The Resume Jargon Conversion Guide

Written by Jericho Urmenita, Intelligence & Strategy, Orion Talent

I recently worked with a candidate who had copy-pasted lines directly from his evaluations as his resume bullet points. Eval billet accomplishments are a great starting point, but they cannot transfer over directly. A hiring manager reading your eval language will not understand it — and what they don't understand, they skip.

Here is a conversion guide for the most common military language issues I see on resumes.

Words That Have to Go

Enemy / Combatants / Forces / Targets Reword these to convey obstacles or challenges. "Threat" is acceptable in rare cases where the context requires it (e.g., "mitigated the threat" instead of "neutralized the target"). In today's business environment, referencing an "enemy" on a resume is off-putting.

Close with and destroy / Seize the objective / Precision strike / Lethality Leave these out entirely. Replace with mission accomplishment language: "Took the initiative," "Capitalized on the opportunity," "Achieved the objective."

DESRON / MAGTF / 1MEF / 3/5 / C Co Unit pride is real, but abbreviations and acronyms don't translate. A hiring manager can't tell if it's a person, a place, or a piece of equipment. Use your unit's full name once in the section header, then refer to it as "the group," "the unit," or "the company." Do not say "business unit" because it did not make profit. 

Commanded / Ordered Remove these verbs. "Commanding" people is not a civilian concept and using that language signals you haven't made the mental shift yet. Use "directed" as the strongest alternative. "Commander" as a title (Company Commander) is fine.

Economy of Force / Mass against the objective / Exploit the gap These are a gray area. High-level strategic business language has absorbed some military terminology, and you'll see it used in executive circles. If you're going after a Plant Manager or Director-level role, these may work. For Supervisors and mid-Managers, skip them.

The Equipment Value Bullet Point

"Responsible for $XXX worth of equipment" is extremely common and I understand why — the military uses dollar values to reflect leadership level. The civilian world does not. They measure dollar values of projects or revenue generated. Very rarely will a hiring manager ask how much equipment you managed not to break (which is, honestly, what that number represents).

Equipment value is useful only for roles where you will literally be in charge of equipment again — Fleet Manager, for example. Otherwise, focus on what you built, moved, or improved, and what the outcome was.

The Jargon Conversion in Practice

Before: "Audaciously seized the objective, successfully neutralizing the threat posed by opposing forces in the AO and enabling subsequent exploitation of the gap by follow-on elements."

After: "Led 45-person team in time-critical field operation; achieved all primary objectives ahead of schedule, enabling follow-on team to accelerate by 3 days."

Numbers, outcomes, scope. That's the formula.

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