Ex-Military Transferable Skills

Having written this for a Facebook Group, I think it pertinent to share to my wider business network. This should give some insight to those ex-military CV's you receive and provide information that is, perhaps missing as you cast your eyes over the typed words and try to understand what they might bring to your team or organisation:

Having 22 years' experience in transition support, it comes to mind that this is something of an issue and has not been fully addressed.

Transferable skills can broadly be banded into two areas; technical or trade skills and soft skills. Trade skills are the ones that service people have learned to perform their role, and they may or may not be taking those into their new job/role. However, soft skills are those that are high value and the ones desired by many civilian employers.

The thing with the soft skills is, while serving in the military, we are surrounded by people that are pretty much from the same mould, and so we don't see them as differentiators. However, these skills really do differentiate service people in civvy street.

Here is a list, and I don't doubt that others will add to it if you venture to discuss:

Loyalty - a core value instilled in people through basic training and throughout.

Selfless Commitment - another core value of the military

Integrity - again, core...

Courage - this equally applies in their courage to step in when they see things going wrong in the workplace, the ability to step up and be counted.

Task Orientation or Commitment to Task - I often hear from civilian hiring managers that ex-military get on with the job until they can go no further, or until it is completed... beyond the 5 o'clock knock off point. They LOVE this skill.

Communication Skills - The military are trained to present, write, give orders and effectively communicate in succinct and easily understood ways. These skills are highly valued in many roles.

Mental and Physical Agility and Fitness - the ability to think around issues and a well above average level of fitness (in most cases).

Mental and Physical Resilience - the ability to not give up when something becomes hard. This sits with the commitment to task. This ties in with the "Growth Mindset" too...

Adaptability - The services are trained to fulfill different roles throughout a career, and they adapt, readily, to the new roles. Adaptability is a key attribute for the process of transition, and it requires an understanding of the environment into which you are moving.

Versatility - In the military, people might have a specific role, civilians mostly have a one-man-one-job approach. Service men and women can think laterally and bring more to the table than a single trade skill.

Leadership - A skill very different to management. Being able to lead is more about setting the example, supporting and nurturing. Management is more about putting resources in place irrespective of human factors.

Accountability - Whiel the military operate on a can-do culture with a view to being mission biassed, many civilian organisations, especially the monoliths, unintentionally operate a strong blame culture. Service personnel have the strength of character to be and remain accountable, something highly valued.

Growth Mindset - The ability to look at challenges and find ways to achieve it, not excuses as to why not to do it. Military address challenges to meet the needs of the mission... impossible is not in our lexicon.

Recognising these values in our service people, instilled in training and throughout years of service, but, in many cases not articulated within CVs. Give this some consideration if you are looking to hire someone from the Military and take time at interview to explore these skills a little more. If you are ex-military and writing your CV, then make sure you self-identify and pull out some of these soft skills, then further, evidence them in you interviews.

If you have questions, then reach out to us at [email protected].