3 Ways Military Veterans Can Use Personal Branding to Succeed in Their Civilian Careers

Today—maybe more than ever before—as a military veteran you are sought after by employers for your skills and talents and your valuable character traits.

Smart employers know today’s veterans bring resilience, loyalty, and a committed work ethic that is often unparalleled in our modern workplaces. Whether for remote work, in person work or a hybrid of both, companies of all sizes and across all industries are seeking out those who have served their country. 

How can you, veterans, position yourself for success?

As veterans, your reintegration into the civilian workplace and this new chapter of your lives, can feel overwhelming, challenging and frustrating. While the list of things to look forward to (more time with family, less travel, more consistent lifestyle and more) is long, this is still a significant change from what you experienced during your time in the military. The secret to a confident military-to-civilian transition is learning to tell a compelling story about yourself that integrates the values, skills, and attributes you bring from your past into the next part of your career. 

As a coach and personal branding expert, I’ve dedicated a great deal of my professional life to supporting military veterans, service members and military spouses as you re-enter the civilian environment, particularly the workplace. Through my course, “Translating Your Military Skill to the Civilian Workplace,” here on LinkedIn Learning, I guide you through the personal branding process to create a strategy for career success after service by:

● Choosing the companies you want to work for and making yourself discoverable and attractive to them

● Networking strategically in-person and online to ensure you know the right people and they know you for the qualities you offer

● Tailoring your image, brand, and presence to influence how others perceive you

 The best way to tell the story of who you are and what you can offer is through personal branding. Here, let’s look at personal branding from a veteran perspective and how you can use your reputation to springboard a civilian career.

The value of personal branding

Some of my veteran clients have reported that focusing on a personal brand feels like a conflict with the military mindset of service before self. They tell me it’s like boasting or bragging to promote themselves, and potentially taking credit for the service of others to highlight their accomplishments while in the military.

I get it: Personal branding and self-marketing can feel like strategically advancing your own goals at the expense of others. But consider that how you’re known enables you to advance your civilian narrative and make a greater impact on others in your post-military career.

Let’s start with what personal branding means. Your personal brand is your value proposition—it’s what makes you relevant and compelling to others. It’s also what differentiates you from all the other transitioning veterans with skills and experiences like yours, and it’s what sets you apart from all the civilians you’ll compete against for every opportunity you’re interested in. 

Whether or not you’re aware of it, you have a brand already. A person’s brand comes to life in the perception other people have of you. Your daily actions, communication style, work ethic, connections and relationships and even your fashion choices come together to paint a picture of who you are and what you stand for in the minds of peers, colleagues, and competitors. 

Creating your personal brand as a veteran

Personal branding empowers you to gain more control over the way you’re perceived because you’re now being intentional and thoughtful about how you come across. Instead of “winging it” or just hoping someone will want to hire, support, advocate, refer and work with you, you’re now leveraging all the tools available to set yourself up for success.

As I discuss in my LinkedIn Learning course, core elements of a strong personal brand are clarity, credibility and consistency – and they work together to tell a powerful story of who you are and what you can offer.

Clarity

To understand your personal brand, you need to get clear. Begin by gaining clarity on your values, your goals, and your future intentions. This is tricky when you exit the military, as your values are often entwined with military values (which makes perfect sense!) However, now consider what you stand for, what you believe in and would advocate for—as an individual. Consider what values are so critical to your life that if they weren’t present, you wouldn’t be you. Which values do you wholeheartedly embody? 

Clarity on your values is particularly important to hiring managers as they evaluate job candidates. Clearly communicating what you stand for helps hiring managers to understand what you can bring to their workplace and how your values support the company values.

Credibility 

To build a personal brand that is trusted, you must be seen as credible. Building credibility necessitates being clear on your core values and—crucially—you must act accordingly. When values and actions align, people trust in your offer and are more inclined to seek you out.

Simply living a life aligned with your values doesn’t mean others will recognize what you can offer. You need to show that you “walk the talk” in your actions and that they’re aligned with your values. Living in accordance with what you believe and showing proof in action is how personal brands—and people--become credible.

Consistency

While clarity and credibility are vital to creating and establishing your personal brand, the key to maintaining it is consistency. What I love so much about personal branding is that it accepts we aren’t perfect—we can’t be! But it requires us to be consistent in our actions, words and relationships. When we are consistent in what we say we believe in and how we show up, others begin to assign us opportunities. 

Your emails, how you behave in meetings or at conferences, what you share on social media should all consistently reflect the values you’ve chosen to stand for. Your personal brand acts as a roadmap for every professional interaction, guiding you on when and how to engage.

Putting personal branding advice into action

As you move through your civilian career, companies want to know what sets you apart. They want to know what you stand for, what you believe in, and what makes you valuable to the organization. That is why personal branding is crucial as you transition and create your strategy for civilian career success.

My LinkedIn Learning course, Translating Your Military Skill to the Civilian Workplace, enables you to put this advice into action. I share a clear, compassionate, and compelling guide to help you build a unique personal brand, understand rules of the corporate and professional marketplace, and leverage powerful strategies for using social media, networking, image, and body language to make you relevant to employers.