Military service can be difficult and demanding. However, for the hundreds of thousands of service members re-entering civilian life each year—this transition can feel equally challenging. For many veterans, this return to civilian life often feels like they’re starting over in their careers. While the military is familiar to them, the outside world is not. Figuring out where they fit in can feel overwhelming.

The first step of this transition is finding a new role. While vets have the valuable experience and useful skills, it’s difficult for many to know where (or how) to begin. It starts with updating your resume—one that converts your military experience resume into a powerful tool for finding relevant and fulfilling work outside of the military.

This guide will help you figure out how you can put your resume to work to transition to a civilian role successfully. We include first-hand advice from a military vet who has done it. Plus, you’ll find practical tips and resources to create your own military skills resume.

Underemployment is a big issue among vets.

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of military experience, skills, and resumes, we’d like to address an important issue. For veterans transitioning to private sector roles, underemployment is a big problem. Underemployment means not engaging in work that makes full use of your skills and abilities. Many veterans are working in positions below their skill level.

According to LinkedIn’s Veteran Opportunity Report, though veteran unemployment has decreased over the past decade, veterans are 15.6% more likely to be underemployed than nonveterans.

This is often because veterans may find it challenging to translate their existing military skills to a civilian scenario successfully. Therefore, for military vets, the key is to think about how they can tell the story of their careers via a civilian resume.

How to identify the transferable military skills for your resume

No two military careers are the same. But all transitioning service members gain valuable skills in the military that are transferable to civilian lives and jobs.

Jeff Stock is a Program Manager at Upwork. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps for almost nine years, he transitioned to a civilian role. According to him, “One of the biggest challenges veterans face is understanding how their military ranks and responsibilities translate to a civilian scenario.”

Similarly, he found hiring managers often could not understand military titles and the responsibilities that come with these roles.

“Understanding military ranks and job responsibilities can be a big puzzle even for experienced hiring managers. Veterans have many valuable skills. However, their challenge lies in being able to expose these military skills on a resume—in a way that makes sense to civilian hiring managers,” said Stock.

For example, when interviewing for program manager roles, Stock found mentioning his military title alone was meaningless. Instead, he found, “most interviewers were looking for a one-to-one match for the role they were hiring for.”

The stock realized he needed to present his military experience in a context that made sense in the private sector to address this disconnect. Instead of focusing on his specific military rank alone, he learned to emphasize his job function and responsibilities in civilian terms more.

It’s simply about learning how to contextualize your role, skills, and experience in the civilian world. Stock reminds veterans not to discount their military skills and experience. “Have faith in yourself and learn how to present your experience in a way that makes sense in a civilian setting.”

To build a successful career outside the military, vets should learn how to identify and present their military skills and experience on a civilian resume. We will talk more about how to demilitarize your resume below.

Make a list of your military skills and experience

Before you start building your resume, it’s essential to identify your existing skills. This includes both technical and soft skills gained in the military. Think about all your duties, responsibilities, and accomplishments while you served in the military and write them down. Don’t worry about translating military terminology at this stage. Just make a list.

This step alone can be challenging for many veterans. You can make use of online resources for transitioning veterans to make sure you don’t leave anything out.

It can be helpful to get a copy of your Verification of Military Experience and Training (VMET) document. This document describes your service occupations in civilian terms. It can be a convenient resource for creating your military experience resume.

The Military Crosswalk Search tool on O*NET Online is another excellent resource for demystifying military resumes. It allows you to search by military occupational classification (MOC) or job title and cross-reference MOCs to civilian equivalents, or vice versa.

Note that military skills resumes are usually more technical than civilian resumes. Civilian roles and projects often look for a holistic combination of hard (technical) and soft (interpersonal) skills. When making your list, try not to become hyper-focused on technical expertise alone. Make a note of relevant soft skills like leadership, timeliness, and teamwork as well. We discuss this further below.

