Resume Last: Why Most Veterans Start Their Transition Backwards

“I’ve got three months left. I need to update my resume, get on LinkedIn, start applying for jobs.”
That’s the typical opening line from a transitioning service member. And it’s totally understandable.

The military teaches you to plan, prepare, and execute. But when it comes to transitioning to civilian life, that mindset often skips the most important step: figuring out who you are and what you really want.

Take Jake, a Marine Corps logistics NCO who separated after 12 years. He jumped headfirst into job boards, spent weeks perfecting his resume, and landed a high-paying operations role in the private sector. But six months later, he was miserable—disconnected from the work, unmotivated, and questioning every decision he’d made.

Jake didn’t fail. He just skipped the one step most veterans do: identity work.

“Everybody jumps straight to the resume, right?” said Ben Read on a recent episode of the Vector Accelerator podcast. “When actually, to me, the resume should be way further down in the process.”

Ben, a veteran and transition coach who’s worked with thousands of service members in both the U.S. and U.K., has seen this pattern repeatedly. And the problem isn’t just individual—it’s systemic.

“I was really surprised as I started to delve more into the U.S., that it’s just exactly the same challenges people are facing—just at scale,” Ben shared. “I don’t think people are really going through the right process of understanding, first and foremost, who they are as an individual and where they want to go potentially in the future.”

This isn’t about blaming transition programs. It’s about recognizing a blind spot: focusing on outputs (resumes, LinkedIn profiles, interviews) without first doing the input work—clarifying your values, strengths, purpose, and ideal future.

Part of the issue is cultural. In the military, identity is often tightly woven into your rank, role, and unit. Transition strips that away, often leaving veterans disoriented and unsure of how to define themselves. If you haven’t taken time to untangle who you are from what you did, it’s nearly impossible to aim your energy in a fulfilling direction.

Another reason this step gets skipped? It feels intangible. It’s easier to check off “resume complete” than to sit with hard questions like, What gives my life meaning now? But programs like Vector Accelerator are designed specifically to guide veterans through that introspective process in a structured, non-intimidating way—so the answers become clearer with each step.

So how do you flip the process?

Here’s a better order of operations for your transition:

1. Start with introspection.
   Ask yourself: What do I value? What motivates me? What environments help me thrive? Vector Accelerator’s self-paced course is built around these questions.

2. Build your personal story.
   Your experiences matter, but how you frame them matters more. Understanding your identity gives you the language to confidently explain who you are—not just what you did.

3. Network with curiosity.
   Don’t lead with “Do you know of any job openings?” Instead, ask about how others found purpose, what their path looked like, and how they define fulfillment.

4. Then—and only then—write the resume.
   Once you have clarity, your resume becomes a reflection of your story, not a guessing game filled with keywords you think employers want to see.

Jake eventually circled back. After working through a program like Vector, he realized he wanted to teach and mentor—something that had always brought him joy in the Corps. Today, he’s thriving as a leadership coach for early-career professionals.

The lesson? Don’t start with your resume. Start with you.

To watch the full interview with Ben Read, click here. To learn more about Redeployable, go here.