How to Write a Military-to-Civilian Resume (Step-by-Step Guide for Veterans)

The civilian job market doesn’t care about your rank. They care about your ROI. And yes, it can be extremely frustrating and feel borderline unfair.

You’ve managed millions of dollars in assets and led teams through life-or-death situations, but you’re getting passed over because the HR rep doesn’t know the difference between a Platoon Sergeant and a shift supervisor.

It is infuriating to look less qualified than you are simply because the corporate world doesn’t speak “military.”

Here is the good news —

The problem isn’t your experience: it’s the translation. You possess exactly what companies are desperate for: chaotic problem-solving, elite discipline, and leadership under fire.

You just need to stop sounding like a soldier and start sounding like their next top performer.

This guide walks you through that translation step-by-step. You’ll learn how to:

• Adjust your resume and describe your experiences so they’re understandable to a civilian recruiter.
• Build a resume and fill in each section.
• Combine hard and soft skills to best represent your abilities and accomplishments.
• Avoid common mistakes.

Military-to-Civilian Resume Samples for 2 Common Scenarios

The “Generalist” pivot: Combat Arms (Infantry) → Corporate Operations/Management

The “Specialist” direct transfer: Logistics/Supply → Supply Chain Management

The Golden Rule: Translate, Don’t Transcribe

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is copying your evaluation reports, like NCOERs or OERs, word for word, and presenting them as a resume.

Those documents are written for military leadership, not civilian hiring managers. While they might capture your accomplishments accurately, they’re full of jargon, acronyms, and assumptions about context — ones civilians won’t understand.

Such a resume might look impressive on paper, but it leaves recruiters scratching their heads.

A very helpful self-evaluation tool for many members of the military is called “the grandma test.”

Some common “translations” to keep in mind:

How to Choose the Right Format

The format of your resume matters just as much as the content.

Picking the right structure helps your resume pass the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) checkers. It also helps civilian recruiters quickly see your value without getting lost in military jargon.

Resume format basically boils down to what sections to include in what order. The three “standard” formats for resumes are:

• Reverse-chronological
• Functional (also called “skills-based”)
• Combination or hybrid (a mix of the two above)

Here’s a breakdown.

Reverse-chronological (recommended)

This is the go-to format for most veterans. It lists your experience from most recent to oldest and works best if you have a steady career progression.

Recruiters can immediately see your leadership roles, promotions, and increasing responsibilities, all framed in civilian terms.

Typical sections to include in a reverse-chronological order resume:

• Contact Information
• Professional Summary
• Experience
• Education
• Skills
• Certifications / Licenses (optional)
• Awards / Honors (optional)
• Volunteer Experience / Projects (optional)
• Additional Sections (Languages, Security Clearance, Interests, etc.) (optional)

Functional or hybrid (use with caution)

Sometimes useful if you’re pivoting to a completely new industry or have gaps in your work history.

However, be aware: many recruiters dislike functional resumes because they can appear like you’re hiding something. Use this only if it truly helps highlight transferable skills that outweigh your job titles or dates.

Typical sections to include in a functional (skills-based) resume:

• Contact Information
• Professional Summary
• Skills / Competencies
• Experience (brief, optional)
• Education
• Certifications / Licenses (optional)
• Awards / Honors (optional)
• Volunteer Experience / Projects (optional)
• Additional Sections (Languages, Interests…) (optional)

Typical sections to include in a combination (hybrid) resume:

• Contact Information
• Professional Summary
• Skills / Competencies
• Experience
• Education
• Certifications / Licenses (optional)
• Awards / Honors (optional)
• Volunteer Experience / Projects (optional)
• Additional Sections

Now, let’s go through writing each section of your military-to-civilian resume.

I’ll describe those for the reverse-chronological format — it’s the safest choice (and also the best choice for more than 9 out of 10 candidates).