Identify hard skills that transfer from your military role

You likely have many technical (hard) skills that will be relevant for a civilian occupation as well. This could include technology and software skills, project management, budgeting, language, management, and more, depending on your military role. Write them all down.

Identify soft skills that translate from your military experience

In addition to your hard skills, it’s also vital to highlight soft skills on your resume.

Stock encourages veterans to reframe their points of view about what makes for a valuable skill. Vets should learn to see some of their basic military training as an asset. “Don’t get hung up on the specifics of your specialty. Yes, that’s important and relevant. But some of the more general military skills you have acquired are also relevant in many job scenarios,” said Stock.

Qualities like punctuality or clear communication that service members might take for granted are seen as huge assets in the corporate world, for example.

Stock said, “Most veterans don’t stop to consider these skills or think about highlighting them. They don’t see them as having any importance or value.” He advised veterans to think beyond the job title and expand their idea of what counts as valuable. “It’s usually much broader than what you may think of at first,” he asserted.

Still unsure of what valuable military skills you could include in your resume as soft skills? Consider some of these:

• Communication skills
• Problem-solving
• Leadership
• Teamwork
• Time management
• Performance under pressure
• Global perspectives
• Dedication

On the flip side, Stock pointed out that veterans may have to face assumptions and preconceived notions about their skills. Instead of feeling pressured to include a skill because it’s considered essential in the military, he encourages veterans to be realistic and specific about which skills they bring to the table.  “If you don’t identify with a certain military skill or trait, don’t feel like you have to highlight that on your resume. Be honest.”

Once you have a complete list of hard and soft skills ready, it’s time to start putting your resume and Upwork profile together.

Creating your civilian resume: 5 tips for military vets

Understanding your military skills and their value is the first (and most crucial) step to building your resume and Upwork profile. The following steps will help you create a resume that showcases your military employment history, experience, and skills while contextualizing it for a civilian role. We also include specific tips to help you create a robust Upwork profile for your freelancing career.

1. Demilitarize your resume

As you’ve probably figured out by now, military experience resumes are very different from civilian resumes. Your job now is to present your professional experience in a way that is easy for the average (civilian) person to understand.

As you start writing your resume (or Upwork profile), you should translate military jargon to civilian verbiage, i.e., demilitarize your resume. Identifying your skills above will have already helped you with this process a fair bit.

Additionally, you can research potential jobs on Upwork, LinkedIn, and other job marketplaces to see keywords and phrases potential clients use in job descriptions. Make a note of these. When writing about your work experience, you should use similar phrases to mirror what potential hiring managers are looking for.

Pick out military terms wherever possible, and replace them with civilian terms in your resume. For example, you could replace “officer in charge” with “managed” or “military personnel office” with “human resources.” Refer to your subordinates as “employees” or “colleagues.” Also, remove military acronyms and use standard phraseology instead. For example, instead of using OER, it’s better to use “performance appraisal.”

2. Highlight your military experience

While it’s important to translate your military experience for the sake of civilian clients—don’t try to hide it completely. Your military experience is an asset. You should own it proudly. Don’t be afraid to include your military title and rank in your resume, but provide a civilian translation as well.

As you write the work experience section of your resume, list your military positions with separate subheadings. Within each subheading, include rank/position, company or organization, and dates of employment. You can follow this with a brief description of your job responsibilities and duties. This can be in bullet points for better presentation and don’t forget to use civilian terminology.

Pro tip: Focus on highlighting military experiences where you used the skills required for the role you are currently applying for.

Additionally, you can make use of Upwork’s Military Veteran status option. This tool adds a “Military Veteran” status and flag representing the country served to your Upwork profile and lets clients know you are a military veteran. Many clients would love to give opportunities to veterans like you, and this can help them find you.

3. Quantify your accomplishments

As a veteran, you probably have several military accomplishments worth advertising. Don’t hold back. Highlight your accomplishments in your resume. To make it more relevant, these achievements can be listed in your work experience section, underneath each specific role subheading.

Try to write about your accomplishments in terms that are easy to understand. This helps potential clients see how you can help their business should they choose to work with you.

