Most Army resume advice you find online is garbage because it treats every soldier the same. An 11B infantryman and a 25B IT specialist do completely different work. When I tell an 11B to "quantify your leadership" and tell a 25B to do the same, I'm giving lazy advice that doesn't help either of them write a bullet that lands an interview.

I'm Brad Tachi. I separated from the Navy as a Diver and then spent 1.5 years applying for government jobs with zero callbacks before I figured out what the civilian hiring side actually wants to see. I built BMR to shorten that runway for the next wave. Across 17,500+ veterans and military spouses later, I've reviewed Army resumes from every major MOS family on this platform — and I can tell you where each one tends to go wrong and what the fix looks like.

This article is the fix. It walks through real resume examples across five MOS families — Infantry (11 series), Signal/IT (25 series), Logistics (92 series), Medical (68 series), and Intelligence (35 series) — with before/after bullets, the civilian job titles each MOS naturally maps to, and the universal Army resume rules that apply no matter what code is on your ERB. If you want a tool that does this translation automatically, the Military Resume Builder handles it in about ten minutes. If you want to understand the logic first and write it yourself, keep reading.

Why Generic Resume Advice Fails Army Veterans

Most military resume guides share the same flaw: they teach you to write one generic resume, swap out some jargon for civilian words, and apply to everything. That approach produces a resume that reads like nobody in particular did anything specific. Hiring managers can smell it from the first bullet.

Your MOS is the difference. A 92Y Unit Supply Specialist who managed $40 million in equipment is applying for a very different civilian role than a 68W Combat Medic who ran trauma care on patrols. Both are Army NCOs. Both have leadership experience. But the civilian employer reading their resume needs completely different signals to know they can do the job.

Your MOS tells a civilian recruiter several things without you having to explain: the technical skill set you spent years building, the environment you operated in, the scope of responsibility you carried, and the standards you had to meet to keep that role. When your resume leads with the wrong translation, you bury those signals under Army acronyms and the hiring manager moves on.

How Do You Translate an Army MOS Into a Civilian Job Title?

Translation isn't swapping words. It's showing outcomes. The fastest way to translate your MOS is to ask two questions: what did I actually produce, and what civilian role produces the same thing?

An 11B squad leader doesn't translate to "infantry professional." He translates to "team lead who managed 9 people in high-stakes operations with zero safety incidents." A 25B doesn't translate to "computer guy." He translates to "network administrator who maintained 99.8% uptime across 200 end users in austere environments."

Use O*NET's military crosswalk at onetonline.org/crosswalk/MOC to get a list of civilian occupations that map to your MOS. Then cross-reference with BMR's military-to-civilian career tool to see salary ranges and federal GS equivalents. Don't rely on the Army's own crosswalk alone — it tends to undersell your experience.

Once you have 5-7 civilian job titles your MOS qualifies for, pick ONE resume target at a time. You're not writing a resume for "anywhere that will hire me." You're writing a resume for a specific role, tailored to that job posting's keywords. The before-and-after resume rewrites guide walks through what this translation looks like in practice across multiple branches.

The Four Translation Layers Every Army Resume Needs

Every bullet on your Army resume should translate on four layers at once:

1. Title layer: Replace "Squad Leader" with "Team Lead" or "Operations Supervisor" — whichever the civilian job posting uses.
2. Scope layer: Translate "managed a squad of 9" to "supervised team of 9 personnel responsible for $2.3M in equipment and 24/7 operational readiness."
3. Action layer: Replace "conducted" with "led," "executed" with "delivered," "assumed responsibility for" with "owned."
4. Outcome layer: End every bullet with a measurable result — dollars saved, time reduced, uptime maintained, audits passed.

Most Army resumes I review at BMR get the title and action layers right but completely miss scope and outcome. Those are the layers that move you from "veteran who was in the Army" to "candidate the hiring manager wants to interview." More on that in the universal rules section.

