Drew Schildwächter ⋅ Wilmington , NC Salesforce ⋅ 7 years experience

Sean: my best recommendation would be to start with those things in which you are interested.

Man, you have a dynamite set of qualifications, but I feel that you're asking the wrong questions. I can give you a couple of companies with programs (my own recently hired a retired SgtMaj), but please don't look at it as if you are a square peg trying to find the hole which most resembles your shape. I feel as if you will be unhappily employed if you approach it that way.

Better, I think, to figure out what shape you are and then find a corresponding opening. There are a number of books out there on the topic, but I recommend "Reinventing You" by Dorie Clark. Clark teaches at Duke's Fuqua school and I met her through a program put on by Deloitte; she has a good perspective on situations like yours that I feel you will appreciate.

Feel free to reach out if you want to talk about specific programs, but -in long form- I agree with John.

Best of luck.

Michael Olmsted, MBA - former US Army ⋅ Janesville , WI State of Wisconsin ⋅ 20 years experience

Sean
Not knowing exactly what you did on active duty I am assuming as a Combat Engineer you were building stuff or blowing it up. Those skills do relate to Dept of Transportation jobs if you are looking in that direction. Construction companies, your local county or state roads and bridges maintenance, etc. Stretch it a little and some of those specific skills can relate to the companies that build equipment for mining or construction. Assoc of Equipment Manufactures (AEM) More simply I think you have more transferable skills then you are giving your self credit. As stated before you do have to pick a destination or two to keep your job search journey on track. Being too general may not be fruitful.
If you like please email me and we can kick the can down the road a little. My email is mnolmsted@msn.com and my linkedin profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelolmsted. Please connect if you wish.

Stefan Beyer ⋅ Kirkland , WA Wipro Ltd ⋅ 12 years experience

No matter what job you do, you'll need to solve problems and work with a team. Make sure these soft skills are mentioned at the top of your resume.

My resume is formatted as follows; I do technical contracting work, so I'm back on the job market every year or so:

1. Job-specific skills
- These are qualifications taken word-for-word from the job description which you possess

2. Personal Skills
- List a few (I have 4) main personal/soft skills you have and write a sentence about what they mean to you.

3. Technical Skills
- List out what you know. There might be some correlations between your skills and the job's requirements which might not be readily apparent (i.e working with engines is experience working with complex systems)

4. Education Overview
- List schools and the degrees/certificates/qualifications you got there

5. Employment Overview
- List the companies you worked for, and briefly describe what you did at them.

6. Job Overview
- List off jobs, from most recent to least, and describe (usually with bullet points) the skills and experiences in those positions you feel will be relevant to the current job (have a master resume, and trim it to match each job)

Luis Reyes ⋅ Plano , TX AT&T ⋅ 15 years experience

Sean, thanks for all your years of service.

Adding to the other good answers on your question, as you mention, looking for a perfect match between your skills and the work need will be very difficult as it would be the exact position you are coming from.

So, I think the goal here is to pivot your skills to other fields. You may not be able to exploit all the experiences behind your previous activities but extract those that mean something for corporations. There is always need for leadership, effective communication and work under pressure expertise.

As Drew says, the first step is to look for what you want to do and start from there. What are you bringing to the company and what is there missing to close the gaps. If you start that way the how will come naturally.

Good luck!

Justin Kulhawick ⋅ Akron , OH HeavenHost ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi Sean! Why not create a business and utilize your skills? Basically that entails finding a need and offering a product or service that creates value and fills a need. What about consulting?

If you want a job, the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) have many opportunities available in the powerline industry. Generation, Transmission, and Distribution of electricity. With all our infrastructure issues and an aging workforce, the IBEW is looking for hard working, smart individuals to join the apprenticeship. Military background is a plus.

Additionally, in PA they pay extremely well ($35.00+ per hour) and go on a lot of storm calls. Just go to your local IBEW, apply and you'll be on your way to making a good living. I don't know of any better 'JOB' these days that pay more and need good people.

Best of luck to you.

Howard Spiegel ⋅ Houston , TX HR ON CALL ⋅ 20 years experience

Sean,

Pardon these basics but you are a product and the employer is the buyer. In order to sell the product, you have to align your offering to the buyer's current needs.

This means you have to find the job titles that match your offering. Then when you find those job titles, create resumes that show how your prior activities/accomplishments show success doing the what the employer needs done.

What will not work is sending out your information to companies and expecting them to figure out how they can use your offering. That is your job.

Focusing on companies you admire does not mean that they have need to purchase what you are offering. Thus no response.

Howard Spiegel

John Green ⋅ Cary , NC Information Technology ⋅ 40 years experience

Hi Sean -

Thank you for your many years of military service.

You've correctly identified your gap : skillset.

MBA , military service , leadership , and management are all bling bling, nice to have, but -- as you have found out -- not triggers for employers to hire you.

You need a skill, then those bling bling items will propel you to the top of the candidate stack.

So what do you like to do ? IT , Marketing , Construction , Sales , or what ?