How to Write a Resume Summary

The top of your resume is prime real estate. This is where a strong professional summary immediately tells a civilian employer who you are, what you bring, and why they should keep reading.

Think of it as your elevator pitch in writing, short, clear, and results-focused.

A military-to-civilian summary should cover three things:

• Your role and experience. Translate your military title into civilian-friendly language. For example, “Operations Sergeant” might become “Operations Supervisor with 6+ years of experience managing logistics and personnel.”
• Key skills and achievements. Highlight the leadership, project management, and technical expertise you bring to the table. Include measurable results whenever possible: “Led a team of 25 in coordinating supply chains valued at $10M” or “Implemented process improvements that increased efficiency by 20%.”
• Your goal or value proposition. Connect your experience to the type of civilian role you’re targeting. Keep it forward-looking: “Seeking to apply operational planning and team leadership skills in a project management role.”

6 Steps to Craft a Strong Summary:

1. Open with a strong trait, translated job title and years of experience.
2. Highlight your core skills in language civilians understand.
3. Showcase your most significant achievements, preferably with metrics.
4. Connect your military experience to the responsibilities of the civilian job.
5. Tailor your summary to each position—don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach.
6. Write your summary last, after you’ve fully translated your experience on the rest of the resume. It’ll give you a complete picture of your experience and abilities, and you’ll write a better summary.

Pre-translation (military version):

Translated (civilian-friendly) version:

👉 If you use Big Resume’s Resume Builder, it will generate a resume summary for you:

If you don’t want to use it and want to write one on your own, you will have several options on the right that will get you inspired and show what a good summary looks like — it’ll make the process way easier.

How to Describe Your Experience

Your experience section is the heart of your resume. It shows civilian employers what you actually accomplished and why they should hire you.

Here’s how to make it work for veterans transitioning into civilian roles:

1. List experiences in reverse-chronological order.
   Start with your most recent position and work backward. Civilian recruiters want to see your career progression, leadership growth, and increasing responsibilities.
2. Be selective, not exhaustive.
   You don’t need to list every duty from every assignment. Focus on the roles and achievements most relevant to the civilian positions you’re targeting. For older or less relevant experience, you can summarize in one line or leave it off entirely.
3. Details matter, but keep it readable.
   Each role should have 3–5 bullet points highlighting accomplishments, responsibilities, and measurable outcomes. Avoid vague lists of duties; instead, emphasize results and impact.
4. Quantify whenever possible.
   Numbers make achievements concrete. Think in terms of team size, budget, operational scope, process improvements, cost savings, or efficiency gains.
5. Translate military to civilian language.
   As with summaries, swap ranks, units, and military-specific jargon for terms a civilian recruiter understands.
6. Use the STAR method for bullet points.
   The STAR method (short for Situation, Task, Action, Result) helps you clearly communicate achievements in a way that civilian employers can understand and value. Read on to discover how to use it.

How to write bullet points (using the STAR Method)

• Situation/Task: What was the problem or mission?
  “Unit needed to improve supply chain efficiency for forward operations.”
• Action: What did you specifically do to address it?
  “Redesigned the inventory tracking process, implemented digital tracking tools, and trained personnel on new procedures.”
• Result: What was the outcome? Include numbers or metrics wherever possible.
  “Reduced resupply delays by 30% and increased inventory accuracy to 99%.”

By consistently applying this method, every bullet point on your resume clearly demonstrates impact, skills, and results, the three things civilian employers care about most.

Why is this important?

Every bullet point should answer the silent question: “Why does this matter to a company?” Military accomplishments often focus on duty or mission, but civilian employers need to see business value. The “So What?” factor connects your skills and results to real-world impact.

This shows not just what you did, but why it matters: skills, results, and impact that civilian employers can immediately understand.

How to List Your Education (And Is It Always Necessary)

Your education section shows civilian employers your formal training and certifications. Here’s how to handle it as a veteran.

