The meat and potatoes of your resume are the job titles you list and the accomplishments and experiences you describe under each title.
The job titles themselves might seem almost trivial considering they’re such a small portion of the actual text on the page. But those titles are often the first thing a recruiter will observe when reviewing a resume, so it’s important not to overlook them.
The first rule is NOT to list your military rank as a job title. Business people are not going to appreciate the difference between a Captain and a Sergeant, or a Navy Captain and an Air Force Captain for that matter. Remember, you have to assume the person reading your resume has no understanding of the military whatsoever, so skip the rank.
You have to ensure the job titles you list on your resume are not just easily understood by recruiters, but also catch their attention. Therefore, you have to translate your military job titles into business job titles.
The absolute best thing to do is steal the job title of the job you’re applying for and use it on your resume. Think about it. If a recruiter is looking to hire an Operations Manager, she’s naturally going to gravitate toward resumes that include “Operations Manager” somewhere in the mix.
If you do that, however, you have to honestly be able to make the connection between the work you did in the military and the work the recruiter needs her Operations Manager to do. I’m absolutely NOT suggesting you lie on your resume and say you were an Operations Manager if you weren’t. But if you can honestly justify it with facts and figures, you should go for it.
For example, at one point in my military career I was a “Combat Support Flight Commander”. If I put that title on a resume for a job in the business world, recruiters wouldn’t have any clue what it meant, and instead of capturing their attention during their initial 6-second review, I’d most likely repulse them instead.
However, in that role, I managed two dining facilities, a lodging operation, a gym, and a library on Tyndall Air Force Base. I was responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of those facilities, so if I was applying for an Operations Manager role in the business world, I wouldn’t hesitate one minute to list “Operations Manager” or even “Hospitality Operations Manager” on my resume.
Later on in my career, I became a “Personnel Officer” and I started overseeing performance reviews, promotions, disciplinary actions, job assignments, and a whole slew of other programs and processes relating to managing the careers of Airmen. So when I left the Air Force and started applying to Human Resources Manager jobs in the business world, I could honestly list “HR Manager” on my resume instead of “Personnel Officer”, which undoubtedly helped recruiters understand what I had done in the military.
Recruiters and hiring managers are not going to know what a Quartermaster or a Civil Affairs Specialist or a Logistics Mobility Chief do on a daily basis, so you can’t put those titles on your resume and expect to catch their attention. Instead, you have to translate those titles into “business speak”. And doing so isn’t as hard as you think.
When you start putting your resume together, research general business job titles and job titles specific to the industry you want to work in. Then, try to match those titles to the ones you had in the military. To help make those matches, review some business job descriptions to get a sense for what people actually do in those roles and look for connections to the duties and responsibilities you had while in the service.
Once you have job titles on your resume that are easy to understand and that will catch the attention of recruiters, you’re ready to support those titles with accomplishments and experiences that fit the same mold. That’s what we’ll focus on next time!