Question about placing a Civil Air Patrol on the resume

[Wrightiir]

Hello I am just curious as to how I would have a professional resume writer understand that Civil Air Patrol experience is leadership experience especially if you have the Spaatz. I left a military approximately 10 years ago after about 4 years of service. Now I am working or trying to find something in the civilian sector and I have been trying to do that for about 10 years at least to match my education which is in the management supervision field. But since I have only had four years of military experience employers are scoffing at me when I mention that Civil Air Patrol experience is leadership experience also. I've had 20 years of said experience and then I retired from the program in 2010 as a major. Now am I right to be a little angry that these professional resume writers don't consider my experience in Civil Air Patrol as leadership? I have the education but apparently not the experience when it comes to leadership according to interviewers that I have had in the past. So I'm not even sure if I can put this on my resume. However that is where I got most of my training for leadership and my leadership experience itself from. I'm not entirely sure how to proceed to get these people to understand that my experience and Civil Air Patrol constitutes as leadership experience, or maybe I'm just wrongly thinking that I can put it down as real-world experience. Oh and I've already tried writing the resume myself for the last 10 years it's just the last couple years that I thought maybe I could get somewhere paying for my resume to be done but apparently that had no affect either.

[dwb]

The last time I made a resume, I listed CAP under "Volunteer Experience". I described my duties at the time in terms that a non-CAP person would understand.

It was the last section on the resume, below work and education. Volunteer leadership can be relevant, but it's probably not a primary factor for a lot of employers. C'est la vie.

[kwe1009]

The last time I made a resume, I listed CAP under "Volunteer Experience". I described my duties at the time in terms that a non-CAP person would understand.

It was the last section on the resume, below work and education. Volunteer leadership can be relevant, but it's probably not a primary factor for a lot of employers. C'est la vie.

Exactly.

Try looking for resume examples that show Scouting experience, especially Eagle Scout.  You should find a lot and then just tailor it for CAP.

[arajca]

I would mention the Spaatz, but not attempt to claim leadership experience with it. Look at what you did as a senior, which would have more bearing in job-appropriate leadership. Where you a unit commander? Deputy commander? Did you plan and execute activities? Staff activities? What notable goals were accomplished under your watch?

What was your grade/assignment in the military? If you left as an E-3/4, you likely don't have much leadership experience to claim based on that, but it is good to mention you're a veteran and list what type of discharge you received. Be prepared to provide documentation.

[docsteve]

The last time I made a resume, I listed CAP under "Volunteer Experience". I described my duties at the time in terms that a non-CAP person would understand.

It was the last section on the resume, below work and education. Volunteer leadership can be relevant, but it's probably not a primary factor for a lot of employers. C'est la vie.

Mega-dittos

CAP is a legitamate community-service organization like Kiwanas, Vol. F.D., Scouts, etc.  Leadership positions and training are legitimate elements of a resume.

As an alternative to the above comment -- not a contradiction -- a lot of employers want to see community service, especially if it relates to employment (e.g., applicant for mental-health position volunteers at local homeless shelter -- extrapolate to CAP as required).

[Spam]

Some thoughts:

1. Functional/Capability approach:  you could include bullets on the resume to focus on Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). As such, it would be appropriate to mention specific examples from CAP where you managed people, funds, and assets, where those skills could be directly applicable to the work you want to do.  For example: "As Deputy Commander of my xx person CAP unit, I supervised the training of X adult and Y teen cadets in Z topics, and as a rated (Ground Branch Director/ABD/bottle washer in chief) managed volunteer emergency response teams of up to xxx people on complex (air/land) events". It is important to be realistic about one's exact scope of authority, and not to "grade inflate": a 1LT serving as a unit leadership officer had better not claim to have led five hundred men on night assaults of defended Taliban strongpoints.  By including specifics as to number of people directly supervised and types of authority (e.g. budget authority, operational authority over troops and aircraft, etc.) you are citing relevant specific experience, if even small in scope. Also, list under "Education and Training" any PME you may have completed (e.g. USAF SOS or ACSC or AWC); my advice is to leave off CAP specific stuff like TLC, SLS, etc.

2. Position Description approach: you could include bullets listing specific CAP jobs. However, this approach may seem pretty dense to the outside reader, who may not fathom the difference between a CAP officer and flying a CD mission.


I obviously recommend the former approach. Thirty years ago, when I had less experience all around, my CAP bullets served a valuable purpose in telling my reader that although I was young, I had volunteer experiences (CAP) to demonstrate capability.  On my then-thin resume, my couple of CAP bullets (under "Activities and Honors") reflected my GTL level of small unit/team leadership experience, as well as my service then as a Sqdn. Deputy. Today I only keep a single line about CAP and I don't think I even mention my past GP/CC and Wing positions, because those leadership experiences aren't quite as relevant as job-specific KSA's I've gained.