• Include relevant degrees and certifications.
  List your highest level of education first—college degrees, vocational programs, or military-specific certifications that have civilian equivalents (e.g., IT, logistics, medical, aviation).
• Translate military training when possible.
  Many military courses count as certifications or professional development in the civilian world. Example: “Advanced Leadership Course” → “Leadership and Management Training (equivalent to college-level coursework).”
• Keep it concise.
  Include institution/training program, location, degree or certification, and completion date. Additional details are only needed if directly relevant to the civilian job.

A clear, concise education section shows your credentials without cluttering your resume. Focus on what strengthens your candidacy for the roles you’re targeting.

What Skills to List on Your Resume

The best approach is to mix hard skills and soft skills that align with the job you’re targeting.

The key is to choose skills that highlight your military strengths in a way hiring managers instantly understand.

Here’s how to build a strong skills section.

Prioritize job-specific hard skills

Start with the technical abilities and tools that match the role you’re applying for. This is where you translate your military expertise into civilian-friendly terms.

Some examples would be:

• Logistics & Supply Chain Management
• Project Management
• Inventory Control Systems
• Security Operations
• Data Analysis
• Equipment Maintenance
• First Aid / EMT
• IT Networking, Systems Administration
• Risk Assessment
• OSHA/Safety Compliance

Highlight soft skills employers value

Your military background gives you an edge here. Just make sure to frame the skills in language civilians use.

Examples:

• Leadership & Team Management
• Critical Thinking
• Decision-Making Under Pressure
• Communication
• Training & Mentorship
• Conflict Resolution
• Attention to Detail
• Time Management
• Adaptability
• Situational Awareness

Additional tips for listing skills in your resume

• Tailor your skills to each job. Don’t list everything you can do; list the skills that prove you’re built for this job. Match the keywords in the job posting and reinforce the same skills in your bullet points so everything lines up.
• Avoid military terminology. For example, instead of “Command and control”, use “Operations coordination, cross-team communication”. Or instead of “Mission planning”, use “Project planning, strategic planning.”
• Place keywords strategically. You don’t want them only in the “Skills” section at the bottom of your resume. Sprinkle 2–3 of your strongest, most role-relevant skills in the summary, and include them in the “Experience” section — show them through actions and outcomes in your bullet points. Optionally, “Certifications” and Projects” sections are a great place for reinforcing technical skills and connecting them with specific certificates you obtained or successful projects you completed.

What Other (Optional) Sections to Include

Now we’ll go through some optional sections you can include in your resume. Bear in mind you don’t need every single one. Pick just the ones that strengthen your story and reinforce the value you bring.

For veterans, these are some of the most useful additional sections.

Certifications & training

Extremely valuable, especially if you’re targeting roles in logistics, IT, HR, project management, aviation, cybersecurity, or healthcare.

Include both military and civilian certifications, but translate them into recognizable equivalents when needed.

Awards & recognitions

Recruiters might not know what a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal means at face value.

Translate it into what it represents (leadership, performance under pressure, mission impact).

For example:

• Awarded Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for leading a 15-person team through a high-risk equipment overhaul, completing the project 20% ahead of schedule.

Volunteer experience

Huge trust-builder, especially for service members shifting into community-focused, leadership, or corporate roles.

If you’ve done:

• Disaster response
• Coaching or mentoring
• Community engagement
• Fundraising or event organizing

…add it. It shows initiative, reliability, and commitment.

Languages

Useful for roles in government, international operations, logistics, security, humanitarian work, or customer-facing roles.

Be honest about your proficiency.

Projects (especially important for career changers)

If you’re aiming for a field where you lack civilian experience, include projects to showcase hands-on application.

Examples:

• Completed a cybersecurity lab series as part of a CompTIA Security+ certification, demonstrating hands-on threat analysis and mitigation.
• Led a capstone project in logistics management during transition training, optimizing inventory tracking and reporting.
• Built an Excel-based forecasting tool as part of a business analytics course, applying data analysis to real-world scenarios.

