Knowing and Promoting Your Transferable Skills, No Matter What Your Field

By: Judith Gerber

As you transition out of military service and look for a civilian job, it is important to begin thinking of your career and your skills in a new way. You need to put your best foot forward by highlighting your overall skills, experience, and abilities and think less in terms of your specific job duties or job title.

Instead, emphasize the skills and experience you have in a more general way. For example, if you are hunting for a job in the computer field, say as a computer programmer, you don’t want to highlight your tank driving experience, even though that might be valuable and plentiful. Instead, you want to highlight the high tech and computer programming experience that you got while driving a tank.

Refocusing your career means refocusing your emphasis. However, it doesn’t mean lying about your experience or skills, it just means emphasizing those that easily transfer to the civilian world by promoting your transferable skills. Let’s take a look at how you can do this.

Your Resume: Your Most Valuable Sales Tool

Although there might be a specific job you are interested in applying for, or even specific job skills you have acquired through your military service, in general, you are leaving the service with a long list of transferable and marketable skills to bring to civilian employers. Your first goal is to identify what these skills are, and the second, to convey them to potential employers.

One of the best ways to do this is through a resume. Besides being your “sales tool,” the time needed to prepare a resume helps you learn what skills you have and is a great starting place for career planning. If you have a resume already, you will need to tailor your resume to the job or jobs that you are applying for, and if you don’t already have a resume, it is time to write one.

There are several excellent books available that can help you write your resume. Some of the best include: Resumes For Dummies, by Joyce Lain Kennedy, Military Resumes and Cover Letters, by Carl S. Savino and Ronald L. Krannich, and Resumes for Former Military Personnel by the editors of VGM.

As these books will show you, there are many styles of resumes. One style is called a “functional” resume. A functional resume groups yours skills and responsibilities under headings that describe job duties.

Most military people use a “chronological” resume showing career growth through a series of job titles. The advantage of the chronological type is that it shows stability with one branch of military service over a long period of time. Besides these two basic types, there are a number of combinations, hybrids, and variations on the two.

Regardless of which of these you choose, to be a successful job candidate, you need to follow some basic objectives and rules of good resumes. Good resumes all have the following: a heading, listing your name, address and phone numbers; a professional or career objective; your work experience and qualifications; and your education.

The most important physical aspects of a resume are the margins, fonts, and layout. However, to get the job interview you are seeking, you need to make sure that your resume demonstrates the type and range of responsibilities you have handled, and the results you have achieved.

As you start to write your resume, it’s important to realize that as a military professional you have acquired valuable skills and experience that you can bring to the business environment. A great example of this is the fact that military service instills strong organizational and communication skills. One of your most attractive attributes is the fact that you have become a problem-solver, which is probably the most important skill you bring to employers. In addition, military personnel are also very dedicated to their jobs and have a strong sense of loyalty.

Some of the other attributes you bring to potential employers are: 1) you are a job candidate with initiative, and throughout your military career, you were expected to identify problems independently and come up with solutions; 2) you know how to follow rules; 3) you have received advanced training and are among the most thoroughly trained professionals in the workforce today; 4) you have an eye for detail; and 5) the intensive on-the-job training in teamwork and team-building you have received.

Your military experience has also provided you with other added benefits including a security clearance, attention to safety, systematic planning, the ability to work with all types of people and the ability to work under the pressure of a deadline.

There are many other assets that you bring to the work world, you just need to identify them and eliminate those that will not be that helpful to your job search. Try to remember that your military experience offers a lot of variety and potential to a prospective employer. For instance, an infantry platoon leader, is indeed a leader, and is someone who has management experience.

An example might make this point clearer. Let’s say that during your time in the service, you have accumulated over 20 years experience working in the nuclear energy field.

You might think that this won’t help you get a job because there may not be a high demand for civilian nuclear technicians. However, instead of focusing on just this skill, you should focus on the other skills you have acquired in these 20+ years such as the leadership, management and supervision experience you acquired.

This also means getting rid of the technical jargon you have used while working in the nuclear power field, and using more generic language to describe your skills and experience.

In addition, the military has a jargon of its own that you need to unlearn, and as we all know, the military thrives on acronyms. The civilian world and civilian employers will not know what you are talking about if you use them. An example of this is your job title. Instead of using the military acronym, try to find out the civilian equivalent of your military job and use that title instead.

Another thing that will help make your resume stronger is not to simply list your responsibilities, but to list your achievements and also how you solve problems. Try to explain how you increased operational efficiency, the amount of money you saved, the number of people you supervised, the action that resulted from your work, or how you were able to do more with less money or people.

When describing these, try to use phrases that identify the problem, the specific action you took and the results. Another helpful tip is to use the language of the employer. Look at the company’s brochure or other literature and try to use similar words and phrases in your resume. Be specific about your jobs and accomplishments.

Another important thing to remember about your resume is to be selective about what you include in it. Your resume is not your biography, so only use information directly related to the job that you are seeking.

Some indirect benefits of your military service might be useful to include as well. These might be any volunteer experience that is relevant to the job you want, your fluency in a foreign language, any certificates you might have received, and any relevant hobbies.

Develop a List of Your Skills and Abilities

Using the examples and information above, you can now come up with a more comprehensive skill list. To help you get started, analyze the following categories of skills. This will help you develop your job search goals, prepare your resume and prepare for job interviews.

To complete the list, think about your most important experiences and accomplishments in both military and civilian employment. You can also include your academic and extracurricular activities. Then, check off the skills you’ve developed, and write descriptions of how you used these skills next to the most appropriate skill items you checked off in the list. Next, develop a concise list of your skills and abilities. Lastly, study the results so you get a clearer understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, interests and talents.

COMMUNICATIONS:

Buying, Corresponding, Distributing, Writing, Editing, Interpreting, Translating, Reading, Proofreading, Representing, Interviewing, Recruiting, Spelling, Speaking

PHYSICAL:

Athletics/Sports, Construction, Protecting, Repairing

CREATIVE:

Arranging, Displaying, Designing, Performing, Printing, Sketching, Painting, Photographing

SCIENTIFIC:

Laboratory Work, Medical Work, Measuring, Treating, Diagnosing, Discovering

INTERACTIVE:

Coaching, Directing, Tutoring, Counseling, Advising, Handling Complaints, Interviewing, Meeting the Public, Teaching, Training

QUANTITATIVE:

Accounting, Bookkeeping, Budgeting, Calculating, Computing, Data Processing

ORGANIZATIONAL:

Managing, Planning, Record Keeping, Supervising, Overseeing, Timing, Updating

ANALYTICAL:

Analyzing, Evaluating, Classifying, Estimating, Appraising, Examining, Researching

Conclusion

By using the checklist above, you can write down and review your list of accomplishments, and they will be fresh in your mind when you are being interviewed, or to prepare a strong resume. You will then be prepared if a potential employer asks you, “Specifically, what can you do for me?”

Remember to describe your skills, abilities, and accomplishments in terms of specific projects or assignments you worked on, what specific accomplishments you achieved, and the role or roles you played in the process. Some key selling points include anything you did that saved money or time, or improved productivity.

Your resume and its list of your accomplishments provide a written record of your capabilities and the type of work you can do. The fact that you did all of this for the military in the past indicates to potential employers that you can do the same for them in the future.