Leaving Military- how to reflect experience in CV?
Discussion
After 10 years in the RAF as an Electronics Tech it's getting to that stage where I'm considering leaving, thankfully I've two years left until my 12 year point so I can hopefully find a job at a relatively leisurely pace.
As my RAF career is the only job it's worth putting on a CV (the rest were dead end factory jobs) how do I write about about the skills I've gained without sounding like I'm writing an Andy McNab novel? I understand it's best to keep a CV short & snappy yet without content many of my skills may not stand out.
Jobs I've looked at so far include Field Engineer for medical equipment, commissioning engineer for radio equipment, outside broadcast engineer and PCB bench tester.
mucho thanks as ever
As my RAF career is the only job it's worth putting on a CV (the rest were dead end factory jobs) how do I write about about the skills I've gained without sounding like I'm writing an Andy McNab novel? I understand it's best to keep a CV short & snappy yet without content many of my skills may not stand out.
Jobs I've looked at so far include Field Engineer for medical equipment, commissioning engineer for radio equipment, outside broadcast engineer and PCB bench tester.
mucho thanks as ever
Worth speaking to a few recruiters who recruit ex-Forces such as https://www.ex-mil.co.uk/ for a view of what their clients may want.
edc said:
Worth speaking to a few recruiters who recruit ex-Forces such as https://www.ex-mil.co.uk/ for a view of what their clients may want.
Many thanks for that, some interesting roles there potentially for me TheFungle said:
After 10 years in the RAF as an Electronics Tech it's getting to that stage where I'm considering leaving, thankfully I've two years left until my 12 year point so I can hopefully find a job at a relatively leisurely pace.
As my RAF career is the only job it's worth putting on a CV (the rest were dead end factory jobs) how do I write about about the skills I've gained without sounding like I'm writing an Andy McNab novel? I understand it's best to keep a CV short & snappy yet without content many of my skills may not stand out.
Jobs I've looked at so far include Field Engineer for medical equipment, commissioning engineer for radio equipment, outside broadcast engineer and PCB bench tester.
mucho thanks as ever
hi there i left last year and thankfully found a job. The main bits I think may help are as you said de-militarising your CV. It also depends on where you are wanting to work next. I wanted to work offshore and during the research found that oil rigs are pretty austere places, and mainly in not very nice parts of the world. As my RAF career is the only job it's worth putting on a CV (the rest were dead end factory jobs) how do I write about about the skills I've gained without sounding like I'm writing an Andy McNab novel? I understand it's best to keep a CV short & snappy yet without content many of my skills may not stand out.
Jobs I've looked at so far include Field Engineer for medical equipment, commissioning engineer for radio equipment, outside broadcast engineer and PCB bench tester.
mucho thanks as ever
So a military type CV for me would have been, "Took part in OP Telic generating jets for daily flying tasks".
In Civvy speak "Used to working in austere environments, providing high level engineering solutions in high pressure situations" if you are asked during an interview about it, then you can mention a situation pertaining to that.
Mention the things you do day to day that you take for granted. I completely missed out using precision measuring equipment as I thought it was a given that everyone could use such things. However I was asked at an interview can you use a micrometer etc. When I said yes, I was told I should have put this in the CV. So with your job I'm guessing that there is test equipment that you have used that could be mentioned.
Writing down a specific piece of equipment unless you know the employer is aware of it will probably not help. For me writing down, "Responsible for second line servicing of the Tornado F3", would probably not cut any ice. However "Responsible for project managing, the servicing of assets worth up to £30 million", may.
The CTP CV writing workshop is a good one to get on, as they go through all of this in much greater detail and far better than I can.
You'll like it out here, dare I say it, it's a lot better than the RAF of the last 3 years.
Edited by Bosshogg76 on Wednesday 25th January 18:35
As has been mentioned, you'll get a week's worth of lessons on what to do with your resettlement package. In there you get extensive CV writing tips and interview techniques.
I left the mob just over a year ago, and the lessons we had were very useful. Don't worry too much, you get plenty of help and direction when leaving, just make sure you have plenty of time before you leave, and you make the most of it to job hunt.
Come to think of it, I didn't use my learning credits, need to find out if I can still use them and do something now!
I left the mob just over a year ago, and the lessons we had were very useful. Don't worry too much, you get plenty of help and direction when leaving, just make sure you have plenty of time before you leave, and you make the most of it to job hunt.
Come to think of it, I didn't use my learning credits, need to find out if I can still use them and do something now!
Working in the defence industry on and off I've seen a few ex-mil CVs and the best way to write up your experience to work in the civ world is as follows.
In essence you need to demonstrate to the employer that you're a SQEP - Suitably Qualified and Experienced Person. The first bit should provide evidence of the Qaul requirement and the second bit the Exp bit.
Therefore...
Name
Educucation / Qauls / Certs
Summary of Key Skills and Areas of Expertise. Helps the skim reader who ends up filtering the cvs to yes and no.
Experience.
For experience I would do it by deployment and list all the relevant ones to the job you're applying for. The detail should include your responsibility during the deployment - i.e what you were responsible for, e.g. nuts and bolts task level or strategic management or somewhere in between - and the tools, techniques, equipment, methods used during the deployment (project in civ speak). E.g.
2001-2004 - Operation whoppitywhop. Officer or NCO in charge of deploying a microwave communications system capable of supporting x number of users. This was the first time this technology was deployed in the field and required x,y,z to ensure that it was delivered on time. Blah blah.
Keep the detail to a max of one or two paragraphs if you can.
Make sure that you're providing evidence that demonstrates that you're not just an order monkey who needs to be told exactly what to do (unless the job specifically asks for that). Ideally, you should be showing that you can cope with problems, manage issues to a successful resolution; basically show that you can be set on your way and be a minimum of hassle for an employer.
In essence you need to demonstrate to the employer that you're a SQEP - Suitably Qualified and Experienced Person. The first bit should provide evidence of the Qaul requirement and the second bit the Exp bit.
Therefore...
Name
Educucation / Qauls / Certs
Summary of Key Skills and Areas of Expertise. Helps the skim reader who ends up filtering the cvs to yes and no.
Experience.
For experience I would do it by deployment and list all the relevant ones to the job you're applying for. The detail should include your responsibility during the deployment - i.e what you were responsible for, e.g. nuts and bolts task level or strategic management or somewhere in between - and the tools, techniques, equipment, methods used during the deployment (project in civ speak). E.g.
2001-2004 - Operation whoppitywhop. Officer or NCO in charge of deploying a microwave communications system capable of supporting x number of users. This was the first time this technology was deployed in the field and required x,y,z to ensure that it was delivered on time. Blah blah.
Keep the detail to a max of one or two paragraphs if you can.
Make sure that you're providing evidence that demonstrates that you're not just an order monkey who needs to be told exactly what to do (unless the job specifically asks for that). Ideally, you should be showing that you can cope with problems, manage issues to a successful resolution; basically show that you can be set on your way and be a minimum of hassle for an employer.
Edited by rhinochopig on Sunday 29th January 20:43
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