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I am reformatting my resume to fall in line with the guidance from Career Tools.  All of my work experience is military and with 32 years of service, moving every 2 years it's a few line items.

I'll get it on one page so that isn't the issue. 

The question is dealing with translation of military job titles to civilian job titles. 

To set the stage I decided to address the military service up front so that the reader will take into account that these are not traditional civilian jobs or job titles.

 Taking line control into consideration I put this just under my name and address:

Commissioned Officer, United States Navy:  07/99 – present  Enlisted Servicemember, United States Navy:  09/82 – 04/88; 05/89- 06/99

Then I listed my most current position.

Thoughts on how I should handle the translation?

Smacquarrie's picture

Break them down into separate line items to begin with and follow each with a general description of your MOS duties:
Commissioned Officer, United States Navy: 07/99 – present-
Line Officer - Lead XX Division with focus in Safety of Navigation (Safe weapons handling and storage, etc.)

Enlisted Service member, United States Navy: 09/82 – 04/88; 05/89- 06/99- Rate (OS, BM, MA, HM, etc)core duties

Try to include some significant achievements for each listing without including "generic" medals or ribbons

I hope this helps.

Mac
DiSC 7121

donm's picture
Training Badge

Although you want to stay away from most of the jargon, remember that many folks in the "real world" are ex-military. I would not use "commissioned officer," though. I'd probably use your actual rank (Lieutenant Commander?) and then your designator (title, not number), going by your M-T name. Also, I'd list the rate you had when enlisted, as well as your final enlisted rank before transitioning to LDO.

From there, I'd list achievements in bullets according to the M-T guidance. Running a squadron maintenance team or being the weapon's officer are not light-duty achievements in themselves. I think I'd look through old evaluations to cherry pick things that were a big deal throughout my career, as well.

"US Navy, 09/82 to present, Rising in rank from E1 to O4 (seaman recruit to Lt Commander)"

Commissioned Officer as of 07/99 with a specialty in (designator)"

Followed by bullets. As you're LDO, it doesn't really matter what your rank was for each bullet. You stayed in the same general field for 32 years, so you can ignore the fact you were a SCPO for one bullet, but a Lieutenant for another. Had you gone URLO, then perhaps this would change, but - again, using your M-T name as a guide - that seems to not apply here.

 

mustangldo's picture

thanks for the input!

with 32 years of sevice I really do have an issue of staying on one page if I go back and list every command and job I had from E-1 to O-4.

Seems to me the most critical information for the positions I am looking for occured during the 16 years of commissioned service and te enlisted work just laid that foundation.  The fact that I rose in rank from E-1 to O-4 give the sense of progression that would be necessary to demonstrate in a civilian only resume.

JM