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LinkedIn is a whole new world for most veterans. For most of us, we never had any need for LinkedIn while in the military. I’m sure there are people out there who landed a role in the military via networking over LinkedIn, but that is far from the norm.
But LinkedIn can be an amazing tool for veterans during the transition back to civilian life.
I know — LinkedIn. Damn, that sounds cringy.
Can LinkedIn be annoying? Yes. If you want a good laugh, check out the Instagram account @linkinflex to see people post some things that will just turn your stomach.
But look — LinkedIn is a tool. And like any tool, it responds to how you use it. You can use LinkedIn to be annoying, you can avoid it because other people on it are annoying, or you can learn to see the value in it.
There are some out there who avoid any type of social media or excess technology. They don’t want it controlling their life.
I get this argument, but I would counter that by totally eschewing it, you are in fact letting it control your life. I’d rather be engaged with something and have mastery over it than be scared to engage with it and give it mastery over me.
LinkedIn is a tool — use it as such.
Getting started on LinkedIn for Veterans
First, if you didn’t know, LinkedIn has tiers. Most people start off with the “freemium version,” which as the name suggests, is free. For the average individual, the next best option will be LinkedIn Premium Career. They also have Premium options for businesses and recruiters. If you run a business or are thinking about getting into talent acquisition, that’s worth knowing. Otherwise, just know that LinkedIn Premium Career is what we are talking about here.
LinkedIn has one of the better resources out there for transitioning veterans. They offer their Premium service to veterans at no cost for 12 months (a normal subscription is $29.99/month).
It’s pretty easy to access. Go to their website here and you will have your identity as a veteran verified by Id.me (fun fact: this is a company founded by veterans that first focused mostly on serving the military community). The process is pretty simple and then, BOOM, you have 12 months free on LinkedIn Premium.
We will get into what you can do with this in the next section, but be strategic about when you access this benefit. You don’t want to start it 12 months out from your ETS/EAS date. Why? The idea behind this is to help you land your first job after the military. Reaching out to employers a year out from when you are available is just too soon.
Also, if you are planning on doing something like going to get an MBA or going to another type of school, you may want to even wait later to take advantage of that free year. At that point, you are postponing your job search so might as well postpone LinkedIn Premium until you can line up the free period with a time that matches your post-military life. Additionally, your school may even provide you a subscription as well, so no need for you to double-dip. Take advantage of the free LinkedIn Premium while you are in school and THEN access it via the veteran benefit.
My rule of thumb? Don’t start using it until six months before you get out. That gives you six months prior to leaving to use it for your job search, and then a six-month buffer after you get out in case you are still searching.
What do veterans get out of LinkedIn Premium?
LinkedIn Premium offers a few additional features that veterans can use to help them in their post-military career development:
InMail: Basically, this is how you DM someone on LinkedIn.
Why do people pay for this? Ok, let’s say I want to get in contact with a senior executive at a firm where I want to work.
Option 1: I go to extraordinary lengths to find their email. I then send them an email, probably one of 734 that they will get that day. Email gets deleted and I never get in contact. To them, emails are “all the things I HAVE to do.” I am not one of those things.
Option 2: I send them a message on LinkedIn. Ahhh, ok now when they go to LinkedIn and see a message, they are expecting someone who wants to connect. This puts them in the mindset to receive my note and make time to connect.
Option 2 is the easier one here, folks.
(To learn more about ways to network as a veteran, check out this post about Veterati and American Corporate Partners).
See who viewed your profile: Ok, I won’t lie. I don’t really like this feature.
Well, I like seeing who’s viewed MY profile, but don’t like that other people can see I viewed theirs.
*sigh*
It is what it is.
But this can be a good feature. You may see that someone who interests you viewed your profile. You can now message them and seek a connection.
My one piece of advice here: when you reach out, don’t add the fact that you saw that they looked at your profile. Just totally gloss over that and say you’d be interested in connecting. Is that maybe a bit passive-aggressive and kinda middle schooly? Yes? But it just seems weird to call out the fact that they were creeping on your profile and they didn’t reach out. So just move past it and get on with your life.
LinkedIn Learning: If there is a topic out there in the business world, LinkedIn Learning likely has a class for it:
- Excel Essential Training (really wish I spent more time learning Excel before starting my MBA…)
- Find Your Dream Job: Interview Techniques and Resume Writing
- Entrepreneurship: Finding and Testing Your Business Idea
And literally everything else.
These can serve as a really great primer to learn about anything you think may interest you after the military.
A note of caution: LinkedIn Learning classes are great, but they do not provide accredited certifications. Taking their project management classes, for example, is not the same as going to get your Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification (learn how you can do this for free here). You can add the certs to your LinkedIn profile, but you can’t necessarily claim yourself as an expert in them.
Interview prep: Most veterans don’t have any experience in interviewing. Prior to my interviews during my MBA application process, the only other job interview I had experienced was for an hourly job at an ice cream parlor in high school. Not quite the same thing
LinkedIn offers interview help when they can connect you with someone who can provide you feedback, along with some AI tools that can help.
Preparing for interviews takes work and practice. You need reps and you need reps with different people. So this feature can really help you out.
LinkedIn etiquette for veterans
In starting out on LinkedIn, you can easily go off the rails and have it work against you instead of for you.
