Translating Your Skills from Military to Civilian Language

Figuring out how to translate your military skills to a civilian job is perhaps the biggest obstacle for people looking for a job who are leaving the Armed Forces. You have the experience, but you just don't know how to communicate it without using military jargon.

There is a good chance that most potential employers reviewing your resume will not be familiar with 'military' wording, abbreviations and acronyms.  Here a few steps that may help with the translation:


Step One: Identify What to Market Write down all your specific accomplishments and accolades from your military service. This also should include skills, qualifications, accomplishments, experiences, education, credentials, volunteer work and membership in professional or civic associations.


Step Two: Match Your Skills Take the time and do the research by using a military occupational classification (MOC) to identify similar civilian jobs in your local market.  An example of this is if a military officer was a budget analyst or cost analyst in the military they can easily translate these duties to a financial analyst in the civilian world.


Two websites that can be very helpful with military to civilian occupations is (www.onetonline.org) and www.BLS.org).  You get a wealth of information related to your skills and experience, including: Sample civilian job titles, job task translation, military to job skill translation, and military related occupations.  Additional information provided includes tools and technology used tasks, and wage and employment information.

Now that you've figured out what civilian lingo relates to your experience, you can turn that language into keywords to search for jobs online and incorporate into your resume.


Step Three: Use Your "New" SkillsKeywords are specific words or phrases that job seekers use to find jobs suitable for them by searching online, just like doing a search engine query. Use them in your resume, and you're more likely to be on an employer's or recruiter's must-call list.