Expert advice, tips, and strategies to help you succeed in your civilian career transition.
Specialized guidance for creating powerful military resumes that translate your service experience into civilian career opportunities.
Expert tips for crafting federal resumes that meet USAJOBS requirements and help you land government positions.
Proven strategies and tactics to help veterans navigate the civilian job market and find the right career opportunities.
Essential advice for successfully transitioning from military to civilian careers, including skill translation and industry insights.
Comprehensive guides and practical tips to improve your resume, cover letter, and job application materials.
Career coaching and professional development advice specifically tailored for veterans and military spouses.
Comprehensive career transition guides for specific military occupations. Learn how your MOS, AFSC, NEC, or rating translates to civilian careers.
Your AFSC translates to specific civilian job titles, but hiring managers don't know what 2A6X2 or 3D0X2 means. You need to rewrite your Air Force experience using the exact job titles and keywords from the roles you're targeting.
The 15 most common veteran interview questions fall into three categories: background translation (tell me about yourself), behavioral scenarios (describe a time when you led a team), and transition readiness (why are you leaving the military). Prepare specific examples using the STAR method and translate military jargon before the interview.
Military IT and engineering skills translate directly to civilian roles, but only if you rewrite them without acronyms, rank-specific jargon, and equipment model numbers that mean nothing outside DoD. Hiring managers need to see "managed enterprise network serving 2,000 users" instead of "25B NCOIC for BDE S-6 shop."
You can build a military resume in just 15 minutes using the right tools and strategies. Here’s how to make it effective.
USAJOBS Resume Builder is free and integrates directly with federal applications, but Best Military Resume translates and tailors your experience automatically and works for both federal and private sector jobs.
Military terms like NCOIC, CONOP, and S-3 mean nothing to civilian hiring managers - and if they can't read your resume, they won't call you. These 50 military-to-civilian translations cover leadership titles, technical specialties, and operational jargon with real before-and-after resume examples.
A military to civilian cover letter bridges your service experience with civilian job requirements by translating your military skills into business language, demonstrating value to employers unfamiliar with military roles, and showing you understand their company culture and needs.
Learn why starting your transition planning early is critical. Discover the key steps including self-reflection, informational interviews, and career preparation.
Learn how to maximize your LinkedIn visibility as a transitioning service member. Discover the key privacy settings that help recruiters and hiring managers find your profile.
Discover how informational interviews can help you explore civilian careers, build your professional network, and make informed decisions about your post-military career path.
Understand why LinkedIn is essential for your military transition. Learn how the platform works, why visibility matters, and how it differs from your resume.
Your resume survives recruiter screening by immediately proving you meet mandatory qualifications in the first third of the page. Position required credentials, clearances, and technical requirements before job history details.
A military spouse resume requires strategic formatting that showcases transferable skills, addresses employment gaps positively, and emphasizes adaptability from frequent relocations. Use a functional or hybrid resume format to highlight accomplishments over chronological work history.
List your military service in the work experience section of your resume, formatting it like civilian employment with your branch, rank, dates of service, and duty location. Translate military job titles into civilian-equivalent terms and focus on quantifiable achievements that demonstrate leadership, technical skills, and problem-solving abilities.
SFL-TAP (Soldier for Life-Transition Assistance Program) is the Department of Defense's mandatory program that helps service members prepare for civilian life by providing career counseling, employment workshops, and benefits information starting 365 days before separation or 24 months before retirement.
The best military to civilian resume writing services for 2025 include BestMilitaryResume.com (offering 2 free resumes), CareerProPlus, and ResumeSpice, all specializing in translating military experience into civilian-friendly language that passes Applicant Tracking Systems.
The most common mistakes in veterans' resumes include using excessive military jargon and acronyms, failing to quantify achievements with civilian-relevant metrics, and formatting resumes like military evaluation reports instead of civilian application documents.
Skills on a resume should be listed in a dedicated skills section near the top of your resume, organized by category (technical, leadership, etc.), and tailored to match the job description. Include 8-12 relevant skills that demonstrate your qualifications for the specific position.
The work experience section lists your employment history in reverse chronological order, highlighting relevant job titles, employers, dates, and quantifiable achievements that demonstrate your value to potential employers. This section typically comprises 60-70% of your resume content and serves as proof of your capabilities.
A professional summary is a 3-5 sentence paragraph at the top of your resume that highlights your most relevant skills, experiences, and accomplishments. Think of it as your "elevator pitch" in written form—it's the first thing hiring managers read, and it can determine whether they continue reading or move on to the next candidate.
In this guide, you'll learn exactly what informational interviews are, why they're more effective than traditional job applications for veterans, how to identify and reach out to the right people, what questions to ask, and how to turn these conversations into job opportunities. You'll also get word-for-word templates that translate your military directness into civilian professional communication.
You can know if your resume matches job qualifications by using ATS scanning tools, conducting a manual keyword comparison, checking for qualification alignment, and analyzing the match percentage, ideally aiming for 70-80% compatibility between your resume and the job description.
Embarking on a second career with the armed forces offers seniors a unique avenue to leverage their wealth of experience. Having spent nearly two decades in the federal government, I’ve witnessed firsthand the inefficiencies within the Department of Defense (DOD). Seniors, with their private sector expertise, possess the potential to provide valuable insights, contributing to the more effective functioning of the US government.
Subscribe to receive expert career advice and resume tips for veterans.
Use our AI-powered tools to create professional resumes, cover letters, and more—free for veterans.
Start Free Now