Al Pin ⋅ Agoura Hills, CA ⋅ 10 years experience

Hi Eric,

I think the advice you've received so far is spot on; you should create versions of your resume that highlight the ways your experiences relate to the job you're applying to. I'll give you an example: I was recently talking to a friend who went to med school and all the way through her residency before she decided that medicine wasn't for her and she wanted to switch careers. She keeps her med school and residency experiences on her resume as she is rightfully proud of those accomplishments and what they say about her. She now works in sales, and when asked how her med school experience relates to sales she explains how both involve figuring out what's wrong with the patient (or potential customer) and then determining how to heal the patient (or what it is that the customer actually needs).

She explains it much more eloquently than I just did, but the first time I heard her answer I was shocked at how much overlap she was able to describe between medicine and sales. She made it make complete sense and made her past, seemingly unrelated, experiences tie into her current career path, and I think she's a much more compelling candidate for it.

Best of luck,
Allison

Jerry Welsh ⋅ Middleville, MI Master Military Transition Advisor/HPS GPO ⋅ 30 years experience

Your TAG line on LinkedIn lists retired Law Enforcement Military Professional? That TAG line is the first thing they see and is how they search you. Please review the following article. You pick the tag line and provide documentation of your accomplishments that back it up-if all they see is law enforcement-that is what they think you are skilled in. Here is an article to maybe assist. Thanks for your service and God Bless. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-profile-transitioning-service-members-portal-jerry-welsh/

Lowell Sandoval ⋅ Seattle, WA SpgFix, LLC. ⋅ 34 years experience

Eric, I understand your feeling. The key is to first discover what you like to do and the tasks that are less enjoyable. This may be weighed against what pays the bills as well. Once you hone this in a bit it will lend you to certain job roles of interest. At this point customizing your resume toward those roles becomes important.

If you want guidance, I’m willing to help by looking over your resume and providing advice.

If interested, email your resume to LowellS@enablemeiot.com .

Lowell Sandoval
CEO, spgFix, LLC

Eric Hamry ⋅ Sumner, WA U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 11 years served

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the time you took to respond and the insights. As usual, more work to be done.

V/R

Eric

James Kinneer, PhD ⋅ Indiana, PA Success at Work, LLC ⋅ 25 years experience

Eric,

In my experience, I have found that when someone has broad and varied experience, the recruiter and hiring manager might have a hard time determining the candidate's focus. If they are not sure what your career goal is, you might get passed over.

I suggest starting your resume with a clear objective/target position. If you don't want to do security work, what might you want to do? Use a functional approach to show how the specific areas of your experience are relative to that objective. You might need different versions of the resume with different objectives. You might also need to strategically edit and not list every skill or experience on each version.

Best wishes on your career transition.

Regards,
Jim

Robert Rahni ⋅ White Plains, NY Fordham University ⋅ 13 years experience

Hi Eric,

I would say the “issue” you’ve outlined is one of those “good problems to have.”

For jobs in the private sector my recommendation would be to tailor your resume by only including those positions/past professional experiences that relates most closely. This will demonstrate to recruiters/the higher manager stronger congruence in your skill set and past work experience. I know this may be particularly difficult to do as you don’t want to minimize your skills and past experiences but it requires a shift in mindset; Less is more!

If you’re entertaining fitting positions in the public sector, the good news is federal resumes are expected to be long and comprehensive. There’s a ton of law enforcement related jobs at varying levels in government, more specifically with various three letter agencies. My recommendation here is to be as thorough and inclusive with respect to past professional experiences as possible.

Hope this helps and best of luck!
Rob

Stefan Beyer ⋅ Kirkland, WA Wipro Ltd ⋅ 12 years experience

It sounds like you're looking into a position outside of security utilizing your other skills, correct? For those, I'd make a separate resume which highlights the HR, negotiations, and logistics aspects of the posting you've had. Also be sure to mention some security-related items, but include those which showcase de-escalating, mitigating, or resolving problems.

An example could be if someone wasn't complying with a regulation and you had to inform them of that and get them to comply. If they didn't handle it well, what did you do to get your point across? It would be good to showcase a discussion or skills you'd use in something like HR, where arresting the person isn't an option.

In general, be sure to frame your outside experience in a way that showcases how your outside skills will help you perform the job better, as that's an advantage you have over someone who has more specialized experience in the field you're entering.

I also have an article I wrote up a while back which might help out: https://acp-advisornet.org/articles/326/resume-cover-letter-multi-talented-individual

Let me know if you have any other questions, or would like me to review your resume.