After you have proudly served the country in the armed forces you will find it necessary to obtain a job in the private sector and this may prove difficult if you do not convert your military resume into a regular and more civilian resume. This can present somewhat of a challenge to many former service men and women because they have been used to military life and military language for so long that they don’t know any other way. You too may experience this and not even know what the civilian language equivalent to some of the military jargon you speak is. So what are you to do?

Converting your military resume is not as hard as it may seem and there are certain rules to follow in order to do so. The most important thing to remember is that for every job that the military has to offer there is a job in the private sector that can translate somehow into that job; you just need to find the relevance sometimes.

However, finding the jobs that you are suited for in the outside world is only the first step and you have to convert your military resume to a more civilian resume in order to have a good opportunity to land the job you are after. Here are some of the reasons that you should convert your military resume:

• Civilians Don’t Know Military Language: The person that looks over your application will have no idea that an E-5 means that you were in command of five others while in the military. Instead you can just spell out what that means and omit the acronym. Additionally if you say words like ‘battalion’ and ‘mess hall’ the potential employer may be more lost than a bat in the dark. Whatever military language you use find out what the civilian equivalent is and translate it as such.
• Civilians Don’t Understand Rank: Rank in the military can vary from branch to branch and is a lot just for military personnel to keep straight. Don’t expect the person reading your resume to know what your rank means. Instead of your rank, use a corporate equivalent. For example, instead of saying Commander, say Supervisor and so on.
• Civilians Don’t Understand Military Jobs: You may know what a tank operator does in the military, but those on the outside are clueless. Instead of stating such, try elaborating on what you did. In this example you might say you were in charge of training others, supporting logistics in various countries, and operating heavy equipment in various countries. Believe it or not that is the civilian translation of tank operator. No matter what you did in the service, you have to translate it on your resume so that everyone knows what you did.

Converting your military resume to a civilian resume will take some thought and some work, but if you tackled the military life, then this will be a cake walk for you. Once you have a well translated resume you should have no problem at all getting that civilian job that you have your eye on. Getting used to the civilian life; that’s another story.