The resume is only a tool to get you an interview, and to support that discussion - period.  I have on occasion seen CAP mentioned on a resume, and invariably will ask about it towards the end of an interview (if we bring them in for one). I never let on that I'm a "member of the tribe", but let them tell me about it, and their role (so, beware!). In such a case (*if they ask!) don't suck yourself into a recruiting spiel: your job is to market yourself, not CAP. So, speak about how your CAP experience has helped you grow and what you've learned that better equips you for paid employment. In the end, if you do a good job on that, you'll have a win-win: they'll have a favorable impression of both you as a candidate and of CAP as an organization.


Hope this helps
Spam

[dogden]

I have my CAP experience on my resume. When I have applied for jobs I have used the cover letter to highlight how my experience listed on the resume ties to the things that are listed in the job description.

If you get an interview, make sure to write a thank you note to the person who interviewed you before leaving the office. Leave it with the receptionist, it leaves a great impression on a future employer.

[Eclipse]

I have it on mine, just below professional experience.  It's part of the "wonder of me", and the expectations of the employer have
to be set properly from day one, including availability on nights and weekends.  I wouldn't want to work at a place where that would be an issue,
and the places I have worked generally asked two questions, took it as a positive, and moved on.  Thankfully I've been out
of the corporate workflow for 10 some years, so I really haven't needed a resume.

With that said...

You hired a professional resume writer, presumably, because your ability to get hired within your own skillset and knowledge of
the hiring practices of your industry haven't been enough to get hired.  If they are worth their money, they will know what companies
are looking for, how to characterize your relevent experience, in a meaningful way, and how to stack the odds of your
resume being in the "maybe" pile the first few rounds where all you have to speak for you is within the four corners of that document.

Your challenge is that those who actually understand the military, and worse (for you) CAP, aren't going to be all that impressed by
a 4-year hitch and a Spaatz that happened 15+ years ago, and even your CAP senior experience, again is "expired" so to speak, as you've
been out of there for 6 some years.  If they don't understand the military or CAP, they aren't going to care, and little you say will impress them.
Such is the world we live in.

Employers want relevent, current experience.  Experience as a Spaatz cadet is relevent for a year or two as a general "follow-through" achievement
for someone college-aged looking at entry-level jobs, but we all know you can make it with very little leadership whatsoever, as the majority
is simply personal accomplishment of various tasks and activities.  You can't expect it to mean much 15-20 years down the road.

You should either take the advice of the people you're paying, or stop paying them.

[NIN]

Pretty much everybody hit the high points. 

The important thing is to translate the CAP-specfic *experience* into legitimate *business-relevant* skills and capabilities without all the jargon and such.

Example:

UNIT STAFF OFFICER, COMMANDER & STATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR, Civil Air Patrol   May 1981 to Present
Responsible for leadership, staff development and program execution at the local level. Conduct all aspects of the three main missions of Civil Air Patrol under national guidance.
Unit successfully rated "Excellent" during bi-annual inspection and compliance programs. Unit was twice named top squadron in the state of New Hampshire and once as the top unit in the 9 state Northeast Region.
Developed and implemented a standardized new member introduction and training format that has been replicated nationally. Implemented plans & procedures that stabilized retention and improved member participation and training levels.
Directed state-level youth program activities including annual summer training, cadet competitions, officer training and national program compliance reporting. Managed nationally funded orientation flying program.

Instead of trying to impress people and cloud the narrative of the resume with impressive-sounding but ultimately-useless-to-hiring-manager titles, I went a little more "meta" and distilled 35 years of CAP experience into one package.  I was a Unit Staff Officer (which specific one matters not, I've been about all of them except HSO & Legal, so saying "Cadet Leadership Training Officer, Deputy Commander for Cadets, and Unit Public Affairs Officer" for example, is about 10 too many words), a commander (unit commander, encampment commander, etc, which *kind* of commander is unimportant.. the buck stopped with me), and the director of state level programs (DCP, Recruiting, Personnel).   It shows local, tactical level leadership, the ability to work as a "joe in the trench," and higher-level, more strategic leadership and capability. 

Did something similar with my 7 years of Army Cadets, too:

DIRECTOR OF OFFICER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, U.S. Army Cadet Corps April 2006 to April 2013
Established course management structure for the initial military training of officer candidates in the Officer Candidate School (OCS) program.
Devised lesson plans and instructional materials (handouts, visual aids) to meet curriculum needs.
Created a distance-learning portal using the open-source Moodle LMS.
Trained and supervised Platoon Trainers and Tactical Officers/NCOs in the conduct of the OCS program.
Evaluated student's progress in the training programs and provided periodic feedback.

