Resumes and Interviews

Over the last two weeks, I shared some of the big things I would have changed about my military retirement journey. This week I’ll provide an example of one of my lessons learned on specific topic, resumes and interviews. If you want to read my complete retirement AAR, download Military Retirement: An After-Action Review for free today!

I didn’t build my first resume until the Army Transition Assistance Program (TAP). The civilian contractor the Army hired to lead our class through building a resume was excellent! It was a great start but definitely not the final answer, my resume has literally gone through 100 changes since then.

The takeaway is that a resume is a living document. I don’t think any two resumes I’ve submitted to potential employers looked the same! I found a format I liked (from a veteran friend) and just continued to refine. Because I live in a location with numerous defense industry positions, I left the military titles in my resume as most of the employers reading would know enough to understand. If applying at an employer unassociated with the military, you’d probably want to convert those titles and duties into civilian equivalents. There are plenty of internet and veteran resources to get help on converting military titles to civilian equivalents.

Similarly, there are no hard and fast rules on how far to go back on your resume. Common wisdom may be no more than 10 years but there are always exceptions based on experience. If applying for a job looking for someone with missile defense experience, you may want to include that time 15 years ago when you worked on an Air Defense Artillery system before you re-classed! Regardless of how far you go back, most employers want resumes in two pages or less!

Above all, to complement the resume, I had to network. Asking friends and newly made connections to “float” my resume was very unnatural for me but I am convinced I wouldn’t have even got my first interview if I hadn’t begun networking. LinkedIn offers a premium account for one year for separating military and it is definitely worth it. In fact, we were more or less forced to create an account during TAPS! You can upload your resume on LinkedIn although I just wasn’t comfortable putting that much info on the web.

My resume was definitely an “improve” as it eventually worked, but definitely lacked a “wow” factor. My key takeaways on resumes- custom tailor the resume for every job applied for, don’t be afraid to include experiences from 10+ years ago as long as the resume stays two pages or less, convert military jargon to civilian speak if not applying to a defense industry job.

While a close network of friends and colleagues may float your resume and help get your foot in the door, they won’t be in the interview room with you! I probably had over a dozen interviews while transitioning back to the civilian world. These varied from less formal lunch meetings to the government’s structured interview process. I firmly believe that those of us who served for any extended amount of time have the soft skills required to do well in an interview. That being said, interviews are a bit intimidating and like most big things in life, requires preparation!

The question I hated the most during interviews was at a very base level, the easiest- “so Norm, what are you looking to do?” Heck, I don’t know! I’ve been a Soldier nearly my whole adult life, how am I supposed to know? Perhaps, employers know this is a tough question for veterans and ask it intentionally. Or maybe they just really want to know what we would like to do! Regardless, definitely one to prepare for as it will get asked.

Beyond the aforementioned toughest question during the interview, I just tried to be myself. Interviews are no time to be shy, expound on any of the skills and experiences from your resume. It may sound like bragging, but I firmly believe this is what the interviewer is looking to hear. I found preparing vignettes that described a particular skill or experience in action was most useful and helped provide greater insight for the interviewer.

Of course, you may find some of the skills and experiences you want to highlight don’t have really anything to do with the position they are looking for! This actually happened to me a couple of times. I continued sharing my experiences and answered the questions as best I could, but it became obvious, especially to me, my skills probably weren’t a good fit for the position. It’s perfectly ok. You can’t win them all and you certainly don’t want to get in a job that you aren’t equipped for.

But on the flip side, there will be those interviews when everything clicks. You will get that question about staff processes or written communications and will proceed to talk about that time as a Brigade S3 when you led the staff to produce the perfect operations order which saved untold American lives all thanks to impeccable planning and communication skills. It certainly is a good feeling when you nail it!

I won’t go over simple mechanics of going to an interview; I think most veterans are adequately equipped. Arrive early, wear your best clothes, make eye contact, speak clearly and don’t say uh or um. Same stuff we learned before going to a board! While I made it through all my interviews and eventually landed a job, this is definitely an “improve” area if I ever have to interview again. I would do mock interviews and rehearsals with a friend.

The views, opinions and biases expressed in this blog are the authors and do not reflect those of the U.S. Army or Department of Defense.

Check out all the sustains and improves from just about every aspect of my own transition from career Soldier back to civilian in my new book, Military Retirement: An After-Action Review. Free eBook download on my homepage or paperback purchase on Amazon.

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