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Infantry and Combat Arms (11 Series) Resume Examples

The 11 series is the hardest MOS family to translate because the civilian equivalent of "infantry" isn't obvious. You weren't maintaining servers or processing supplies. You were leading people, making decisions under pressure, and executing complex operations with incomplete information. That translates, but you have to know what to point at.

Civilian roles that 11B, 11C, and 11A veterans land regularly: Operations Manager, Physical Security Manager, Site Superintendent, Logistics Coordinator, Program Manager, Federal Law Enforcement (CBP, BOP, DEA), Emergency Management Specialist, Training and Development Manager, and Facility Security Officer (with an active clearance).

The mistake I see most often on 11-series resumes: leading with combat actions the civilian hiring manager can't relate to, then burying the leadership and logistics wins underneath. Flip that order. Lead with the business-relevant outcomes.

Notice what changed. The "after" version has the same experience, but the civilian reader can now see team size, mission volume, dollar scope, accountability metric, and training impact. A hiring manager looking to fill an Operations Supervisor role reads that bullet and immediately gets it.

11B/11C Bullets for Physical Security and Operations Roles

If you're targeting a security or ops role, these framings work:

• "Planned and executed risk assessments for convoy operations across 400+ miles of high-threat terrain; briefed operational plans to senior leadership daily."
• "Managed 24/7 guard force rotation for 120-person forward operating base, coordinating with host-nation partners and maintaining incident-free perimeter for 11 months."
• "Owned sensitive item inventory valued at $2.8M, passing 4 consecutive command inspections with zero discrepancies."
• "Trained 32 junior soldiers on weapons systems, TTPs, and small unit tactics; 87% passed Expert Infantryman Badge evaluation on first attempt vs battalion average of 41%."

For combat veterans specifically targeting civilian roles, the combat veteran to corporate resume guide goes deeper on how to frame deployments without either hiding them or leading with the wrong imagery.

Signal and IT (25 Series) Resume Examples

The 25 series is easier to translate than infantry because the tech world speaks a language that maps directly to your work — but most 25-series resumes still get it wrong. They list the Army system names nobody outside the DoD has heard of, instead of the platform categories and skills civilian recruiters search for.

Civilian titles 25B, 25D, 25N, 25S, and 25U veterans land: Network Administrator, Systems Administrator, Cybersecurity Analyst, SOC Analyst, Information Security Officer, IT Operations Manager, Cloud Engineer (with the right certs), Help Desk Team Lead, Network Engineer, and federal GS-2210 (Information Technology) roles across every agency.

Key rule for 25-series resumes: translate Army-specific systems into their civilian equivalents. "SIPR/NIPR" doesn't mean anything to a civilian recruiter — "classified and unclassified network administration" does. "Managed BLUE FORCE tracker" becomes "administered enterprise tracking and situational awareness platform supporting 400+ endpoints."

For 25D (Cyber Network Defender) and 17C veterans, the translation is even more direct — SOC analyst, incident responder, vulnerability analyst, and penetration tester are all live job categories civilian employers recruit for every day. The IT veterans resume guide for 25 series and 17C covers the specific keyword sets each cyber role looks for.

Certifications 25 Series Veterans Should List Prominently

If you have them, put these at the top of your resume in a dedicated certifications section:

• Security+ CE — the DoD 8570/8140 baseline; most cyber jobs require it
• Network+ — entry-level network credential
• CCNA — Cisco networking, widely recognized in enterprise IT
• CISSP — if you're senior and have the years
• CompTIA CySA+, PenTest+, or CASP+ — for analyst and senior cyber roles
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect or Azure Administrator — cloud roles are where the money is

Logistics and Supply (92 Series) Resume Examples

The 92 series is one of the most civilian-transferable MOS families in the Army — and one of the most commonly undersold on resumes. If you're a 92Y, 92A, 92F, 92G, or 92R, you already speak supply chain, inventory, and operations management. You just have to say it in civilian language.

