Networking: The Secret of Successful Military-to-Civilian Transition 

If you have been working in military service for years, you probably have a vague understanding of what it’s like to find a civil job. Therefore, after quitting or retiring military career, a person is at a loss. How to apply for jobs to get hired? Where to find jobs that are suitable for ex-military people? How to create a CV and what information to include in it?

You will be surprised to know that ex-military service people have a 3.6% overall rate of unemployment, while in the civil sector, this rate raises up to 5%. It means that your chances to get a job are high enough.

There are many guides and recommendations that are used by ex-military people to find a civil job. However, most of them include such recommendations as ordering resume writing services or applying to special companies that will select the most appropriate jobs for a person for money.

We have a different approach to solving this problem. Anyone can find a job easily if he knows what to do. We are going to give you here 5 essential recommendations that will help you find the civilian job of your dreams and easily transfer from military service.

Define your goal

Although the unemployment rate of veterans is low enough, still, two-thirds state that the transition was a rather painful experience for them. In most cases, that happened because of one single reason: they could not define their goal and had no idea where to start their searches.

Any search starts with setting a goal and determining the means to reach it. If you have found that you have some problems with finding a job, perhaps you just do not know what exactly you are looking for.

In this way, you should never search for something, you need to look for certain options.

Find the industries that are the most interesting for you

While defining your goal, you are to choose the industries where you can serve perfectly. Perhaps, you will need to get back to studying again if you want to try yourself in some particular industries. However, in most cases, military experience is quite enough to get a certain position.

Define your strengths

So how it happens that you can get a job even if you have experience in nothing except for military service? The matter is that your experience is quite enough to work with the team and become a manager or a leader. Moreover, most of the veterans have enough technical skills to try themselves in IT or support.

Your main task here is to define your strong sides and understand where they can be applied. Perhaps, you will find that you are good enough to take some positions without even extra education.

Create resume

A full 20% of veterans stated that they needed a lot of help with creating an effective resume, while 78% confessed that they needed at least some help. Writing a resume is really tough, but this is a common problem for everyone, and it actually does not matter whether the person has been working in civil service or whether he is a retired military person.

Here, you should always remember the following things:

• Always add the contact information that will help recruiters easily reach you
• Write in common language and if you use some military slang, explain it
• Describe your responsibilities in such a way, even a person who has nothing to deal with military service could understand them
• Avoid grammar and spelling mistakes
• Use templates and fill them with your personal information in case you have no idea how to organize your resume
• Use military organization websites

There are many organizations and websites that work for veterans to help them find a job in civil service. These organizations do not require fees or to pay for membership. All you need is just to join the organization and prove that you are a retired military person.

Many companies apply for such organizations as they know that veterans are the perfect choice for many positions. Therefore, everyone gets what they want: the veterans get a job, the companies get perfect candidates, and the organization gets some fees from the company.

Transferring from the military to civil service is difficult indeed. However, it does not mean that you cannot do that. Just remember that everything depends on you here, and if you make enough effort and show the desire to change your life, you will definitely get what you need. If you feel that you cannot handle the stress, we would recommend you visit a psychoanalyst who will help you to make this transition less complicated. Communicate with veterans who succeeded in finding a job, and you will see that you have all chances to change your life.

For more information about finding jobs for veterans, please visit our job board regularly.