Curtis Hays ⋅ Castle Rock, CO U.S. Air Force, Senior Airman ⋅ 4 years served

Hi Colonel,

I will give you another angle on this, find a company that values your service. I have worked at dot com startups, enterprises, and government contractors. I can tell you without a doubt that government contractor companies would value your service and apply it in a positive way towards any job you apply for with them. As a recent hire at Raytheon, I can tell you I see a lot of pro-veteran communications and requests to help refer and hire veterans. Don't wait, apply now! raytheon.com/military you can put me down as who referred you if you want. I applied for one job and ended up getting another job. Once you get an interview, the recruiters are great at helping you get in the door if the first job doesn't work. You show yourself to be someone that would fit at Raytheon in general and they keep looking on your behalf.

Susana Moraga ⋅ Hayward, CA California State University East Bay ⋅ 20 years experience

David,
There is a rule of thumb on resumes, no more than 7 - 10 years work experience, that doesn't mean you should not have a summary identifying you have over 15 years experience doing....

As you know with changes in technology many things beyond 10 years are dated. I agree with the comments above.

I also recommend developing referrals, anyone that can speak to your experience will help to get you into an interview. You may start with the contacts on this site and consider linking with professional associations on LinkedIn. The more people in the field that know you the easier it will be to find those opportunities and develop contacts to refer you.

Best,
Susana

Robert Lamaster ⋅ Olivia, MN Kyndryl ⋅ 17 years experience

I'm in the same boat as well. While there are a lot of different theories on different ways to do this, I ran across a couple of options that I'm now using.

First - Remove the dates. Some resume designers are recommending this. The information can always be provided on request later, and the automatic scanning engines are looking for key words anyway, not necessarily dates. This helps to "hide" your age.

Second - Like most military personnel, you have probably done many jobs with similar responsibilities, or may have changed jobs but remained in the same location. For me, I was able to combine some items, use fewer bullets (limiting to the most critical), and even drop-off some of the jobs I did long ago. For example, Basic Training and initial schooling are important, but don't necessarily need to be in your job history. Schooling should move to your education section. Some jobs can be combined, with separate responsibilities shown in the bullet points. Of course, keep all of your relevant experience in some way, even if that means that you need to combine, move, axe, etc.

Paul Manter ⋅ Forest, MS Raytheon ⋅ 20 years experience

Dear Lt Colonel, I have been in the same boat as you I had a career before the Army and then only having 6 Years in, but crossing over to the 50 years mark recently. I would look at all your experience which should be very lengthy - in this case I would make bullet points to limit the age but capitalize on the experience. I actually liked the format of paragraphs and highlighting what I did, but also transferred every Army job to a civilian title this is a must the outside world doesn't not get the Army lingo. You have to find the best format for your career and what highlights you best and this should minimize age and again capitalize on experience.

Thank you,
Paul Manter
Raytheon Sr. Tech Assistant
Space and Airborne Systems