How to write a military to civilian CV

It is one thing to transition your career from say a customer service manager to a fundraiser. However, probably the greatest contrast in any form of career change is for someone from the military looking for their first civilian role. Not only is the the military unique in many of the jobs people undertake, but because many go straight into the military after school or or University, they may not have any experience of a career in what most of us would consider normal life.

The secret to writing a military to civilian CV…

If you are making the transition from military to civilian career the first consideration is what type of jobs are you going to apply for? The answer informs the approach in writing your CV in terms of structure, format and content. The clearer you can be about this, the better the starting point for your CV. If you are open to different career pathways, you will need different versions of your CV targeted to each.

Do some research and read relevant job descriptions

A good place to start is to read job descriptions and person specifications of your intended target roles. This will give you a good idea about typical requirments, relevant words and phrases and get you thinking about the experiences within your military career that are similar. Think about how you can describe similar, relevant achievements and activities within the context of what the employer is looking for. This will give you a really good start for how to write your career history within the CV.

Write your CV from the employer point of view

Many employers will never have had any experience of military life. They will not understand the job titles, language or experiences. Therefore it is incumbent on you the applicant to think carefully about what the recruiter will or won’t understand and write all the information from their perspective. Describe things in common, clear and plain English and do not rely on military terms or acronyms. Describe things in a similar way as you might be telling a family member or old friend ie. someone with no experience of military life.

Change your job titles to those most closely related to civilian roles

One of the most obvious differences between military and civilian CVs are job titles – particularly those related to rank. Military ranks are virtually meaningless in civilian life. However, many job titles are relatable. For example some roles within military can be transposed as ‘project manager’, ‘training manager’ or ‘operations manager’. However some generic terms cannot. Many military roles involve managing people or teams, however, this is of itself not usually a civilian job title. Job titles usually relate to the type of activity rather than people you may manage to support that activity.

Hopefully this article gives you a good start in how to write a military to civilian CV.

Do your research and decide on your target roles. Use civilian language and words and phrases associated with your target jobs and then translate your experiences in a way that makes sense to the civilian employer. Job titles are important too so use the most appropriate civilian job titles rather than military ones.

This article is written by Neville Rose, Director of CV Writers. Please do connect with me via LinkedIn.

Check out our military to civilian CV writing service with details of our packages that include LinkedIn profiles, cover letters and more. You can get things started with a Free CV review. I am also a qualified career counsellor and provide Career Counselling services for people looking to change career paths.