2 answers
Jae
Student
San Marcos, California
1
Question
Updated
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How do I best translate 23 years of Army leadership into a language that Cybersecurity recruiters value for entry-level roles?
I am a first-generation college student and a 23-year Army veteran currently pursuing a degree in Computer Information Systems and Cybersecurity. While I am working hard on my technical foundation and AWS certifications, I want to ensure my decades of leadership experience aren't overlooked because they happened in a military context.
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2 answers
Maggie Weglarz
Electrical Engineer
17
Answers
Schaumburg, Illinois
Updated
Maggie’s Answer
Hi Jae -
Good question - this is where your resume can highlight who you are as a whole person, not just your degree. Include your roles in the Army as experience with bullet points demonstrating your leadership experience. This could be something along the lines of "Guided team to XXX" where XXX is the objective or results of your leadership. Highlight your experiences with active verbs and quantifiable results (i.e., led a team of 5 people to successfully complete 10 missions). Additionally, in interviews, you can leverage your experiences in the military to answer behavioral questions such as, "tell me a time when you had to deal with a difficult team member" or "tell me about a time when you made a mistake and had to be honest about it." It is good to show that you are a candidate with diverse experiences, and your leadership in the military combined with school experiences can show this.
Here's some examples of active verbs to use in your resume: https://www.colorado.edu/career/job-searching/resumes-and-cover-letters/resumes/action-verbs-use-your-resume
Best of luck!
Maggie
Add military experiences to your resume
Use active verbs in your resume bullet points
Good question - this is where your resume can highlight who you are as a whole person, not just your degree. Include your roles in the Army as experience with bullet points demonstrating your leadership experience. This could be something along the lines of "Guided team to XXX" where XXX is the objective or results of your leadership. Highlight your experiences with active verbs and quantifiable results (i.e., led a team of 5 people to successfully complete 10 missions). Additionally, in interviews, you can leverage your experiences in the military to answer behavioral questions such as, "tell me a time when you had to deal with a difficult team member" or "tell me about a time when you made a mistake and had to be honest about it." It is good to show that you are a candidate with diverse experiences, and your leadership in the military combined with school experiences can show this.
Here's some examples of active verbs to use in your resume: https://www.colorado.edu/career/job-searching/resumes-and-cover-letters/resumes/action-verbs-use-your-resume
Best of luck!
Maggie
Maggie recommends the following next steps:
Liam Rielly
Data Center Technician
180
Answers
Manassas, Virginia
Updated
Liam’s Answer
I agree with Maggie! Your experience and the way you discuss what you accomplished is exactly what recruiters are looking for! Maggie's next step recommendations are spot on as well!
Focus on your fundamentals and then try to associate what you are learning with what you know from your service. What is packet sniffing? Field intel! What is port scanning? Listing building entries! Learn how an enterprise network works (cloud environment, SoHo network, etc) works and then picture defensive and offensive moves like getting into a building or base, etc. If you can start to talk with confidence because you understand how a computing environment works you will have no issue in technical interviews. If you sum up your service experience like Maggie suggested, you will have no issue with behavioral interviews.
There are different types of interviews: technical, behavioral, team fit, creative thinking/ problem solving, etc. Most of your experience will lend you to great answers during these interviews. I had a career that had me changing every couple of years so I had interviews where I was questioned about my decision to start, stop, and change. Army to cybersecurity is a very logical transition and the drive you had in the military will shine during your interview process.
I ask you work on your creative thinking a little bit more. You may be great at it, but you might not practice it often. Be diverse with creative skills and be prepared to talk about them in interviews. Game, craft, draw, build, make music, whatever do something to keep the creative juices flowing. I watched a cybersecurity convention called PancakesCon done by cybersecurity expert Lesley Carhart (alias @hacks4pancakes hence the name) and they had presenters of the convention do two parts: one was a technical presentation, the other was a hobby or craft. I thought this was very intelligent as this not only shows what someone found, but how their brain works that helped them figure out their discovery.
Fundamentals, your experience, your history, and your ethics will be a sure sell to get you the job! Blow them away by telling them something they have never thought of or heard before.
Lesley Carhart links - https://tisiphone.net/, https://infosec.exchange/@hacks4pancakes, https://pancakescon.com/
IEEE webinars - https://www.youtube.com/live/kyaBBn7nF-0, https://www.youtube.com/live/2uFclxPrw5Q
Daniel Miessler videos are always worth a watch - https://www.youtube.com/@unsupervised-learning
Focus on your fundamentals and then try to associate what you are learning with what you know from your service. What is packet sniffing? Field intel! What is port scanning? Listing building entries! Learn how an enterprise network works (cloud environment, SoHo network, etc) works and then picture defensive and offensive moves like getting into a building or base, etc. If you can start to talk with confidence because you understand how a computing environment works you will have no issue in technical interviews. If you sum up your service experience like Maggie suggested, you will have no issue with behavioral interviews.
There are different types of interviews: technical, behavioral, team fit, creative thinking/ problem solving, etc. Most of your experience will lend you to great answers during these interviews. I had a career that had me changing every couple of years so I had interviews where I was questioned about my decision to start, stop, and change. Army to cybersecurity is a very logical transition and the drive you had in the military will shine during your interview process.
I ask you work on your creative thinking a little bit more. You may be great at it, but you might not practice it often. Be diverse with creative skills and be prepared to talk about them in interviews. Game, craft, draw, build, make music, whatever do something to keep the creative juices flowing. I watched a cybersecurity convention called PancakesCon done by cybersecurity expert Lesley Carhart (alias @hacks4pancakes hence the name) and they had presenters of the convention do two parts: one was a technical presentation, the other was a hobby or craft. I thought this was very intelligent as this not only shows what someone found, but how their brain works that helped them figure out their discovery.
Fundamentals, your experience, your history, and your ethics will be a sure sell to get you the job! Blow them away by telling them something they have never thought of or heard before.
Liam recommends the following next steps: