How To Add And Explain Military Awards On A Resume

When it comes to adding military awards to a resume, there are many schools of thought on how to accomplish this. One common understanding however, is to include an award only if it highlights a skill, attribute, or ability the employer is seeking. In this article, we will briefly explore some of the most common methods used in adding military awards to a resume.

First Considerations

Adding military awards can be a delicate process of translating military jargon into terms a civilian employer will understand. Another consideration is being able to articulate how even the most simple awards may highlight skills, attributes, or abilities sought by employers. And, one must do all this without embellishing or changing the meaning or value of the award itself.

Awards are great for highlighting not only personal achievements, but also one's integrity, high work ethic, and professional standards to a prospective employer. This is especially true for awards received for notable actions that made you stand out among your peers. Awards should be listed under the appropriate professional experience area in a way that highlights a strength or skill you hold and the employer is seeking. That said, not all awards need to be listed on a resume and having a stand-alone award section on your resume is not a common practice in most cases today.

How to Mention All Awards (without listing them)

In most cases one cannot list all awards received during their service and expect them to lineup with the needs of the prospective employer. However, having a "catch-all" statement that mentions the total number of awards received may be useful in highlighting one's high standards, dedication, and work quality. You are pretty much saying, ''Look at me! I earned (this many) awards for being awesome!'' An example of such a statement would be, ''Honored with 7 awards for service and excellence.'' These types of generalized statements can be added under work experience much like in the example resume segment below.

Besides allowing the applicant the ability to show off all their achievements, without listing each individual one, this method permits the applicant the opportunity to personally describe and justify how the awards may relate to the job directly to the prospective employer during the interview process. Trying to list all these awards in brief terms otherwise, to fit on a resume, is nearly impossible. For example, if one received a Certificate of Achievement for excellence in Drill and Ceremony, and wants to use it as a qualifier for the employer's required job skills of teamwork and detail orientation. One can explain how drill and ceremony requires extreme close coordination of a team to achieve uniformed and precise actions that can only be acquired by team cohesion and attention to detail. Whereas, just listing the award and reason for the award would mean nothing to the prospective employer.

Listing An Award

One may list relevant awards individually. But, when doing so, make sure they highlight skills, attributes, or abilities the employer is seeking.

Remember to avoid using military phrases or acronyms. Translate these into terms any person can clearly comprehend. An example of this would be - a job you are applying for is seeking a person with ''knowledge and experience in leadership.'' You list ''leadership'' under your job skills. To help justify this skill, you want to mention having earned an Army Accommodation Medal (AAM) for leadership. However, you don't want to write the title of the award as this may confuse the employer. Instead you can list the award under job experience as, ''Honored with an award for excellence in leadership.'' Doing this, you list the award and state the reason it was received in brief, concise, and easy to understand terms. The employer will know right away what the award is for and that it fits into the skills they are looking for in an employee.

Most awards can be justified to fit basic skills desired by employers with the work of a little "verbal judo," and done so without overstating the value the award. An example of this could be the Army Good Conduct Medal. When you describe this award to an employer you can say that you received it for "being an example of good personal and professional conduct for over 3 years, both on and off the job. This includes no negative actions, reviews of service or bad job performances." Basically, you are telling the prospective employer that you are a model employee who cares about holding one's self to a professional standard. In the civilian world, that award is comparable to being "employee of the year." Another example is the Army Service Ribbon, which all soldiers receive only upon successfully completing Advanced Individual Training (AIT). This award can be justified to cover some basic civilian employment criteria; for example, being awarded for completing a military school that taught competencies such as: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage, in addition to teamwork and attention to detail among other valuable skills (I.e. ''Honored with an award for completing a military school that taught skills in LDRSHIP - loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage" or ''Received an acknowledgment for completing intense training in teamwork, communication, detail orientation, working under stress, risk management and responsibility'').

Don't limit yourself to the box. Think outside the box. Take military verbiage and think, how does this translate into civilian language? How can I explain this award in a way that a civilian will understand it without changing the meaning or value of the award?

There may be instances though when one may need to do little or nothing at all for a civilian to understand an award - I.e. ''Honored with a Certificate of Achievement for leadership.''

Honestly though, these will be few.

Award Section On A Resume

There may be a few cases where an organization does request an award section on the resume. If one must list awards in a special section, remember that a resume is not an ERB, you don't want the employer to look at it and not understand what it means. That means, don't ever just list the awards on the resume - I.e. Awards: Army service ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Non-commissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, etc. Even a employer who is a military veteran will find this list meaningless without proper context of what the awards were received for and what value they bring to the employer and their business. Always translate the military terms and briefly describe what the award was received for.

Awards section with Army terms.

• Army Good Conduct Medal for having no negative actions over 3 years - 2012

• Army Accommodation Medal for being squad leader of the cycle - 2011

• Army Service Ribbon for completing Army Individual Training (AIT) - 2008

Awards translated into civilian terms.

• Good Conduct Award for excellence in personal and professional standards - 2012

• Award for excellence in small group leadership - 2011

• Service Award for completing intense training in teamwork, communication, detail orientation, work under stress, risk management, and responsibility - 2008

Conclusion

Whatever method you may choose, remember that those reading and deciding your fate in employment must understand the award and see the value it brings to their organization. If it doesn't, you are wasting both yours and their time. You don't want to loose out on a job or career over an avoidable situation. Understand what the employer is seeking and invest time into your resume design. Translate your military experiences, education, skills, and awards in a way that captures your prospective employer's attention and they understand immediately - Make them know that YOU fulfill the skills, attributes, and abilities they seek.