Wednesday, 12 February 2025 Issue#018
Good morning! As the Philadelphia Eagles soared to victory in this year's Super Bowl, they reminded us that with the right strategy and teamwork, any challenge can be conquered.
This week I pulled an article from our previously premium archive. It addresses one of the most frequently talked about pieces of most transitions...the resume.
Breaking the Typical Resume Cycle
The scenario has played out over and over. After attending TAP and doing some research online you finally start to write your resume. After countless hours of careful crafting you produce a resume sure to land you any job you apply for…right?
You start blasting out this sure-fire resume to your target companies, recruiters, buddies who have transitioned, and your LinkedIn network. Surely your email will be blowing up in no time, you begin to think this transition stuff isn’t that hard.
After a few days you maybe have a handful of responses if you’re lucky. You start to think that everyone you sent your resume to must be on vacation at the same time. Why haven’t you just been auto hired into that sweet six-figure job?
The reality is that most of the people on the receiving end of your masterpiece probably don’t know what to make of it. It could be filled with terms they don’t understand, accomplishments that don’t have context, or include way too much information.
This week’s newsletter will examine resumes in a unique way crafted here at Honor & Purpose. Instead of honing in on specifics in the resume, we’ll look at a simple but effective model that really helps put your resume into perspective.
First, we need to reorient ourselves a little bit. A resume most likely won’t get you the job you are seeking. That comes through the interview, which is a subject for another time. However, the resume helps get you to the interview so it is still very important. I like to think of it as an expanded business card, something that the hiring manager can reference. It is through this lens that we look at our model.
The Honor & Purpose model is pretty simple, we use just two factors in our assessment of a resume. Those two factors are branding & compatibility. That’s right, two easily understandable terms that really help determine how effective your resume is.
Branding in a resume refers to the strategic presentation of your personal and professional identity to distinguish yourself from other candidates. It encompasses several key elements that collectively create a memorable impression on hiring managers.
Branding
1. Personal Branding Statement
A personal branding statement is a concise summary that highlights your unique skills, experiences, and what sets you apart professionally. This statement should be placed prominently at the top of your resume, just below your contact information, to capture attention immediately. It should succinctly convey your value and fit for the role you are applying for, typically in two to three sentences.
2. Proper Context
Effective branding involves providing hiring managers context that aligns with your brand. If you say you are a project manager than your resume should include achievements, metrics, and examples that demonstrate you are a project manager. You cannot just put “project manager” in the skills section and expect to be considered for serious project management roles.
3. Clear Language
Branding also requires the use of clear and brand appropriate language throughout the resume. Continuing with the project manager example, the highlights in your resume need to use the common and accepted language of a project manager. Words like stakeholder, KPI, timeline, risk, etc. should be intertwined throughout your resume. Furthermore, don't use terms or acronyms specific to one type of culture like the military. A perfect example I see on a lot of resumes is the word "billet". Almost no corporate entity talks about their headcount this way. Ensure you use more universally understood language that shows you understand your own brand.
4. Verbal Branding
Utilizing unique phrases such as testimonials, success stories, or mission statements can further differentiate your resume. These elements provide a narrative that showcases your achievements and personal brand, making it less likely that you will blend in with other candidates.
Compatibility
For the purpose of this model, compatibility is how closely you are aligned to job skills needed in the position. As with branding, you can’t just simply list ‘project manager’ somewhere on your resume and call it good. To be truly compatible you must do a few things that showcase how your skills match.
Demonstrating Job Fit
Highlighting compatible skills shows employers that you understand the role requirements and have the necessary abilities to succeed in the position. To do this well you need to show that you can actually use a skill, not just list it. Examples in your resume need to show how you developed & applied the required skill in real life. This demonstrates that you’ve taken the time to analyze the job and can articulate how your experience aligns with their needs.
ATS Optimization
Many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to screen resumes before they reach human reviewers. These systems scan for specific keywords related to skills and qualifications mentioned in the job posting. By incorporating relevant skills and keywords from the job description, you increase the likelihood of your resume passing the ATS screening.
Tailoring Strategies
To effectively showcase job compatibility on your resume:
- Carefully analyze the job description for key skills and requirements.
- Customize your skills section to prominently feature relevant abilities.
- Use similar language and terminology as found in the job posting.
- Provide specific examples of how you’ve applied relevant skills in past roles.
