HOW VETERANS CAN STAND OUT IN THE RESUME PILE

“We can’t simply narrate an account of our two tours in Afghanistan. Why not? Because nobody wants to read your sh-t. We cannot give our readers ore. We must give them gold.” — Steven Pressfield, Nobody Wants to Read Sh-t

The number one problem with resumes is they’re written to be piles of unrefined ore, not polished. You can’t just list your accomplishments, hoping the hiring manager is shocked and awed.

They aren’t.

Especially in a corporate workplace, where so few people will ever wear the uniform. What you’ve done is amazing and important — but you have to change how you describe it.

The solution: Frame your career in Theme and Concept.

THEME

“Theme is what the story is about. Theme is not the same as concept.”

One cultural hurdle veterans face in transition is casting their service under a thematic banner. Some of those assumed themes are negative. And they aren’t necessarily correct. But hiring managers have those themes in mind when you talk about your service. They’ll thank you for serving; yet subconsciously, they’re questioning “Is this applicant going to support the theme of our business?”

If a hiring manager doesn’t see your theme marrying well with theirs, you’re not coming back.

Pressfield talks about theme in a literary sense, but theme is part of your life. Think about three common literary themes:

• Returning Home
• A Stranger Comes to Town
• The Hero’s Journey (monomyth)

You joined the military for the respect you gained following one of those three themes. Whether the feeling returning home in uniform, the feeling on campaign, or the feeling as you matured with your brothers in arms.

Military recruiting wins on matching your intent with those three themes.

How do you use theme? Make your resume tell a story — not just what you did, but why you did it. What did you experience in every assignment? Besides the skills, what part of the human element did you have to deal with? What & how did you learn?

Soft skills like project management, frontline leadership, corporate strategy, and business intelligence are themes. And you followed these themes in the biggest public sector corporation the government funds.

Tell that theme! Then you’ll start relating.

CONCEPT

“A concept takes a conventional claim and puts a spin on it. A concept establishes a frame of reference that is greater than the product itself.”

Because theme are apocryphal — they’re part of our collective unconscious. You know the theme of a movie by its conventions, its pivotal scenes. You know themes of companies you want to join: Top of the pile, underdog, friendly to certain communities, have an affinity to certain markets. There’s only a handful of themes you can use.

Concept is hard though. Because it’s your own voice. Concept is how you frame the theme of your career. Two members in Infantry both could have joined for the theme of the hero’s journey. But one has the concept of going political, while another has the concept of real estate finance. How different would their resumes be?

The first resume would talk about the political challenges of counterinsurgency. The second would talk about liberating a populace to find annd fund their own homes. They could have the same assignments and deployments; their resumes would tell different stories.

AN EXAMPLE

Pressfield quotes Nike’s “Be Like Mike” campaign as the perfect example of a concept. As he notes, “The concept was ‘Buy Nike and you can Be Like Mike’.” Nike’s theme is competitive athletics. But, their concept has been exactly the same since the first Jordan’s came out over 30 years ago. Same concept, just different athletes, forever.

Man, Nike has it made. (Give me a call Nike. Let’s talk!)

This probably makes your cringe. You shouldn’t have to market yourself this way, with this much effort. But you’re wrong. Resumes are just the tip of the marketing funnel you must embrace to make it on the outside. Every day, civilians are doing exactly this (when they’re not distracted by social media).

MAKE YOUR RESUME TELL YOUR STORY

You relate by story. You choose where to live, who to be with, and what to do based on the story it helps you unfold. Stories convince you what to buy and when. It’s not fair, but you’ve worked in an organization where fairness is an illusion.

Whether it’s assignments, evals, or duties — there not much fair about it. There’s a temporary balance of power, then competition sways that balance.

In the Coast Guard, we talk about “service reputation.” At the senior Officer and enlisted level where everyone gets marked the same, the only distinction is qualitative. The stories you hear about other members. The theme of their career and the concept of their leadership becomes their calling card. It’s that story that drives assignment, especially the more competitive ones.

Use the power of story for your transition. Define the theme of your military career, then add your unique concept of service and respect. Tell that story — and you will attract what you want for the next step of your journey.