Veterans: Boost Your Job Search with These Strategies & Tools
More than anything, military veterans want to feel productive and useful after their service. In addition to the stress of transitioning into civilian life, many veterans are concerned about post-deployment career opportunities. The military offers awesome training, experiences and education but it can be challenging to translate military experience into skills and qualifications that employers understand. Below are a few practical ways to arm yourself for today’s job search:
- Determine the job you want in the civilian market. Many veterans will leverage their skills from their time in the military to align with the civilian equivalent. Use these skills translators to help tighten your focus. Afterward use Bridge My Return to connect with Veteran-friendly recruiters.
- Play up your moments of brilliance. This is not boasting. Cite specific, performance-based achievements on your resume. Here is an example bullet point:
- Successfully led a diverse team in mission-critical situations, demonstrating exceptional leadership, adaptability, and problem-solving skills.
- Learn how to create effective Create Awesome Accomplishments.
- Build your LinkedIn account to highlight your Professional Headline. Your LinkedIn “Professional Headline” is the brief description of you that appears below your name on your picture. Use hashtags at the end of your statement: #cybersecurity, #ITprofessional, #dataanalyst, etc. “Civilianize” your military job title on your Profile so that employers will understand how your experiences can fit into their organization.
- Develop a list of target employers and research each company you are interested in. Know what they do, how long they’ve been doing it, and what their current needs might be so you can target your resume and talk about how you can be their solution with confidence in your interview.
- Attend career events and be well prepared to network. Target companies you want to talk to, conduct research ahead of time and spend your day making REAL connections with those representatives, without wasting their time.
We are proud and support all of our military veterans and have curated Resources for Veterans to assist you on this journey toward career success. Please do not hesitate to contact a career advisor for personalized student-veteran career assistance.