First thing you should know is that LinkedIn is not Facebook or Snapchat or TikTok. It’s not a way for you to talk about your political stances or share memes or a picture of your favorite charcuterie board from your local restaurant. It’s a place for your career and professionalism. Use the other networks for the other stuff.
So here are some rules to follow when using the site:
For the love of all that good in this world, do not make your picture one of you in uniform.
I know. You are proud. We all are. But get over it. No one owes you shit for your service.
Displaying your uniform in your picture just signals to anyone and everyone that you are “still military” and haven’t made the jump mentally to being a civilian.
Your picture doesn’t need to be anything crazy to start. Be in a suit, or dressed professionally, smile, and make sure your face is most of the picture.
Add a note when making connections.
When you invite someone to connect, LinkedIn will prompt you to add a note. Why people don’t do this, I will simply never understand.
It doesn’t need to be anything crazy. Let them know what about their profile or what they posted made you want to reach out. If they are someone you really want to connect with, add a request for a 15-minute phone call. You only get 300 characters in that message anyway, so don’t worry about it being long.
Here’s a few examples of what these messages might look like:
“John-
I really liked what you posted about veterans working at Amazon. I’m leaving the Air Force in 5 months and would like to learn more. Could we chat on the phone for 15 minutes so I could talk with you about your experience there?
Thanks,
Mark”
or
“Sarah-
Thanks for connecting. I’m set to leave the Navy in a few months and am looking to start a career in oil and gas. Your career looks interesting to me and I’d like to connect to learn more about what you do.
Thanks,
Mark”
Don’t endorse people for military-related skills.
Ok, ok, ok….UNLESS they are trying to work in the defense industry or something similar.
Randomly I get a notification that some guy from my infantry company six years ago will endorse me for “National Security” or “Military Planning” — neither of which am I currently working in or planning to work in. So even though he thinks he’s helping, he’s actually hurting me.
The skills endorsing thing on LinkedIn is just kinda weird. My recommendation? Just avoid it altogether. It’s total fluff that really doesn’t mean much of anything.
If you have certain skills you want to highlight, then ask people to provide personal recommendations for you where they can add personalization about how you used those skills and the impact you made. That’s waaaayy more effective.
Veteran profiles on LinkedIn
There are a few things you just have to do and know when crafting your profile and work history on LinkedIn.
Don’t try too hard to call your position something in the civilian world
Ugh. I have seen some absolutely cringy things with this.
What am I talking about?
I’m talking about when someone is trying to translate their military job title into a civilian equivalent. The intent is good — they are trying to communicate to a civilian audience.
But likely you don’t really know anything about those jobs you are trying to translate to…..so why are you saying you do them?
Examples of what I’ve seen:
- Platoon leader described as “management consultant”
- Company commander described as “CEO”
People. Just no. These are both wrong.
Listen, don’t overthink it. Just say your title and then in the description write out your responsibilities and impact in a way that makes sense to a civilian. That means:
- Avoid jargon
- Focus on your impact vs. the level of responsibility (Pro tip: you also need to do this on resumes).
Military evaluation reports tend to focus a lot on what your responsibilities were, but that doesn’t really mean anything. What matters is what you did with them.
Example of a military bullet:
“Responsible for maintenance and accountability of $5 million of government property including 10x HMMWVs”
….ooooook.
But what did you DO? Also, no one has any idea what the hell a HMMWV is. Including most people in the military (it’s a Humvee).
Better way to say it:
“Developed a new maintenance program for $5 million worth of equipment. Led seven-person team through implementation, reducing maintenance time by 15% and increasing fleet utilization by 25%.”
Ok, now we are cooking with fire. That tells me what you actually did with that equipment and what impact you had.
Take your ego out of the equation. Aim for clarity. Describe your impact.
Avoid listing all your military awards
I remember going to a family event in my dress uniform after my first deployment. My sister looked at my uniform, which a friend once described as that of Bolivian general, and asked what the awards were for, saying:
“Well, you haven’t won any battles or anything.”
Thanks for the honesty, sis.
But seriously, we all know that the military loves to give awards out. Here’s the thing:
No one in the civilian world knows what your awards mean.
So don’t list it on your profile.
Now, if you received an award for some exemplary impact, then feel free to put that in your job description. But describe the impact you made, not the award itself.
Avoid listing all your positions
We changed jobs a lot in the military. To someone from the outside it can be confusing to look at our service records and wonder what all these jobs were.
So simplify it.
For my personal profile, I have two positions listed:
- Infantry Officer
- Civil Affairs Officer
Under each, I have a brief description of what I did for those roles.
That’s it.
There’s no need to break it down into every single job. All you’re doing in confusing people.
Help your brothers and sisters out
You know what really grinds my gears?
When a veteran sees a veteran doing any of these stupid things on LinkedIn…and just makes fun of them for it.
We all served together. Fought, bled, cried, and sweated our asses off with one another.
And let’s face it: heading back into the wild of the civilian world is rough. Most people have no idea what they are doing.
So be a buddy. If you see a fellow vet interacting with LinkedIn in a counter-productive way, don’t be afraid to send them a private note and make a suggestion on how they can improve.
Let’s help each other out.
Now go crush it.
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