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Military experience and college education

Veteran

AIMEE COOK Sheboygan, WI

Does anyone know how to combine your military experience and college education that would be complimentary. I also served in the guard where I didn't really have a occupation but went into the positions they needed to fill how would that transfer as a job title and bullet on a resume?

26 December 2021 6 replies Resumes & Cover Letters

Answers

Advisor

Jose Roman Norfolk, VA

Hello Aimee,

Your military experience across the board and your education is what you uniquely bring to the table on your resume and your LinkedIn profile. Don't invent titles for roles you didn't hold. Your job bullets on a resume should be filled by your job accomplishments in that role.

Let me see what you accomplished in that role on the resume and that communicates more information and is more important than the title. IF your interested in logistic positions companies like FedEx, Amazon, UPS all have hiring initiatives and programs for military veterans. Let me know if you would like some help with that on your resume or your LinkedIn profile. I've been a military education advisor and currently a veteran employment coordinator/You can find me on LinkedIn on https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseroman1/ or shoot me your resume at Jroman@regent.edu

Good luck!
Jose R

Advisor

Steve Prew Littleton, CO

Hello Aimee, your question is a good one but my answer probably isn't. . . It really depends on what exactly YOU want to do. Although I will say, many times the actual degree / major isn't TOO important as I've seen many different degree / majors in my industry of Financial Services. I would be happy to help further if you want / need. For ease of communication, feel free to shoot me an email at steven.prew@theamericancollege.edu.

PS - we offer FULL SCHOLARSHIPS / Industry job placement for Active Duty, Veterans and their spouses!

Advisor

Tim Feemster Dallas, TX

Thank you for your service Aimee Cook. There are many military functions that bridge to the civilian world you just have to work on the language/words to translate. Most HR people will not understand the detailed military lingo. I agree that you need to narrow your search and update your resume appropriately along with your LinkedIn profile. Look at other profiles on LinkedIn to get ideas. Send me an email (tim@feemsters.com) and I can forward some tips for LinkedIn. Also, if you like disaster recovery/relief, connect with Team Rubicon. This organization melds the military command lifestyle with civilian disaster recovery services. I have interacted with them and toured their Dallas operation and most of their volunteers/staff are former military. Also, I think you should zero in on a geography you would like to work in before you start searching LinkedIn and other job sources so it can be a rifle vs shotgun approach. Good luck.

Advisor

Joe Engle Indianapolis, IN

Hello Aimee. Along the lines of what Jerry said, you need to decide on the positions you are seeking. Then generate the resumes for those positions.

You most likely would want to pursue a position related to your B.S in Criminal Justice and your interest in logistics. Lets say there is a job posting for a "Purchasing Agent" at the local police department...and you are interested. You need to send them your best resume for that position. Your welding experience would NOT apply to that position, but your experience working as a team member, as well as your logistics experience WOULD apply...and these would go into your resume.

You have a lot of experience and a degree. That is a great combination. It seems you just need some help effectively putting them together.

I wrote a good document that describes a process for veterans to help them generate resumes and guide their job search. It discusses creating your personal list of skills and experiences, and how to 'civilianize' them for non military resumes. The process allows one to pursue a few different types of positions with optimized resumes. I think you would get a lot out of it. I would be happy to send it to you, just message me.

All the best of luck to you.

Advisor

Emily Christian New York, NY

Hi Aimee,

I speak to a lot of veterans in similar positions - I've heard the term 'jack of all trades' thrown around quite a bit. It's true that you should tailor your resume/linkedin to what you want to do specifically, but this could be hard in an ever-changing role.

I see from your profile you're interested in emergency management. In this case, on a resume or LinkedIn for instance, I would put the guard as an employer and your best estimate as a job title, then put down 2 or so bullets on how it might relate to general management, operations/logistics, or even emergency management if it's even loosely related. Same with the Navy. If you've had significantly different jobs during different times at the same organization (guard/navy) I would make a separate job title for that, especially if it's linked to a new rank. The job title might be called your rank, or manager/educator/etc.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I would look at the LinkedIn pages for other folks in the military and see how they phrase their skills to translate into a civilian setting.

Advisor

Jerry Welsh Middleville, MI

Aimee,
First you need to decide on a career. With you background and degree you could honestly say you are an investigator seeking employment. Now the work starts, what type of investigator? I would reach out an conduct a Informational Interviews in the general career and see if you can narrow it down. Look a connecting with some career groups on LinkedIn and Facebook, (yes Facebook has professional career groups). Hook up with Michael Quinn, and take a free USO webinar on using LinkedIn. Right now you are a transitional housing advocate. Your TAG line does not have to be your career goal. Recruiters search your TAG line and your about section for your keywords for the career. Then in your experience use metrics from your experience to cover the career needed metrics for your career search. You have the degree and I am sure you used the career skills throughout that 20 year career. You currently use those investigative skills to seek programs available for homeless to connect them to certain government programs etc. The key is what is the new career going to be. Here are a couple of quick reads on some research. Thanks for your service. God Bless https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/come-prepared-transition-process-gap-between-civilian-jerry-welsh/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-more-right-jerry-welsh/

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