ACP AdvisorNet Staff ⋅ New York, NY ⋅ 10 years experience

Hi Sal,

Thank you for your question!

A lot of recruiting companies are looking to fill slots that they have so instead of translating your extensive experience into the right career fit for you, they may be doing the opposite and suggesting roles that are not equal to your background to match you to the position they have open.

Sadly, many civilian companies as well do not know how to translate your experience, so it is important that you help them to understand what you accomplished in your military career, and how it merits higher paying positions in their company. Additionally, companies frequently do not understand the commonalities between skills developed during military recruiting and civilian recruiting, so in their eyes, they may feel you are starting completely over (which is not true) and offering entry level positions or salaries.

This PDF has a great snapshot of how to translate your experience and also provides links to many other great sites which we recommend to the service members that participate in our official mentoring program: https://ramcareertools.colostate.edu/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTUvMDMvMDkvM281aTd1NW5xM19GQTE0X1N1bW1pdEd1aWRlX1ZldGVyYW5zLnBkZiJdXQ/FA14_SummitGuide_Veterans.pdf?sha=25f5ac95ce3e142c

If you are still in touch with your Mentor from your time in our program, she might be able to shed some more light on how you can either negotiate a higher salary or make sure that you're getting contacted for more upper level experience.

I hope this is helpful - you are definitely not alone in this experience! It is unfortunately something we come across quite often and one of the reasons we began our mentorship program, to make sure our transitioning service members gain meaningful employment.

Thank you again!

All the best,

Sarah