Land a Fantastic Role as a Veteran This Year

Select a Resume Format

When selecting a resume format, you have options. You can choose a functional resume, a chronological resume or a combination resume. 

The functional resume emphasizes the skills you have gained through your career, while the chronological resume puts your work history first in reverse chronological order. The combination resume combines elements of the two. All three formats could work depending on what you want to highlight as your strengths. Remember, military members have plenty of transferable skills for many professions, so all three formats could benefit your job search.

 

Share Your Contact Information

Always share your contact information in the header. This enables the hiring manager to contact you easily about your job application. You should include your full name, location, phone number and links to any job networking profiles such as your LinkedIn profile. 

Regardless of your chosen format, you’ll need to include a skills section, an education section and a work experience section. 

Skills

Military service comprises a wide variety of roles, from the air force to cybersecurity or supply chain management. Whatever your role, there will be many skills you can highlight to increase your employment opportunities.

Military personnel often have the following skills:

 

• Leadership skills
• Organizational skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Time management skills

 

These soft skills are in addition to the various technical hard skills you have depending on your area of expertise. Whenever you list your skills, make sure to read the job description of the role you are applying for to ensure you only list relevant skills.

Education

Through your career in the armed forces, you will have gained relevant qualifications that you can list in your education section.

Often, these will be specific qualifications related to a similar civilian role that you were performing in the military. For instance, you may be a military nurse looking to apply for a civilian healthcare role, or you may be an IT specialist looking to transition to the private sector of information technology. Whatever certifications you gained in the military, list these in a way that makes sense to a non-military professional, but only if they are relevant to the advertised role.

 

Work Experience

List the roles you had in the military in reverse chronological order. The key here again is to relate your experiences and skills to match the civilian job.

Security Clearance Certificate

When you complete your military career, you get a security clearance certificate. The document can be submitted to the security department of the corporation where you apply. Include your security clearance certificate in your resume.

You can use our resume builder, resume templates and resume examples to help you craft your professional resume. The key thing to remember is to understand that your skills, experiences and qualifications will be valuable to many workplaces. 

But, what companies are most likely to hire veterans? Let’s look at the best areas for veterans to enter the civilian workforce.