From armed forces to work force
From armed forces to work force
If you’ve ever served in the military, you know how much dedication and hard work is required to succeed.
Employers look for similar qualities in job candidates, but transferring these skills from military to civilian life can take some tweaking.
Matthew Modleski, who enlisted in the Air Force at age 17 and eventually moved up the ranks to become a fighter pilot, says he credits his success to his 20 years in the military.
“Before anyone competes for a job, he or she should put themselves through a rigorous strategic analysis and, from that process, derive the basis for their personal strategy — what makes me different in terms that are meaningful to the hiring manager,” explains Modleski, co-owner of consulting firm Stovall, Grainger & Modleski, based in Centreville, Va. “Most military folks don’t think about themselves in strategic terms, they think of themselves tactically and try and find a job with similar technical skills versus one that takes advantage of their deeper core talents.”
He says to ask yourself what your strategy will be in advancing your career and develop a set of career goals from there.
“A true personal strategy in relation to job requirements will take advantage of the total person, and this is very important for military members to consider,” he says. “Only after capturing a clear personal strategy for a given job can the right tactics — interview preparation — be practiced and executed.”
Civilian speak
Kevin Jackson, a business and career coach with Las Vegas-based ActionCoach, says listing military experience on your résumé can get very technical, which may be confusing to someone unfamiliar with military jargon. Stay general when listing military duties, locations and positions.
“For example, instead of stating, ‘Platoon sergeant for a combat engineer platoon, forward deployed in the Republic of Korea,’ a more general approach to gain interest could be, ‘From April 2006 to April 2007, responsible for everyday operations, logistics and training of a 30-person group performing engineering operations in Korea,’” Jackson says.
Because ranks of the military differ between services and status, one should stay focused on highlighting contributions to a unit or team.
A résumé should include overseas duties, especially tours of duty in combat, and length of time in the position, he says. Be sure to quantify involvement whenever possible.
“By quantifying your roles, responsibilities and duties, the transferring of military experience is not necessarily the responsibility of the individual writing the résumé, but the individual reading it,” Jackson says. “By providing the quantifiable information to the interviewer, you are allowing them to make the decision on what position within their organization it equates to.
“For example, provide the number of individuals that you were responsible for, the amount of equipment or inventory that you were accountable for in dollars, or the number of days without a safety violation or injury under your command and control.”
Think leadership, situational smarts
A mistake former service members commonly make is thinking the skills gained in the military are not transferable to the civilian sector.
Those trained in health care, mechanics or logistics may have an easier time translating their experiences within their field of training, but foot soldiers and the like have just as much applicable experience.
“Unfortunately, many of our armed forces were infantrymen, field artillery, air defense, combat engineer, ordinance, etc., and may question their worth to the civilian sector,” Jackson says. “The important thing to keep in mind is that the civilian sector is not looking to you for your skills in hunting down the enemy or detonating a minefield, but instead, they want you to focus on your discipline, your accountability, your commitment to team, your focus, and most importantly, your leadership.”
In fact, former military personnel may have a leg up on the competition simply because of their past experience. Jackson encourages job candidates to take advantage of this angle. Use the we-can-do-it attitude learned in the armed services and make it work to your benefit.
“The show-me-a-solution-not-a-problem mentality is one that is trained throughout the ranks of the military,” he says. “Military experience has trained and equipped its ranks with the ability to be placed in an unfamiliar situation with minimal resources and expected to succeed. That is what you have done, and this is your edge.”
-By Lisa Schryver, Tribune Media Services