Civilian roles 92-series veterans land: Supply Chain Analyst, Inventory Manager, Warehouse Operations Supervisor, Logistics Coordinator, Procurement Specialist, Fleet Manager, Distribution Manager, Operations Manager, and federal GS-2001/2003/2010 logistics series positions.

Dollar scope is your superpower here. Most 92Ys I've talked to managed property accounts between $5M and $50M. Civilian warehouse supervisors rarely touch that kind of scope, and when they do it's front-page on their resume. Do the same.

That single bullet now speaks to four civilian roles at once: warehouse operations, ERP experience, audit compliance, and process improvement. A procurement manager, a supply chain analyst, and a federal logistics series hiring manager all read that and see someone who can do the job.

92 Series Bullets for Supply Chain and Ops Roles

• "Forecasted and sourced $3.2M in annual consumables for 600-person battalion, reducing stockout events by 67% through demand-driven reorder thresholds."
• "Supervised 14-person warehouse team running 24-hour operations during deployment; maintained 99.4% order-fulfillment accuracy across 8,400 transactions."
• "Led fleet maintenance coordination for 48 tactical vehicles, scheduling services to sustain 94% operational readiness rate (battalion standard: 85%)."
• "Trained 22 junior soldiers on ERP system operation; 100% passed certification within 60 days of onboarding."

For broader career-change framing, the MOS to civilian job chart for all branches shows how 92-series skills map to specific civilian titles and salary bands.

Medical (68 Series) Resume Examples

The 68 series — 68W Combat Medic in particular — is a family that can either land you in six-figure civilian healthcare roles or get stuck pulling $16/hour EMT jobs depending entirely on how the resume is written. I see this play out constantly at BMR. The medics who land the best offers learn to frame their experience around clinical volume, trauma acuity, and care settings — not Army terminology.

Civilian roles 68W, 68C, 68D, 68E, and 68J veterans land: Paramedic, Registered Nurse (with bridge program), Surgical Technologist, Emergency Room Technician, Clinical Research Coordinator, Medical Device Sales, Healthcare Operations Manager, Physician Assistant (with PA school), and federal healthcare roles at VA medical centers.

A 68W with a 4-year MOS has treated more trauma than most civilian ER techs with 10 years of experience. But you won't get credit unless your resume says it. "Provided care under fire" is not helpful. "Performed 340+ patient assessments including 47 hemorrhage control interventions with 100% evacuation success" is.

For a full walkthrough of 68W-to-civilian-healthcare pathways including RN bridge programs, paramedic roles, and federal VA positions, see the 68W combat medic civilian healthcare careers guide.

Intelligence (35 Series) Resume Examples

The 35 series has one of the best salary ceilings in the veteran job market, mainly because of the clearance. A 35F, 35N, 35P, 35S, or 35T leaving active duty with a current TS/SCI has access to intelligence analyst, cleared SOC analyst, and defense contractor program analyst roles that typically pay well above uncleared equivalents, and the scarcity of cleared candidates keeps the market competitive.

Civilian roles 35-series veterans land: All-Source Intelligence Analyst, SIGINT Analyst, Counterintelligence Agent, Program Analyst, Cleared Network Analyst, Defense Contractor Analyst (BAH, Leidos, CACI, ManTech), Federal Intelligence Analyst (GS-0132), FBI Intelligence Analyst, and private-sector threat intelligence roles at tech companies that hold government contracts.

Your clearance is an asset on your resume — but only if it's current and you list it correctly. "Active TS/SCI, polygraph current as of [month/year]" in the header. Don't bury it in a skills section at the bottom. Every cleared recruiter is scanning for that line.

That second bullet speaks to exactly what a defense contractor program analyst job posting is looking for: multi-INT fusion, analytic rigor, briefing experience, and confirmed analytic accuracy. For more on how a clearance multiplies your federal resume value, the MOS to federal job series guide covers which GS series to target based on your clearance and MOS.