Projects add proof when the work experience doesn’t fully align yet.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even the strongest military backgrounds can get lost in translation if the resume is packed with terms or formatting choices that civilian employers don’t understand.

Below are some of the biggest pitfalls to watch for.

Acronym soup

The fastest way to lose a recruiter is to drop a wall of acronyms like TDY, PCS, MOS, NCOIC, OCONUS, or BCT without explaining what they mean.

Most civilian hiring managers have zero familiarity with military terminology. They won’t Google it, they’ll just move on to the next candidate.

How to fix it:

• Translate everything into plain business language.
• If the acronym is important, spell it out once and then use the abbreviation later.

Underselling your soft and transferable skills

A lot of veterans focus only on hard tasks and leave out the interpersonal or leadership strengths they developed. But companies often value these things a lot.

Civilian employers care deeply about:

• Staying calm under pressure
• Leading diverse teams
• Adaptability
• Cross-cultural communication
• Accountability
• Problem-solving in uncertain situations

These are competitive advantages, not just nice-to-have skills. If you don’t explicitly spell them out, it’s very likely recruiters won’t automatically connect the dots.

Misusing the security clearance section

Security clearances are valuable, but they’re not universal.

If the job doesn’t involve defense, government contracting, or secure environments, the clearance isn’t relevant — and including it can actually raise unnecessary questions.

Best practice:

• Only list your clearance if the job posting mentions it or if it’s useful in that industry.
• Never include expiration dates, investigation details, or anything classified. Just the level (e.g., “Active Secret Clearance”).

Making the resume too long

Civilian employers want focus, not volume. Hence, no need for listing every single duty and ending up with a 5-page resume.

How to avoid this:

• Include the last 10–15 years max.
• Highlight accomplishments, not every daily task.
• Prioritize what’s relevant to your target role.

Copy-pasting NCOERs/OERs

Performance reports are written for military audiences, not civilian ones.

Bullets like “Led squad through multiple FTXs while maintaining operational readiness” don’t help a recruiter understand your value.

Translate these bullets into metrics, outcomes, and business-friendly language.

Using rank as the job title

“Staff Sergeant” or “Chief Petty Officer” may impress other service members, but they mean nothing to civilian hiring managers.

Use function-based titles instead:

• Training Supervisor
• Operations Manager
• Logistics Coordinator
• Team Lead

Include rank in parentheses if you want.

How to Get Feedback on Your Resume

The best part about using Big Resume is that once you create your resume, you’ll be able to check it and get feedback, so you can be sure you hit all the right marks.

Just go to Big Resume and then the Scan area and click on ResumeAI. You’ll be asked to provide the job ad for a job you’re applying for (if you don’t have a specific one, you can choose from our library).

Then you’ll upload your resume and get detailed feedback on formatting, readability, and credibility, plus ATS alignment. Our scanner checks your resume against the job ad to make sure it contains the right keywords, showing you have the relevant experience, so you can be confident you’re hitting all the requirements before submitting.

You’ll get actionable feedback and tips to improve your resume, so it stands out once you submit it:

Summary of the Main Points

• Translate, don’t transcribe. Rewrite military duties and titles into plain business language so civilian employers immediately understand your impact.
• Choose the right format. Use a reverse-chronological resume (recommended for most veterans) and include a tailored professional summary instead of an outdated objective.
• Write a focused summary. Lead with your role, years of experience, key strengths, and the value you bring — all translated into civilian terms.
• List experience and education clearly. Prioritize recent, relevant roles, use the STAR method for bullet points, quantify achievements, and keep the education section straightforward.
• Show a mix of skills. Combine technical/operational strengths with soft skills like leadership, adaptability, and communication to show your full value.
• Include certifications, awards, volunteer work, technical tools, security clearance (if relevant), languages, and projects can strengthen your story and boost credibility. You don’t have to include all these sections, just the ones that make sense.