Tag Archive for: military skills translation

Bridging the Translation Gap: From Military Service to Civilian Success - Ironside ResourcesIronside Resources

Bridging the Translation Gap: From Military Service to Civilian Success

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Once upon a time, as a military spouse, I understood the challenges that come with transitioning from a life of service to a civilian career. It’s a journey my partner and I, co-owners of a niche recruitment agency, have lived personally and now strive to ease for others.

In the past, the support a service member received was directly proportional to their time in uniform. The most junior soldiers, often the least equipped with trade or business skills, were left with little more than a basic CV. These CVs, crafted by writers unfamiliar with military life, often misrepresented the Veteran’s experience, leaving them lost for words in civilian job interviews. They struggled to convey their military skills in terms the corporate world could understand and value.

The key to a successful transition lies in translating military jargon into civilian relatable terms. A resume is a powerful tool for job hunting, but when you’re navigating this transition alone, your resume must speak fluently of your experience and skills. That’s where our agency steps in; we don’t just fine-tune your resume, we advocate for you. We take the time to understand the unique needs of employers and prepare you to meet those needs, acting as a bridge between your military past and your civilian future.

Our team, composed of Veterans, spouses, and partners of those who’ve served, brings a wealth of lived experience to the table. We’ve weathered the storms of transition ourselves – the bumpy roads, the moments of doubt when the familiarity of military life beckoned us back. But we stayed the course, committed to building careers in the business world, and now we leverage that hard-won knowledge to support others.

Our organisation doesn’t just rely on personal experience; over a decade, we’ve gathered insights across various industries, understanding how to translate the skills and experiences of the Veteran community into assets for civilian companies. My own corporate and government background has given me a keen insight into what employers seek and the behind-the-scenes decision-making that influences their hiring processes.

We are more than a collection of individual experiences; we are a collective, drawing on the knowledge of all our past and present employees to deliver unmatched service to the Veteran community. When engaging with clients, it’s crucial for us to convey our expertise in this niche market. We’re not just a recruitment agency; we’re a dedicated service for Veterans, ensuring they find rewarding careers and our clients benefit from the unique value veterans bring to their workforce.

Our ability to deliver goes beyond placement services. We offer labour hire and program-based delivery, introducing groups of Veterans to companies where they can thrive together, enriching the workplace with their shared experience and camaraderie.
As we continue to serve our Veteran community, we remain committed to being the translators, the advocates, and the bridge to a fulfilling civilian career. Our collective experience is our strength, making us a trusted partner for Veterans and employers alike. Together, we’re building a future where military service is recognised as the beginning of a journey to civilian success, not the end.

If you are ready to find out how your skills can transfer, Click here to book your free career consult with Ironside Resources today!

From Service Record to Civilian Resume - Ironside ResourcesIronside Resources

From Service Record to Civilian Resume: Resume Writing Tips for Veterans

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Guest Post by Adriana Modersitzki - The Elite Collective
A note from Adriana: I’m the Founder and lead career consultant at The Elite Collective. Elite supports a wide range of individuals through their career journeys, but as a Veteran-owned career coaching and resume writing company, we have unique insight into supporting transitioning members and helping ex-serving members communicate their expertise to civilian hiring managers. I’m thrilled to be collaborating with Rowena at Ironside Resources to create a short blog series offering some actionable advice on translating your skills and experience into language that resonates with civilian employers.

Looking for a new job is challenging for most of us. For ADF members transitioning to a civilian lifestyle and career can be a steep learning curve, and often the first step is the hardest. So how do you get things started? Well, the trick to a successful Defence transition isn’t so much working out what to do when you get out, as much as communicating what you CAN do.
How do you turn your service record into something that a civilian hiring manager or recruiter not just understands, but values?
How do you make your ADF background relevant to the civilian employment market?
Here are some essential tips to guide you through the process:

1. Identify Your Target

Before you start writing your resume, take the time to clarify your career goals. Research different industries and roles to identify the path that aligns with your skills and aspirations. Check out my previous blogs for some tips on digging deep and working out what kind of role you want to pursue.

