Cindy Munnell ⋅ Auburn, WA Boeing ⋅ 18 years experience

The key is in highlighting and bringing to the top of your resume what your strongest and most impressive skill set is. List out the 'Focal Skills' required of your previous work. Examples could be: Whole Systems Thinking, Problem Management, Intelligence Investigations, Critical Thinking. If education or a degree is not a strong point right now, keep it at the bottom and you don't need to list GPA in your resume. You should list the degree you are pursuing and in parenthesis put something brief like expected graduation date. Hope that helps.

Heather Winter ⋅ Seattle, WA ⋅ 10 years experience

I don't know if this is an option for you, but I believe you can re-take courses and your most recent grade will be the one used for your GPA. Might be something you think about if you have the ability ($, time, etc) to do so.

Applicable internships and temporary work can be a great way to get experience (and past a low GPA).

Bryan Denning ⋅ Florissant, MO Boeing ⋅ 15 years experience

I appreciate all the encouraging words, but you didn't mention why your GPA is low. Has your GPA condemned you, no. But you should take your GPA very seriously. Today many companies accept resumes online, put them into databases, and run a series of keyword searches and criteria sorts against them before they ever land in the hands of a person. Since your degree is in Physics I'm assuming you'll be looking for a technical job which means that you will probably run up against one of these criteria searches.

I would encourage you to work hard at raising your GPA. In surplus times, like 10 years ago, GPA wasn't much of a factor but with many candidates it is an obvious first sort criteria. If you are close to graduation I would encourage you to look for internships, many military contractors favor veterans. I would also encourage you to look for a close/tangent job so that you can into a company. Once inside, GPA does become less of a factor when moving from job to job.

Suzanne Campbell ⋅ Huntington Beach, CA Boeing ⋅ 30 years experience

Your experiences helps to define what you have to offer a Company, so be sure to include them. Make sure you highlight what might be relevant for the position and be sure to illustrate any results if you can (ie: time savings, process improvement, etc). Don't worry about your GPA - companies look for well-rounded invidividuals, not just those with 4.0 GPA's. Besides a 2.8 while studying something as demanding as Physics is nothing to sneeze at! Best Wishes and thank you for your service!

taylor loper ⋅ Huntsville, AL U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Thank you all for the responses. I really appreciate you taking to time to respond to this. I'll try to narrow my experience down to be more job specific and get rid of the acronyms.

Guadalupe Flores ⋅ Renton, WA Boeing ⋅ 23 years experience

Hi Taylor-

Please visit the Boeing website: http://jobs-boeing.com/transitioning-military/
This should help you in your search. I don't think your GPA will not have an effect your resume.

Best of luck

Charles Ferree ⋅ Charleston, SC Boeing ⋅ 6 years experience

Hi Taylor
My recommendation is make your skills and experiences more relevant for the job you want. Not many civilian jobs need diver skills or demolition/ underwater ROV. If your employers are looking for someone who is highly organized, can think on their feet, self starter, work under pressure, ect. Take your experiences and show that although the company may not need an experienced diver, the stuff that you did can translate and make you into a valuable asset for any company.

Both Sheri and Cindy are correct. Highlight your skills and show the company that you are the best person for the job. Try not to use military jargon that someone may not understand.

Good luck to you