As you transition into a civilian career, you may be wondering about how to best re-design your resume or find job opportunities. In this article, we discuss job search resources and tips for active duty and reserve duty military members or veterans. In addition to reviewing this article, we highly recommend meeting with a St. Kate’s career coach to discuss your specific goals and to receive personalized advice.
Transforming a Federal Resume Into a Civilian Resume
During your service, you likely created a resume that met federal resume requirements. It’s important to know a couple of things about this: First, federal resumes require more information than civilian resumes do, so you’ll want to be able to identify which information you don’t need anymore. Second, the language you use to describe your job duties on your federal resume might not be easily understood by civilian employers. Learning how to update this language helps you demonstrate your skills and expertise in an effective way.
On the KatieCareer Virtual Center “Resumes” page, we’ve compiled tips and examples for formatting expert civilian resumes. Some of these tips include:
- Keeping your resume to 1-2 pages (your federal resume may be 3 pages or more)
- Writing 2-6 descriptive bullet points for each job experience that highlights your main responsibilities, especially those that are relevant to the job you’re targeting
- Identifying what specific information is needed for each job experience and section on your resume – and how to format it
When it comes to adapting your military-oriented resume language, you might find it useful to talk through this with a St. Kate’s career coach in a 1:1 resume appointment. This will also prepare you for verbally describing your job duties in a future job interview. If you want to get started updating your resume on your own, we recommend reviewing this resource from Virginia Career Works, which includes helpful advice such as:
- *Use simplified language: Replace government-specific terms or acronyms with their civilian equivalents, as demonstrated by language in the position description of the job to which you are applying.
- Focus on results: Quantify your achievements with numbers and percentages to demonstrate the impact of your work.
- Tailor to each job: Customize your resume for each civilian position by highlighting the most relevant skills and experiences listed in the job description.
- Condense details: While federal resumes often require extensive detail, civilian resumes can be more concise, focusing on key accomplishments and responsibilities.
- Remove unnecessary information: Eliminate details like agency-specific acronyms, occupational series numbers, and overly technical jargon that may not be familiar to private sector hiring managers.
*Simplified Language Examples
Chart adapted from Texas State Career Services resource and Virginia Career Works resource
| Military Description | Civilian Translation | |
| Position Titles | Warrant Officer | Technical / Specialist Department Manager |
| Senior NCOs | First-Line Supervisor | |
| Sergeant Major | Senior Advisor | |
| First Sergeant | Personnel Supervisor | |
| Squad Leader | Team Leader | |
| Operations NCO | Operations Supervisor | |
| Platoon Sergeant | Supervisor / Instructor / Trainer | |
| Project Officer | Program Manager | |
| Health Service NCO Traditional Reservist | Health Service Manager (Focus on the functional area of your job) | |
| Group Descriptions | Interagency Coordination | Stakeholder Engagement |
| Commander / Chief | Division Head / Director / Senior Manager | |
| Soldiers | Staff / Employees / Co-workers | |
| Subordinates | Direct Reports | |
| Military Terms | TDY / TAD | Business Travel |
| Reconnaissance | Data collection, survey, and/or analysis | |
| Uniforms / Weapons | Supplies / Equipment | |
| Barracks | Facilities | |
| Trainings | Basic Non-Commissioned Officers Course (BNOC) | Intermediate Leadership and Management Development Course |
| Combined Arms Staff College | Senior Managerial Leadership School | |
| Advanced Individual Training in a specific Military Specialty | Ex. Medical or Human Resources Training | |
| Experience Description | Managed a team of analysts responsible for developing and implementing budget proposals for a large federal agency. | Led a team of financial analysts in crafting and executing strategic budget plans, resulting in $X million in cost savings. |
| Meritorious promotion in a combat zone. | Promotion based on extensive, successful management experience in critical situations. | |
| Facilitate squadron deployment readiness by managing members’ participation points and assisting soldiers with meeting training requirements. | Manage staff readiness programs by facilitating trainings, ensuring participation is tracked, and maintaining accurate, up-to-date employee records. |
Job Search Support for Military Members/Veteran Community
In this section, we’ll cover two forms of support that are available to you: support you can seek out at the St. Kate’s Career Development Center and support via government-led programs and initiatives.
At the Career Development Center, we’re here to clarify etiquette and expectations around cover letters, networking, interviewing, and job offer negotiation. We can also help you identify relevant tools for a successful online job search, including setting up a LinkedIn profile. In addition to reviewing these online resources, you can meet with a career coach to discuss any of these topics. You can even conduct a mock interview with a career coach to practice answering common interview questions and practice articulating your federal experience in a way that’s easy for private sector employers to understand.
Here are some government-led career preparation programs that are available to you as well:
- Department of Labor Vets Resource Guide: This comprehensive document gives a detailed overview of all the career resources available to you as a service member.
- FedsHireVets: This Office of Personnel Management program provides information and career resources about the federal hiring process for veterans. If you’re interested in working for the government, this is a valuable tool.
- Hirevets.gov Awardees: The companies awarded a HIREVets Medallion have demonstrated exceptional work in recruiting and retaining veterans as employees. Browsing this table may give you an idea of employers you’d like to learn more about.
- Off-Base Transition Training (OBTT): This Department of Labor program offers in-person and virtual career preparedness workshops to veterans and their spouses. You can get insider information on how to prepare for federal government jobs as well.
- Transition Assistance Program: This Department of Labor program includes a variety of resources you can choose from, such as career-transition training workshops, career assessment and exploration tools, and one-on-one employment training with partner organizations.
- Veteran Readiness & Employment Program (VR&E): This Department of Veteran Affairs initiative supports service members who have a service-related disability that impacts their ability to work.
- The Saint Paul VR&E office specifically reached out to offer services for St. Kate’s students. Please email Charles Curtis at Charles.Curtis2@va.gov if you are interested in this service!
