by Roy Nickerson
I looked at a very impressive resume from a veteran transitioning off of active duty the other day. Intelligent? Check. Accomplished? Check. Leader? Absolutely. But reading the dollar figures listed in the descriptions of his experience, I cringed. It reminded me of one of my first transition experiences. I was the focus of a panel interview and after an hour of answering questions pretty well, one of the quieter panelists hit me with a doozy: "So, you say you managed a $200 million program. What does that really mean?"
It's interesting how a copy/paste job description off of a military evaluation report can back you into a corner. My answer involved a lot of hemming and hawing. I concluded that I worked on a small element of a $200 million project where most of the dollars involved were part of a transaction between two governments. My component effort was probably more like a few hundred thousand dollars of that huge number. Ever since then, I've been pretty careful of how I describe my military experience.
Many veterans have limited experience in corporate environments (many of them joined the military straight out of high school), so they can't really answer the question I was faced with that day: "What does that high dollar figure really mean?" So, they readily quote a gargantuan figure from the duty description of their latest performance evaluation, thinking it's impressive when it's may be getting them laughed out of the room. Harsh? Let me explain:
In a past position, I was tasked with reviewing some veteran resumes with a recruiter colleague. One of the experience bullets mentioned a $30 Billion project the transitioning veteran was managing. The recruiter instantly said "If he's managing $30 Billion projects, then he's way overqualified for my project manager role. The biggest project he’d run is worth a couple hundred thousand dollars." I had to explain that the $30 Billion price tag was for a weapon system initiative that would last for the next twenty years. It called for our government to purchase a certain number of equipment pieces over that period. Then, I explained what the veteran really did for a living on a day-to-day basis. The recruiter understood, saying, "Oh! Okay. Well I look at something like that and instantly count those guys as overqualified." I understand her position.
If you get a chance, look up the revenue numbers of some of the largest companies in the world and you start to realize that one can interpret the veteran resume essentially reading: "I ran a Fortune 1000 company." (By the way, if you actually equate your time as a Platoon Commander or First Sergeant to that, call me directly and I'll happily explain how what you do or did is just a wee-bit different.)
As you craft your transition resume, resist the temptation to list outlandish dollar figures. First, consider what the dollar figures listed on your military evaluations really mean and how you fit into that described initiative. If you do list the dollar figure, be able to explain where your contribution fit into that initiative. Otherwise, you might be unwittingly disqualifying yourself for a bunch of positions you'd be great at.
Roy Nickerson
US Army Officer | Senior ROTC Instructor
Learning & Development Consultant
DEI Advocate