2. Identify and Highlight Transferable Skills

If you’re sitting down to write a resume, then you need to create a document that shows how the skills picked up during your military career can add value to a civilian job, and put a firm emphasis on how the supporting skills you have will allow you to make a smooth transition into the organisation. A lot of people stall out at this point, so taking time to remember what you did on a daily basis, and make a list of the key skills you used regularly is the perfect next step.

See below for some examples:

  • Logistics Management
  • Problem Solving
  • Planning exercises, events, or meetings
  • Performing Risk Assessments
  • Combat Communications
  • Administration or Records Management
  • Training and/or mentoring junior personnel
  • Managing Resources – personnel, equipment, finances
  • Team Leadership
  • Briefing Senior Officers
  • Working with other teams

It’s important to note – what you will create here is not a list of dot points suitable to insert straight into the resume. 
It’s a list of skills that you can keep coming back to as a touchstone or prompt, as you create the resume content. You can weave these words into your value proposition, your key skills and expertise section, and use them as stepping of points to create content for your career history dot points.

If you’re unsure what a value proposition is, or want some help crafting one – check out this free downloadable resource over on the Elite website. If you want some tips on taking this initial list a bit further, and building them into more comprehensive dot points for the career history, check out this blog on our website that will help you do just that!


3. Highlight desirable training and qualifications

Military training in Australia is some of the finest in the world, and members are given qualifications and training in a wide range of fields – many of which translate very well to the civilian market. For example – occupational health and safety training, leadership development, equal employment opportunity, equity and diversity and quality assurance training.

A word of warning though – don’t just copy and paste the entire list of every course, refresher or program you did. Keep this list succinct and relevant to their potential applications in civilian roles.

4. Showcase Your Achievements

It’s a drum we beat often – for a reason! Please don’t just list your job responsibilities; showcase your achievements and the impact you’ve made.

Use quantifiable metrics whenever possible to demonstrate the results of your efforts. Whether it’s improving efficiency, increasing productivity, or leading successful projects, let your accomplishments speak for themselves.

Even when working with sensitive information, there are ways to articulate the impact of your work. Your PAR documentation will give you an overview of what could be considered key achievements.

5. Avoid the Acronyms

Most of the hiring managers or recruiters you come up against aren’t going to have any reference as to what a Flight Lieutenant is.  If you were to call yourself a black hander or a sig, chances are you’ll get a confused squint across the table.

This doesn’t just go for job titles; it also goes for tasks. For example, you didn’t ‘train snipers’, you delivered specialist training to small groups on a range of topics, including undertaking strategic operations and the operation of specialist weaponry in adherence with course requirements and health and safety policies. You didn’t ‘update PMKeys’, you used both standard and specialised IT applications to enter and extract data, run reports and store and retrieve documents.

Describe your job titles, duties, achievements and training in a way that can be understood.

If there’s an acronym – spell it out.

Make. It. Easy     

If in doubt, show your resume to a friend or family member with no Defence knowledge, and ask them to point out anything they don’t understand. Then go one step further, and ask them to tell you what you do on a day to day basis.

Crafting a civilian resume after leaving the Australian Defence Force is a significant step in your career transition journey. By following these tips and leveraging your unique experiences and skills, you can create a compelling resume that effectively communicates your value to potential employers.

Many employers realise the value of employing former ADF members. By partnering with an organisation like Ironside Resources to seek specific employment opportunities, or The Elite Collective to ensure your resume shows you in the best possible light, you’re already making it easier for a civilian employer to understand why YOU SPECIFICALLY are a valuable asset.

Need further help with writing a resume for your transition? The Elite Collective have been writing resumes and supporting clients Australia-wide since 2016, and have an exceptional reputation for delivering privately funded support to members seeking that little bit EXTRA as they transition.

Whether you’re a digger in Darwin, a Senior Officer in Canberra, or an Australian Defence Partner based in Townsville, Elite will unpack your professional story and help you approach your job search with CONFIDENCE.

Reach out to us here to start your next conversation!