Universal Army Resume Rules That Apply to Every MOS

Now that you've seen how translation varies by MOS, here are the rules that apply no matter what code is on your ERB. Violate these and even a well-translated resume stops working.

Keep It to 2 Pages Maximum

Private sector Army resumes: 2 pages, no exceptions unless you're a 20+ year senior NCO or officer with multiple joint assignments. Federal Army resumes: 2 pages as of OPM's current guidance (not the old 4-6 page standard — that was retired). Both sectors want a tight, scannable document.

If your resume runs long, the problem isn't that you have too much experience. It's that you're padding with duties instead of leading with outcomes. Cut every bullet that doesn't have a number, a dollar figure, a percentage, or a specific result. Check the 1-page vs 2-page military resume guide for how to decide which length fits your career stage.

Start Every Bullet With an Action Verb

Drop "responsible for" from your vocabulary entirely. It signals passive. Replace with: led, built, managed, owned, delivered, reduced, grew, launched, restructured, designed, negotiated, deployed, secured, sourced, forecasted, trained, supervised, directed, coordinated, executed, improved, accelerated, streamlined.

Vary your verbs. If five bullets in a row start with "managed," the resume reads robotic. Mix action verbs the way you'd mix punches — different rhythm keeps the reader engaged.

Translate or Delete Every Acronym

First time an acronym appears, spell it out with the acronym in parens: "Global Combat Support System - Army (GCSS-Army)." Second occurrence, use the acronym alone. If an acronym is purely internal Army jargon with no civilian equivalent, cut it and describe the function instead.

Examples of acronyms that should almost always be cut or translated: PBUSE (property accountability system), DCGS-A (intelligence analysis platform), NIPR/SIPR (unclassified/classified networks), TTPs (standard operating procedures), AAR (after-action review / post-incident debrief), FRAGO (revised mission plan), OPORD (operational plan).

Quantify Everything You Can

Numbers make your resume easier to scan because the eye locks onto them during the 6-second scan. A hiring manager's brain processes "$18.4M" faster than "large property account." Always include: team sizes, dollar scopes, mission counts, training hours, uptime percentages, audit results, time savings, and cost reductions.

If you don't have the exact number, estimate conservatively. "200+ patient assessments" is honest. "Hundreds of patients" is vague. "Thousands of patients" is suspicious. Pick numbers that round down, never up.

Mirror Keywords From the Target Job Posting

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) rank resumes, they don't reject them outright. A resume with poor keyword overlap sinks to the bottom of the recruiter's list and never gets seen. A resume that closely mirrors the posting's keywords surfaces toward the top.

Before you apply, copy the job posting into a word cloud or just read it carefully. Identify the 10-15 keywords and phrases that repeat. Make sure your resume uses those exact phrases (not paraphrased versions) in your bullets and skills section. If the posting says "cross-functional team leadership," your resume should say "cross-functional team leadership" — not "led diverse groups."

Put It All Together: What to Do Next

The shortcut to a working Army resume is picking one civilian job title, studying the posting for its keywords, and rewriting your top 6-8 bullets to hit scope, action, and outcome layers for that specific role. Then do it again for the next job. You'll end up with 3-4 resume variants that actually get interviews instead of one generic resume that gets ignored.

If you'd rather have a tool that handles the MOS translation, keyword mirroring, and ATS formatting in one pass, that's exactly what the Military Resume Builder is built for. Paste the job posting, upload your current resume (or build from scratch), and get a tailored version back in under ten minutes. Free tier includes 2 tailored resumes, 2 cover letters, and the full toolkit — no credit card.

And if you're specifically targeting federal roles, the translation gets more technical because federal resumes are written very differently than private sector. The MOS to federal job series matching guide walks through the GS grade structure and which series your MOS qualifies for.