When it comes to a career transition, nothing compares to transitioning from a military career to a civilian career.  However as long as you go into your job search with a game plan, a job search doesn’t have to be difficult.  Lets take a look at some simple job search tips for veterans that can simplify the process of finding your next career.

Job Search Tips for Veterans

1.    Re-asses Yourself – Giving a decent part of your life to the military has changed you in one way or another.  To make sure that you job search heads in the right direction, it is important to asses who you are now and how these changes could affect your career choice.  For example, you now must consider factors like: where you want to live, is there a civilian career that correlates with your military career, what skills have you gained, what skills do you plan on learning, and do you still want to work for the government.  You must also determine if you sustained any injuries during your military career that could potentially hinder your ability to pursue certain careers.  Use this self assessment to guide you towards a particular career path or industry.

2.    Create a Civilian Friendly Marketing Portfolio – Many veterans state that this is the most difficult aspect of the transition from a military to civilian career.  The reason that this is so difficult is that it requires a change in mindset.  You need to adjust to what a civilian employer wants and can understand.  It is critical to remove military jargon and acronyms, because they will not carry any meaning to your employer.  The easiest way to do this, is to write down what you want to say on your resume and have civilian friends and family read it.  If they can understand it, then you are off to a great start.

3.    Identify Transitional Skills – Some transitional skills are very easy to identify, if you worked with computers, then these skills would easily translate.  However, it is important to not forget about “soft” transitional skills, otherwise known as intangible qualities.  Military training provides a number of intangibles that can be easily illustrated with specific examples throughout your resume, as well as during the interview process. Military transition resume writers can help with this.

4.    Staying With the Government? – There are a number of civilian government positions that favor veterans.  If you are still interested in working for the government, then there are a number of excellent resources that you can use.  Some of the most common include: FedsHireVets.gov, USAJobs.gov, and JobHunt’s jobs by state.  These jobs often make the transition from military to civil service easier because they are geared toward veterans.

There are a lot of job search tips for veterans, but these 4 are consistently regarded as incredibly important.  By keeping these 4 tips in mind when searching for your first civil job since leaving the military, the entire process will be much more stress free and much more successful.