Be specific about these accomplishments. Try to quantify them with numbers wherever possible. For example, “reduced training time by 25%” or “managed a team of 15 people.” Specific details help to create a clear picture of your accomplishments.

4. Write an engaging resume summary

With your work experience section completed, it’s time to summarize your military experience in a way that is attractive to hiring managers and potential clients.

A resume summary is a short statement that usually appears at the top of your resume. It highlights your relevant experience, skills, and qualifications for a role. Its purpose is to “sell yourself,” i.e., explain your suitability for a position and convince the hiring manager to continue reading the rest of your resume.

A summary only needs to be 2-3 sentences long. However, these sentences need to be packed with concrete details and wholly targeted to the role you are applying for. For example:

Ex-U.S. Army Infantry Senior Sergeant (General Manager) seeking operations role at management level. Experienced in leading, planning, and coordinating operations of multiple departments. Expertise in policy formulation, resource allocation, and human resources modeling.

With regards to your Upwork profile, specifically, pay attention to your profile title and overview. When potential client searches for freelancers on Upwork, the first thing they see are the titles and snippets from your overview. Optimizing the title and profile overview to grab their attention is a best practice you want to follow.

• Your title: Did you know that clients often see a well-written title as the first indication of a freelancer’s expertise? Write a short, catchy, unique, and specific title to describe your profile. Avoid generic phrases such as “reliable” or “hardworking”. Make it meaningful enough to capture your work, specializations, and expertise.
• Your overview: The profile overview is your first chance to pitch to potential clients. Keep it brief. Only the first 250 or so characters will appear in the freelancer search results list. Be original, bold, and creative.  Let your personality shine through. Make it memorable.
  

Here’s a profile example from Marcy, a project manager. Marcy’s military experience in the U.S. Air Force has made her a great fit for project management roles on Upwork. In her profile overview, she is upfront about being a military veteran. She does a great job of summarizing the types of projects she’s interested in—while also including a bullet point list of her strengths and skills.‍

Scroll down further and you get a comprehensive overview of Marcy’s work history, including her Air Force experience. Notice she does not use military jargon in describing her job responsibilities and accomplishments. It’s relevant, succinct, and includes tangible numbers—exactly what potential clients want to see.

Want to learn more about what it takes to create a winning Upwork profile? Be sure to read the 9 tips to help you create a freelancer profile that stands out. If you’re not sure what a job-winning profile looks like, take a look at these freelancer profile examples as well.

5. Include your education, training, and certifications

For a well-rounded resume, don’t forget to include other important details such as your higher education, specialized training, or any other certifications you might have. Include your college information (degree, course of study, and institution) regardless of what degree you earned.

If you received any specialized military training relevant to your job function, once again try to demilitarize it into civilian terms. You could also search the internet to see if there is a civilian equivalent for your training. This information could help you craft the information about your training.

Finally, if you received any specific certifications, feel free to add them to your resume and Upwork profile. This helps to further show off your skills and qualifications.

Pro tip: If you feel like there are gaps in your knowledge or skills, taking an online course is a great way to bridge the gap. Upgrade your skills and acquire new ones via online learning platforms and sites to further boost your resume.

Use your military experience to transition to freelancing

If you’re not sure of what work opportunities are available to you, you can use various resources available to help you transition to civilian work. The career scope online assessment tool offered by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs can help you figure out the best civilian career path for you.

You can also participate in programs like the DoD Skillbridge to access training and development opportunities. The program helps make the transition to civilian work easier.

Some veterans transition to full-time jobs in the private sector. For others, becoming a freelancer can be a very rewarding and lucrative career move. You’ve already established your marketable and transferable skill set above. From there you can put them to use to attract clients as an independent professional.

Freelancing can offer diverse work opportunities, work-life balance, freedom, and a much more flexible lifestyle. For many ex-service members, these are some of the most attractive reasons to start a freelance career. As a veteran, there are other opportunities outside of finding a full-time job outside the military.