Tips for Preparing a Military Resumes
(Part Two)
Follow the guidelines on this page (page 2 of 3) to help ensure the military resumes you prepare are considered by top employers.
B. EDUCATION
Your education should go directly under the heading. For officers, if you are a non-engineering graduate of a service academy, list “general engineering core curriculum” in addition to your major. Your degrees should be listed from highest to lowest.
Note: In rare cases, where your degree is completely irrelevant to your experience, it may be best to put your experience ahead of your education. Also, if you have corporate experience in your target industry, your education should follow your experience. If you think you have a circumstance such as these, consult your Candidate Recruiter.
You may add up to 3 bulleted accomplishments or extracurricular activities to each entry. Add your GPA if it was 3.0 or higher. The education section should not include high school information.
EDUCATION
Masters in Business Administration, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 2000
• 3.7 GPA; Vice President of the Graduate Student Association
Bachelor of Science in Political Science (General Engineering Core Curriculum), United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, 1998
• NCAA Division I Baseball Letterman and member of the Midshipmen Honor Board
• 3.2 GPA; Superintendent’s list; graduated in top 25% of class
Surface Warfare Officer School - Newport, RI, 1999
• 13 weeks of study in leadership principles, performance counseling, time management, and preventive maintenance; graduated with distinction
C. TRAINING / CERTIFICATIONS
The training section provides you with an opportunity to lend technical value to military resumes if presented properly. Only include applicable training and certifications. Damage control training or weapons and tactics training are not of interest to most civilian hiring authorities.
If you do not have any applicable training, eliminate the training section. Otherwise, it follows the same guidelines as the education section as far as placement is concerned. In addition to just listing various courses, programs, and schools, consider explaining your weightiest training in detail. Not many civilian hiring managers will inherently know what the AN/BQQ-5E V3/4 Maintenance Course is, and therefore overlook the technical value added, unless you tell them that it is a XX-week sonar computer, electronics, and subsystems maintenance course covering (insert topics).
Along those same lines, amplifying information is a great way to add technical industry key words and/or stress the value of certain training programs, particularly those with high attrition rates. If your list of training courses is overwhelming, you may opt for a summary. For example: “Over 25 training courses spanning diesel engine diagnostics and repair, hazardous materials management, quality assurance, corrosion control, and…”
TRAINING
Naval Nuclear Propulsion Training Unit – US Navy, Charleston, South Carolina, 2004
• 14 weeks of training in repair and maintenance of plant equipment.
Naval Nuclear Power School – US Navy, Charleston, South Carolina, 2003
• Six months of intense graduate level studies in mathematics, calculus based physics, mechanical/electrical engineering, chemistry, radiological controls and fundamentals, and reactor theory and design.
Naval Nuclear Field “A” School for Electrician’s Mates – US Navy, Charleston, South Carolina, 2003
• Six months of training involving reactor operations and the operation of associated propulsion plant equipment, electrical generation and distribution equipment, and all associated subsystems.Additional Training and Certifications: Nuclear Propulsion Plant Operator’s Welding Qualification, First Line Leadership Development Program, High Pressure Air Compressor (Worthington) Advanced Maintenance, R-114 Air Conditioning System York 150 Ton Maintenance Instruction, Quality Assurance Inspector Instruction, Primary Leadership Development Seminar, EPA Refrigerant Technician Universal Certification
D. EXPERIENCE / ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
List your experience in reverse chronological order (start with the job you have or had most recently). You should always list your experience in reverse chronological order, rather than by function performed. Functional military resumes downplay dates and therefore can be perceived negatively - do not use a "functional resume" format. They also tend to be light on detail and heavy on “fluff”. Aim to show not tell – a hard order to fill with a functional resume.
The first line of each job/duty station should contain: the timeframe you were at that job, the job title, the unit you were attached to, and the location of the unit.
Directly under the job title and amplifying information, describe the responsibilities of that job using approximately 3-6 lines of text (paragraph format). Begin this paragraph with a sentence that briefly describes your organization in the context of its “industry”, e.g.: “NCIS fulfills investigative, counterintelligence, and physical security responsibilities of the Navy and Marine Corps by preventing terrorism, protecting secrets, and reducing crime.”
Then, briefly describe the scope of responsibilities, e.g.: “As Watch Officer, disseminate time-sensitive threat information in the high-stress environment of a 24/7 threat warning center. Drawing on shipboard experience, provide insights into Pacific maritime operations to highlight potential threats to deployed Navy units.”
Use active language and vary your verbs. Avoid the phrase “responsible for”. It is passive language and takes up valuable real estate. “Responsible for training 20 soldiers” is better stated, “Trained 20 soldiers”.
Keep in mind that Fortune 500 companies actively recruit military-experienced leaders for their extensive project and resource management experience, ability to plan long term strategic goals and execute short term complex strategies, manage mid-sized to large groups, and deal with high-stress situations. Put your responsibilities in terms that your civilian counterparts will understand.
For instance, “Commanded an Infantry company” is not as effective as, “Led 240 people in the maintenance and safe operation of $20 million worth of weapons and transportation equipment.” Avoid using little known military-specific acronyms and jargon. Use plain language to describe a military-specific equipment, systems, programs, and organizations rather than list official military titles and/or acronyms.
Finally, write to your level of experience. A CEO doesn't need to mention his or her ability to file paperwork while a recent college grad probably hasn't "orchestrated" multi-million dollar projects.
Military resumes prepared by Bradley-Morris, Inc. and MilitaryResumes.com .