What is relevant to the position I'm going for, as well? Some of this shows I'm capable of writing, communicating, oh, look open-source Learning Management System, leadership counseling...  I might lop off part of this to shorten things, again, depending on relevance.

Even distilled down 10 years of military service into one tight package:

FLIGHT ENGINEER, AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TEAM LEADER  US Army & ARNG   Feb 1986 to Sept  1995
Responsible for inspections, maintenance and servicing of CH-47 helicopters in addition to flight crew duties such as cargo loading, weight-and-balance, passenger briefings, airspace clearance and external load ops.
Enforced Army standards relating to shop and aircraft safety as well as aircraft maintenance records.
Supervised teams of up to 8 helicopter mechanics conducting all levels of aircraft maintenance.
Provided direct, hands-on leadership, including performance feedback and counseling, to all team members.

Thats more or less what I did. I swung a wrench, made sure my guys did it to standard, supervised this as a team leader, etc.

What I had before took up quite a bit more space, and was way, way too jargon-laden and specific unless I was sending my resume to an aviation-specific company for an aviation-specific position:

MICHIGAN ARMY NATIONAL GUARD - Grand Ledge, MI      January 1989 to September 1995
Aircraft Maintenance Team Leader
•   Supervised team of up to 8 helicopter mechanics conducting unit-level, intermediate-level and phase-maintenance on Army National Guard UH-1, AH-1, OH-58, UH-60, AH-64 and CH-47 helicopters.
•   Maintained and enforced standards relating to shop floor and aircraft flight safety in accordance with applicable Army directives and best practices.
•   Provided direct, hands-on leadership to entry-level enlisted soldiers, and performance feedback and counseling to all team members.
•   Maintained aircraft technical documentation to ensure that all required inspections, maintenance and other work was accomplished, inspected and documented per applicable Army aviation maintenance and safety standards.

UNITED STATES ARMY, Pyongtaek, Republic of Korea   February 1986 to  January 1989
Medium Helicopter Mechanic, Crew Chief, and Flight Engineer
•   Performed daily user-level inspections, maintenance and servicing of Boeing CH-47 cargo helicopters in addition to in-flight crew duties which included passenger briefings, airspace clearance, external load operations, cargo loading, weight and balance, and aerial gunnery.
•   Maintained aircraft maintenance and inspection records per Army standards.
•   Supervised and trained a junior-enlisted crew member (crew chief)

Nobody outside the Army cares about aircraft models or even the differentiation between a crew chief or a flight engineer.   Heck, when you get right down to it, whether I was AD or Guard wasn't even important to why this experience is relevant to *today*.  Sure, aerial gunnery sounds cool, but indicating that I worked in a pretty technically complex area that required precision and attention to detail (ie. weight and balance, compliance with published tech standards) was more important to what a prospective employer is looking for.

[Tim Day]

Volunteer service can be a relevant entry on a resume, but it's up to you to write it to make this relevance clear.

Nin had some good suggestions on his, but I would get even more specific.

Consider listing specific numbers such as:

• How many people did you lead?
• What resources did you manage (include actual funds as well as cost of equipment)?
• Who did your team support (USAF non-combat missions, FEMA, State)?

Here's how I recommended a friend of mine write his incident command experience:

Emergency Response Manager, Civil Air Patrol          2003-Present

Qualified Incident Commander for Civil Air Patrol

•Over 500 hours experience managing critical emergency operations
•Large operations up to 90 personnel, 4 corporate aircraft, 20 radios, and 10 corporate vehicles with total value of $1,050,000
•Coordinated with multiple agencies including Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Local Law Enforcement and Emergency Medical Services
•## downed aircraft located, ## missing persons located, ## survivors rescued

Here's a Wing Director of ES assignment translated into resume-speak:

Wing Director of Emergency Services    20XX-20XX

•Managed annual budget over $20,000
•Responsible for increasing number of trained emergency responders by 15%
•Supervised over 40 emergency call-outs

This is just one style of resume, and your numbers and experiences may be different.

But let's say I'm taking 15 seconds to review your resume. My (well, not mine because I know) eyes will probably not even focus on "Civil Air Patrol Incident Commander" or "Civil Air Patrol Wing Director of Emergency Services" but I will notice things like dollars, numbers of people, resources, and training results, unless I'm looking for a software engineer in which case I'd probably skip over anything that doesn't rhyme with "lines of code."

If you have hired a professional resume writer they should be interested to see specific items that relate to the field in which you are pursuing employment. Since you mention leadership, the civilian world is looking for things like the numbers I mention above.

[stillamarine]

For my current assignment in the PD my volunteer experience on my resume was very important. I manage our volunteer chaplains, jail volunteers, citizens on patrol, citizens police academy, and internship program. Having experience managing volunteers I think was the factor that put me in front of other applicants.


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