or “advanced placement,” classes. Many colleges also offer “credit for prior learning” that lets students skip foreign-language classes if they’re already fluent — or test out of courses through special exams or assessments.

The U.S. military took the idea further in recent decades. It worked with the American Council on Education to build a comprehensive database of how its jobs and training programs translate to college credit.

“There’s no rule about what colleges and universities have to accept,” says ACE’s Derrick Anderson. “But they can look at the person’s military record … and they figure out how much credit they want to award.”

This and other education support made the military “a powerful engine of socioeconomic mobility,” Anderson says. His group’s database of recommended credit now spans work experience beyond the military: government, nonprofits, apprenticeships.

“What I see working with employers, higher education and workforce organizations is a growing understanding that work and learning have been two silos in the past and can’t be two silos in the future,” says Haley Glover, director of Aspen Institute’s UpSkill America initiative.

What about skills simply gained by working?

For now, most of the college credit for work experience focuses on “prior learning” that’s taught in a classroom — standardized, structured and measurable enough to fit rigid criteria — such as training or certification programs.

Figuring out how to map on-the-job skills gained otherwise is the big leap.

“It’s a complex thing,” Glover says. “It requires an employer to be very rigorous about how they’re codifying and assessing, and that’s a capacity that a lot of employers don’t have. It also requires institutions of learning to be very open and progressive.”

Bonnie Boop started at Walmart as a part-time stocking associate and returned to college using the company's tuition-assistance program. Andi Rice/for NPR hide caption

Historically, some colleges have allowed students to present a portfolio, diligently documenting learnings on and off the job.

The McDonald’s pilot program is considering how this could work for restaurant employees. Some schools offer a separate course, for example, specifically for compiling a work-skills portfolio.

But expanding this system to the retail and food-service universe would require an army of academics willing to perform individual reviews. That’s a tremendous amount of time, and professors are often hesitant to commit — especially if it means they'd miss out on a potential student.

“This definitely is a process that disrupts what traditional higher ed is used to, in terms of seat time — credit for sitting in a class and doing assignments,” says Brianne McDonough at the workforce development nonprofit Jobs for the Future. “It’s a big change.”

Then, there are more basic challenges. Many workers simply don’t know about their employers’ education offers or struggle to navigate the application bureaucracies. They often receive little scheduling leeway to balance their working and studying hours.

“Shockingly tragic” was how Anderson described the small share of workers taking advantage of corporate college perks.

That’s partly why hiring and education officials talk about a “skills-first approach” to higher education — a future of short-form certificates and credentials weighed on par with college degrees.

“This is a problem that a lot of companies are trying to solve for,” says Lorraine Stomski, who heads Walmart’s learning and leadership programs. “What are the rules of the future?”

• retail workers
• fast-food workers
• college education

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Who is JD Vance, Trump's pick for VP?

By Kathryn Watson , Laura Doan

Updated on: July 17, 2024 / 11:15 AM EDT / CBS News

Sen. JD Vance , the junior senator from Ohio, has come a long way in a short amount of time since he published his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," months before Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. 

On Monday, Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Vance is his running mate. 

Vance, 39, won election to the U.S. Senate  in 2022, and has only been a senator for a year and a half. Here's what to know about him. 

Vance's book, "Hillbilly Elegy," catapulted him to fame 

Vance's memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," became immensely popular in 2016, telling Vance's personal story against the backdrop of the struggles of Appalachia and Rust Belt America.

A key message in Vance's book was that only by their own willpower can Americans in economically and socially struggling regions improve their own lives. But the book also gave Americans in coastal and more affluent areas a window into the lives of the people who made up the backbone of Trump's support in 2016. When Trump won, Vance's book became a bible of sorts for leaders and the media to better understand people who voted for Trump, and how a real estate mogul from New York could appeal to struggling Rust Belt Americans. 

 It rose  back to the top of bestseller lists after Trump announced his choice for VP.

"J.D.'s book, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country," Trump wrote on Truth Social as he announced Vance as his running mate. "J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond."

Vance said he would not have certified 2020 election if he were vice president

Vance has said he would have refused to certify the election on Jan. 6, 2020, if he were in Pence's position.