- Quantify achievements where possible to demonstrate the impact of your skills.
The Model
As you can see as we apply the two terms to our model, resumes can fall into one of four quadrants. Resume number 2 being the most effective and what we all want to achieve when we hit submit on that job application.
Unfortunately, most resumes that transitioning service members submit are similar to Resume 1 or 4.
With resume 1, the issue isn’t branding. In this case the candidate has done an above average job at creating and articulating a personal brand that is easily understood. For instance the candidate says they are a project manager and I as the hiring manager believe that candidate. The issue with resume 1 is that they haven’t taken the extra step to show they are compatible with my particular job posting. There may be a lack of specific job skills or tools but usually it is something more.
Unfortunately, many transitioning service members struggle with articulating the skills they have from their service in civilian/corporate terms. This leads to the perception of low compatibility with the job, even if in reality there isn’t one. For instance many military members have instructor experience. In many corporate roles they do not use the term instructor, they use facilitator. This creates the illusion of incompatibility because a civilian manager may not know what being a military instructor really entails.
Another area that service members struggle with is that sometimes our accomplishments give off the wrong impression. What I mean by this is that military members are given a lot of responsibilities that are rarely replicated in the civilian/corporate world. Being in charge of a $10 million training budget as an E7 is not all that uncommon in the military. In the corporate environment though, those types of budgets are most likely controlled by senior executives. If a candidate uses that on their resume it could create a compatibility issue in the sense the hiring manager feels you are overqualified or, even worse, a threat to them (i.e. you are gunning for their job).
On the flip side of a High Branding/Low Compatibility resume is the Low Branding/High Compatible resume. On the surface, this seems like it would be rather rare but again many service member resumes fall into this category as well.
The most common reason for this that many service members are trying to rebrand themselves as they come out of the military. Maybe you had a military career as an aviator but no longer want to fly for a living. It is difficult to take all the accomplishments and experiences from your career and highlight them in a way that doesn’t paint you as an aviator.
This results in a candidate resume where the jobs skills and branding are not aligned well which makes it hard for any hiring manager to take a chance on. The resulting confusion on the resume gives off the impression that the candidate is not sure how they could add value to the role they are applying to.
If this is the case for you, you'll have to look for ways to describe your experience and skills in a more general manner. An example of this is removing the customer or subject from an achievement listed on your resume. This is hard because we often conflate that it's that customer that makes the whole bullet impressive. Here is what I mean.
Original bullet: Conducted a process improvement project that examined the patient care wait times for the biggest medical complex in the U.S. Military. Helped 1000's of service members get access to care faster.
Now consider you don't want to work in the medical field, what message is the above saying about your brand?
Consider this: Led a process improvement project using Lean Six methodologies that discovered efficiencies for a major client, led to 70% decrease in customer wait times.
The medical inferences are gone and instead you have a bullet that not only demonstrates you know how to apply the needed skills, but it aligns to your brand.
I’m not going to really cover the category none of us want to be in, Low/Low, as it mostly stems from a lack of effort in crafting a resume. Thankfully, the majority of transitioning service members won’t find themselves in this category.
Wrap Up
Take your most recent resume and the job description from a posting you either applied to or want to apply to and run it up against this model. See where it lands. Using this tool can help you quickly see where you need to put in some effort.
I’m confident that you will have more of your share of resume advice as you transition, and I am just as confident that most of it really won’t move the needle. This model gives you an objective way at looking at your resume and applying any feedback you have received, it identifies the areas you can work on to to be more effective.
If you are low on branding, make sure you first identify what you want to brand yourself as and ensure that everything in your resume aligns. This isn’t to pigeon hole you into one role for life as you can have several brand identities for different roles, rather this shows that you know how your skills and experience align with the job and you clearly demonstrate how you’d add value.
If you are low on compatibility you need to take a look at how you write about your skillsets. Use terminology that matches industry norms for your chosen brand. Provide examples that aren’t hidden behind military-isms. The best way to do this is to really examine how a job description is written. Use the keywords and language that the job posting uses highlight your compatibility, it can really be the difference on getting a call for an interview or not.
In my view there is no such thing as a perfect resume, however there is such a thing as an effective resume. Utilizing this tool helps you craft a more effective resumes and starts getting you to think more on how to align your background, skills, experience and education with what you want to do.
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