The Veteran Hiring Conundrum: A Veteran’s Perspective

As a Military Veteran Recruiter and a retired Senior NCO, myself, I would say one of the greatest pitfalls encountered by prior Military members of all grades is too heavily relying upon the 'patriotism' and 'goodwill' of organizations when it comes to their stance on hiring Veterans. We would all like to believe that organizations are motivated by an altruistic desire to repay Veterans for their services; reality, however, shows that only a very few will provide a job to a Veteran based solely on the hope that he/she will eventually achieve competence or expertise. Military transition programs expend a great deal of energy trying to build a transitioning Veteran's confidence in the desirability of his/her unique experience, skills, and abilities. This tactic is useful, and was personally beneficial -- to an extent. With some time spent in the Recruiting field, I can tell you that, while there are definitely some erroneous preconceived notions about Veterans, Veterans often handicap themselves with their resumes before the first hiring manager even gets a sniff. 

The challenge I usually issue to interested Veterans is as follows: 

First, sell yourself as the perfect fit for the position, THEN add your Veteran status as garnish to an already appetizing presentation.

Too many Veteran resumes (my own early resumes included) paint the exact, stereotypical picture of inflexibility that we're trying to combat. If you submit the same chronological resume for every position, without altering terminology or structure to custom fit the organization to which you're applying, you give the impression that the organization will be required to adapt to you, rather than you to the organization. Our culture, as Veterans, is valuable, and will undoubtedly make a positive impact on an organization, but we must approach the application process as though we're interested in adapting to the culture of the organization we're aspiring to join.

My recommendations are simple:

1) Read the job announcement. In a well-written job announcement, the first paragraph should provide some sort of summary of which skills the organization considers important for this role. Look for key words (i.e. leader, manager, facilitator, process improvement, international experience, etc.). I recommend actually printing it out and using a highlighter to locate recurring themes. 

2) Figure out what the organization considers 'critical', and use your resume to tell them why your experience fits. You've had anywhere from 1 - 15 tours throughout your Military career -- don't make a Recruiter search through your entire career to locate every significant instance of leadership or training. Categorize your resume according to the needs of the position.

3) Research the terminology adopted by the organization and consider using parallel terminology in your resume. Hear me -- I'm NOT suggesting you mislead; you won't recover from that in an interview. Be prepared to defend your use of the terminology. In order to provide transparency, I recommend using their terminology, followed by your actual title -- something to this effect:

General Manager (Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge)

OR

Senior Operations Manager (Command Master Chief)

4) Remember your roots! As Military members, we’ve written, corrected, and routed dozens (or maybe even hundreds) of evaluations, fitness reports, periodic reviews, etc. The rules for writing your categorized bullets are very similar: Identify, Quantify, and Qualify. In other words, for any position you list, tell what you did (Identify), briefly discuss the scope of what you did (Quantify), and relate the impact of what you did (Qualify). If you’re having trouble identifying any of these elements, or if the bullet is simply not relevant to the position, consider eliminating it.

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula, but as a Recruiter, these steps have been helpful in my efforts to promote the incalculable value added by Military Veterans. Thank you for your service, Brothers and Sisters, and Press On!

Sincerely,

Gabe Morris

SCPO, USN, Ret.

Samaritan’s Purse, Veteran Recruiter

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16, NIV).

#Recruiting #Veteran #Hiring