"If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others that we needed to have multiple slates of electors," he told  ABC  News in February, "and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there. That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020. I think that's what we should have done."

In 2020, Trump pressured Pence, who presided over the joint session of Congress that affirmed the results of the presidential election, to refuse to certify the electoral votes that showed Joe Biden had won. Pence did not agree to do so, concluding that his role was ceremonial, and he ultimately announced that Mr. Biden had won — after an attack on the Capitol that day. Since then, Trump has continued to publicly  claim  that Pence "did have the right to change the outcome." 

On the issues

Although Vance said in 2022 that he'd back a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks, he indicated that he also supports Trump on leaving the question to the states. 

"I am pro-life. I want to save as many babies as possible," he told CBS News' " Face the Nation " in May. "And sure, I think it's totally reasonable to say that late-term abortions should not happen with reasonable exceptions. But I think Trump's approach here is trying to settle a very tough issue and actually empower the American people to decide it for themselves."

Vance opposes U.S. aid for Ukraine, arguing in a New York Times op-ed in April that the administration lacks a plan for Ukraine's success. He wrote that Ukraine lacks the manpower and the firepower to fend off Russia and also that the U.S. does not have the manufacturing capacity to make up the difference. He believes that Ukraine and its western allies must give up the goal of a return to Ukraine's boundaries in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, to move forward. The U.S. and European allies support Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stop his expansionism at Ukraine.

U.S. "could learn" from authoritarian Hungarian leader Victor Orbán

Vance  said on "Face the Nation " in May that the U.S "could learn from" some decisions made by authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, including controversial policies related to dealing with dissidents at universities.

"On the university principle, the idea that taxpayers should have some influence in how their money is spent at these universities, it's a totally reasonable thing, and I do think that he's made some smart decisions there that we could learn from in the United States," Vance said. 

Vance noted at the time that he was not endorsing every thing Orbán has done. Orbán, who is revered in some hardline conservative circles, seized control of state universities, a move that critics say has extended his government's right-wing influence. Vance has praised the approach, saying his way could be the model for eliminating what he views as a left-wing bias at American universities. The May comments came as many universities in the U.S. were embroiled in protests from pro-Palestinian students. 

Trump met with Orbán last week, when the Hungarian prime minister was in the U.S. for the NATO summit. Orbán has endorsed Trump in  this year's presidential election  and said he hopes Trump can bring an end to  Russia's war in Ukraine .

Train and rail safety

Vance has been a leading voice on train safety after the toxic train disaster that spawned health and environmental concerns for the residents of East Palestine, Ohio. He is part of a bipartisan group of six senators who introduced rail safety legislation in March 2023 that aims to prevent future derailments. The measure has not passed in the Senate even though it has six GOP co-sponsors and the support of six Democratic lawmakers.

Vance had a challenging childhood 

Born James Donald Bowman in August 1984 in Middletown, Ohio, Vance was 6 years old when his biological father gave him up for adoption to his stepfather. His name changed from James Donald Bowman to James David Vance.

Vance's childhood was tumultuous. Not only did his father leave the family, but his mother struggled with an addiction to drugs and alcohol, which Vance documented in his book. Vance spent much of his time growing up with his grandparents in Kentucky. His grandmother, a "blue dog" Democrat who owned 19 handguns, according to Vance's Senate biography, was a big influence on his life. 

After graduating from high school, Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.

He holds a law degree from Yale 

As Vance discussed at length in his book, adapting to the social expectations and nuances of the elite culture at Yale University was initially a challenge for him. Vance graduated with a law degree from Yale in 2013. 

In the Senate

Vance serves on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; the Commerce Science and Transportation Committee, Joint Economic Committee and the Special Committee on Aging.

Vance's wife, Usha, is an accomplished lawyer

Vance met his wife, Usha Chilukuri, at Yale. They married in 2014. She is a litigator and clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when Kavanaugh was a federal judge. Vance and Chilukuri, who is Indian-American, have three young children. 

Hunter Woodall, Caitlin Huey-Burns and Melissa Quinn contributed to this report.

• Republican National Convention
• Donald Trump

Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.

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