Matt Cox ⋅ El Segundo, CA Raytheon ⋅ 30 years experience

Zebulon,

The reason the aerospace industry is enamored with veterans is because your training and experience almost always results from personal dedication, commitment, tenacity, and the ability to figure it out when it matters, which translates into know how.

I'm sure you've had positions or assignments that you kind of had to figure out as you went forward without a lot of direction or instruction.

That is the essence of project management - the ability to logically break down the sequence of tasks needing to be performed in order to accomplish a task / project / program.

All aerospace firms offer internal project management training so you can learn the way they specifically execute projects, so I wouldn't be too enamored with educational project manager certifications. You have the best certification for project management as a veteran of the armed forces.

In your cover letter concisely convey a good example of how you dissected and then prioritized a logical sequence of steps and therefore accomplished an important task or project from your military career. Mention that you want to learn and adopt the specific process the company deploys, but you already possess the fundamental qualities of successful program managers - know how.

Let me know if this helps. Thank you for your service and good luck,

Matt Cox

Robert Kraay ⋅ Roswell, GA U.S. Air Force, First Lieutenant ⋅ 4 years served

Hi Zebulon,

As some alluded to in prior responses, project management can be quite diverse. It helps to narrow down what industry you'll want to specialize in however 3 principles don't change throughout: scope, budget, and schedule. Further project management skills are mitigating risk, setting up controls, and cost tracking are important. The more you can show how you've done that in the past will help translating your military experience greatly. Best of luck!

Robert

Nancy Quartey ⋅ Palo Alto, CA ⋅ 1 years experience

Hi Zebulon,
After serving 23 years, I'm sure you have great project management and leadership skills that any business should be happy to acquire. Have you considered putting your skills to work for yourself? Business ownership can be a great way to continue your role as a leader who knows how to get things done. If your curious, I'd be happy to talk to you some more about it. You can book a call with me at nquartey.youcanbook.me.
Best,
Nancy

Paul Tusting ⋅ Salt Lake City, UT Bond Arms Inc ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi Zebulon,
Project Management being quite diverse.
What industries are you hoping to work in (construction, aerospace, medical, software, etc.)?
Thanks, Paul

Joe Gruginski ⋅ Ambler, PA Johnson & Johnson ⋅ 20 years experience

Project management is comprised of a few simple ideas that devolve into more complex details, so the basics have always been:
- Who does what by when?
- Finding, analyzing, and mitigating, avoiding, or accepting risk
- Communication and tracking of the 2 bullets above

If you can look at your experiences through the lens of above, I'm sure you'll be able to find plenty of examples. If you want to use PM jargon, you might be able to find a digital copy of the PMBOK - Project Management Body of Knowledge glossary online to help. I did a quick search and found a PDF for the PMBOK glossary here:
http://falcontraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/PMBOK_Guide_6thEd_Glossary-.pdf

However, unless you're a PMP or CAPM, you may not want to use some of the more technical terms. We understand the common concepts of Cost, Scope, and Schedule without having to dig out our own books to remember specific acronyms or technical terms. Additionally, you always want to tailor resumes for a specific job, so be sure to use terms that connect to the job posting itself. If a computer is doing the initial skills matching for resumes to a job, it'll use the same language to find the most "closely matched" applications.