Military Careers, Second Careers - Air Force Times

Does combat experience belong on your résumé?

The best résumés are specific. They give more than a general idea of your background.

Winning résumés explain your job skills, training and experience. For that reason, many service members, particularly those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, are struggling with how to present their combat experience on paper.

Kim Isaacs is often asked these questions. A professional résumé writer and career development expert, Isaacs is the executive director of ResumePower.com and co-wrote “The Career Change Résumé: How to Reinvent Your Résumé and Land Your Dream Job,” published by McGraw-Hill.

Isaacs spoke with Decision Times about the delicate issue of when and how to include war experience on a résumé, and how this experience can be successfully relayed to civilian employers.

Should service members include their war experience on their résumés, no matter who the prospective employer may be?

Answer: In most cases, it’s beneficial to include military and war experience on the résumé. The level of detail depends on the target employer and how relevant the experience is to the career goal. Basic information like occupation, locations served and deployment dates should be included, and veterans may also emphasize relevant training, key accomplishments, transferable skills and military awards. It’s important to think about the prospective employer and the position requirements, and then highlight the military experience that the employer would be most interested in. Also keep in mind that most employers are looking at recent accomplishments. So avoid including or emphasizing military experience from more than 15 or so years ago. Business résumés need to be results-oriented. For example, the following military accomplishment is suitable for a corporate job application: “Repeatedly promoted throughout ten-year military career to manage logistics organizations with 150 employees, maintain +$15M in equipment, and provide support to units of up to 3,500.”

What information about one’s combat experience should not be included on a résumé?

Answer: Avoid references to lives lost — unless it’s in the capacity of saving lives. Also, be careful about divulging information that would be considered secret or top secret. I’ve seen many veterans divulge too much proprietary information about military missions on their résumés.

Should service members ever omit military or wartime service from their résumés entirely?

Answer: A résumé is not a history of everything you’ve done in your lifetime, so it’s not necessary to include war experience on a résumé if it doesn’t help “sell” the candidate. Veterans learn a lot of positive transferable skills, so in most cases, it makes sense to include tours of duty. You might consider omitting service if it occurred more than 15 years ago, it has nothing to do with the job you’re applying for, or the employer has political objections to the military. You can talk about your experience in a personal interview. The trick is getting the interview in the first place, and that’s what a résumé is for.

The federal government is the nation’s No. 1 employer, and many service members seek federal jobs when they leave the military because it’s a good fit. How should a veteran highlight or present combat experience on federal résumés?

Answer: One of the best ways to determine what to highlight on a federal résumé is to study the vacancy announcement, which provides detailed information about the job opportunity and required skills and experience. If combat experience or skills developed in combat would be relevant to the federal job, the experience should be emphasized along with accomplishments, training, special assignments and job-related skills that were developed while in combat.

Should veterans’ résumés highlight the military awards they’ve received, and if so, how should this be presented?

Answer: Military awards demonstrate that the veteran was a top performer, so awards should be mentioned or listed in the résumé. One option is to provide a general statement that can be discussed if the hiring manager is interested. For example, a bullet can be added to an ‘Accomplishments’ section to read something like: “Earned numerous awards, medals and commendations, including Bronze Star for combat during Operation Desert Storm.”

(Decision Times writer Tranette Ledford interviews a career transition expert each month for the Ask an Expert column. Kim Isaacs may be reached at http://www.resumepower.com.)