Have you served in the military and now want to find a job in the civilian sector? Are you confused and don’t know how to add military experience to LinkedIn? Do you feel that the experiences and skills you’ve developed during your service are unappreciated or not counted out of the military?
Well, you are wrong! In fact, military experiences make everyone the best candidate they can be for many jobs.
You are organized, responsible, and hardworking; besides, it is proven that people who served in the military won’t waste their time and hardly ever get lazy while they are working.
Additionally, you are probably a perfectionist and dedicate yourself to your job to ensure that the outcome is the best that can be!
To add military experience to LinkedIn, go to the "Experience" section of your profile, click the "+ Add new position" button, and fill out the job title, company name, and description fields. In the company field, select "U.S. Military" from the dropdown menu, and in the job title field, enter your rank and branch of service.
You can probably deal with the deadlines better than other candidates, so don’t get disappointed. People with military experiences are so capable of solving problems under stressful conditions and are great at teamwork in most cases.
You might think that having these skills and characteristics is not really something to brag about. Like most people are like this, right? No, Most people are not like this.
Of course, if they won’t be quite the opposite! That’s why the civilian sector will separate candidates with military experiences from other people.
Adding your military experiences to your LinkedIn will probably attract employers and recruiters to your profile and who knows, you might even get some perfect offers related to your knowledge, experiences, and skills. Do you see the point I’m trying to make? Sir, yes, sir!
How to add military experience to LinkedIn?
It’s actually pretty easy to do so. Adding military experiences to LinkedIn is not really that different from adding other jobs to the profile. All you need to do is to enter your LinkedIn account, click on “Me” in the right corner of the page, and select “View Profile”.
Once you are in, scroll down to see the experiences section and click on the “+” icon. Now, type the branch of the military you served in, don’t forget to check the dropdown list that opens and select the branch to have its logo in your experiences. Add your title, location, and the time period you served.
Don’t miss the description box. Tell your viewers what your duties were and what skills you’ve developed in simple terms.
This is where you will translate your experience into the civilian employer’s language, so act like a professional.
Don’t dive too far or too deep into your experiences, and don’t swim in too shallow waters.
For example, you can write about the branch you served in and tell the viewers what it used to do in about one line.
Then you can talk about what your job was. Be cautious about using the technical military terms; most people cannot even read them properly, let alone be familiar with them! Use numbers; they can make it so much easier to understand your skills.
Like the number of people you used to lead or the value of the military equipment you were responsible for. And save the chances.
Repeat these steps for each title you had during the time of your service in the military. Trust me; you will definitely witness the result sooner than later.