Matt Johnson ⋅ Chicago, IL EY-Parthenon ⋅ 10 years experience

I've helped a number of veterans transition into business roles. The best general advice I can give is to determine what skills can carry over that your employer wants in their next hire (e.g. leadership, problem solving, creativity, communication, etc.) and then tailor your resume bullets to allow hiring managers to see where it would be applicable. Use this following formula when crafting your resume bullets:

Action Verb (to convey a certain skill) + Situation/Task + Quantitative Result (preferred, with benchmarks to help outsiders understand) OR Qualitative Impact

For example:
"Spearheaded project team composed of 15 personnel which redesigned technician training programs to reduce rework by 20% and improve interoperability with engineers"

- the action verb in this case is "Spearheaded" to show leadership, but you could easily change it to "Analyzed training programs as project team lead" to highlight problem solving skills
- the situation provides context (shows job responsibilities)
- the impact shows that you did the job well. In some cases, you might not have quantitative data so the latter part of the bullet would do - but obviously showing concrete results beats fluffy descriptions any day of the week since you want your results to speak for themselves.

Common Mistakes:
- Including unit names or unit descriptors (civilians don't know the USS Ashland or how big a battalion is)
- Using non-descriptive awards as a result (civilians don't know if a Navy Achievement Medal is a big deal, but "selected Sailor of the Year out of XX personnel" is telling);
- Simply listing job responsibilities as resume bullets - how can they tell you were even competent at said job

I hope this helps

John Volpe ⋅ Seaford, NY Robbins-Gioia ⋅ 18 years experience

David :

The above responses are all excellent. Just want to add the suggestion to first target the automotive industry. Your industry knowledge will aid you in your transition to a management role. I’d also suggest , if you haven’t already done so, taking some college level business management courses in the evening and eventually working toward a degree program.

Good luck.

John

David Brown ⋅ Naples, FL U.S. Navy, Petty Officer Second Class ⋅ 6 years served

Thank you all for your response. I have narrowed my wants to one company, Gartner, and I would like to be in a research role there. Based on what I am currently in school for d what I would like to do for a career, I feel like this company would work best in my local area and I would really enjoy doing research. I think my resume is very “general” as it stands. I’m not quite sure how to tailor it to something that a hiring manager in the research position would give more than a quick glance at.

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

David,
As feed back improves, be sure to steer clear of sites or people who want money. A veteran should never have to pay for this service. Hire Heroes USA has been around much longer than many and have a great track record, with a helping hand not a hand out. Deanna really nails it on the head with Informational Interviews. There is nothing wrong with a very well put together TARGETED resume that covers on page. I sent a connection request via LinkedIn. Looks like you have done ok, do you want management yet or not. These are questions Deanna's suggestion will help you with. Thanks for your service and God Bless.

Deanna Corbett ⋅ Winter Garden, FL VMware ⋅ 21 years experience

Hi David,

One of the first things you should do is to narrow down what part of the "corporate world" you are targeting in order to know what skills you have already acquired that can be translated to that area of focus.

I'd suggest first doing some research to find specific industries or functional areas of business that you want to pursue - network with people who work in those areas and ask for "informational interviews" where you ask them questions about the job roles, etc. so you can decide what You want to do going forward.

Only after you have figured out a few focus areas and job roles you want to go after should you start rewriting your resume. Otherwise it will be too broad and unfocused for someone to know what skills and talents you possess that will match what they are looking for in a job candidate.

If you want to have a discussion about how to start this process, DM me.

Else, I wish you luck as you start this journey!

Barron Evans ⋅ Ann Arbor, MI Customer Experience Change Management ⋅ 30 years experience

Hello, David... and foremost, thank you for your service.

Couple options here; first from LinkedIn ... second from right here on ACP. Hope they can be of service to YOU!

https://www.linkedin.com/company/resume-writing-services-cv

https://acp-advisornet.org/questions/4151/resume-assistance-review