There is a moment I’ve seen more than once when working with transitioning service members and veterans. They sit down with years of experience behind them … leading teams, solving problems under pressure, managing equipment worth millions, adapting when plans fall apart. And then look at a blank résumé and say something like:
“I’m not sure how any of this translates.”
When I look at their experience, I don’t see someone starting over. I see someone carrying an incredible amount of leadership, discipline, technical knowledge, resilience, and responsibility into a new chapter. Sometimes, they just need someone to help them see it and help an employer see it too.
Translating More Than Military Experience
One of the most meaningful parts of recruiting for me has been helping veterans translate their military experience into a language the civilian workforce understands. Military careers come with their own vocabulary: acronyms, occupational specialties, units, missions, qualifications, and responsibilities that make perfect sense inside the military but may not immediately connect with a civilian hiring manager. Behind that language, though, are powerful stories.
“Led a team” might mean being responsible for people in an environment where mistakes carried serious consequences.
“Maintained equipment” might mean managing sophisticated systems, troubleshooting problems with limited resources, and ensuring mission readiness.
“Operations” might mean coordinating people, technology, logistics, timelines, and competing priorities—all while remaining calm when circumstances changed.
My role has often been to help uncover those stories. Not to exaggerate them. Not to turn military experience into corporate buzzwords. But to make sure the value behind that experience doesn’t get lost in translation.
Sometimes Recruiting Means Listening First
Recruiting can easily become transactional. Job opening. Résumé. Interview. Offer. But some of my most rewarding conversations with transitioning service members and veterans haven’t started with a job description. They’ve started with questions.
What did you actually enjoy doing? What were you really good at? What kind of work do you want your next chapter to include? What will motivate you to accept a new role?
And sometimes the most important question is: what do you want to leave behind?
Transitioning out of the military isn’t simply changing employers. For many people, it means leaving an environment with a defined mission, established structure, familiar terminology, and a strong sense of identity. The civilian job market can feel like an entirely different world.
That’s why I’ve tried to approach these conversations as more than filling a position. Sometimes helping someone move forward means reviewing a résumé. Sometimes it means explaining what a recruiter sees when they read it. Sometimes it means identifying skills the veteran didn’t realize employers were searching for. And sometimes it simply means reminding someone that they have more options than they think.
The Résumé Is Only the First Page
A résumé can tell you where someone served, what certifications they earned, what systems they worked on, and what responsibilities they held. But it rarely tells me the whole story. It doesn’t always capture the junior service member who was trusted with responsibilities far beyond what their civilian job title might suggest. It doesn’t fully explain the veteran who learned to make decisions with incomplete information. It doesn’t show every early morning, difficult assignment, leadership lesson, deployment, setback, adaptation, family juggling or moment when someone had to figure out how to accomplish the mission anyway.
Those experiences create something employers constantly say they want: people who can learn, lead, adapt, communicate, solve problems, and be accountable. Part of my job has been helping connect those dots.
A New Mission, Not a Blank Slate
Working with transitioning service members and veterans has reinforced something I believe strongly about recruiting: behind every résumé is a person trying to move their life forward. For veterans, that next step can come with uncertainty. But uncertainty doesn’t erase everything they’ve already accomplished. They aren’t arriving in the civilian workforce empty-handed.
They are bringing years of lessons with them. Leadership. Accountability. Technical expertise. Teamwork. Adaptability. Persistence. Strength (both physical and emotional). And stories that deserve to be understood.
If I can help translate those experiences, open a door, make an introduction, offer perspective, or help someone recognize the value they already bring to the table, then I’ve done something more meaningful than fill a position. I’ve helped someone move toward their next mission.
And that is the part of recruiting that has always mattered most to me.
THE CLEARED RECRUITING CHRONICLES: YOUR WEEKLY TIPS TO OUT COMPETE THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY STAFFER.
