What is the "best advice" Civilian Recruiters can provide Service Members & Veterans for Transition & Employment going into 2017?

The Recruiters Need To Stop Sugar Coating the job descriptions and Tell The Troops exactly What The Job Is And What They Are Looking For...
Tell The Troops What They, The Business, Really Need To Get The Job And What They Have That The Businesses Can Use And what they Can Be Used For...
The Businesses Need To Tell the Troops What They Can Do For Them...
They Need To Create A symbiotic Relationship And Provide Loyalty And Support And The Troops Will Be More Inclined To Stay and Provide Support And Loyalty To the Business...

I am not a recruiter or an executive, just a midlevel federal bureaucrat. Some things I ran into:
1. No one cares you were in the military. Employers really only care about what you can do for them in the here and the now. The reason I say this is because I have seen many vets just expect to be handed a position based on the fact that they were in the military and come of as arrogant. This is a turn off to an employer.
2. Translate your resume into civilian terms. I cannot stress this enough. Rank should appear nowhere on a civilian resume. You cannot assume that the person looking at it has military experience. I even run into this working for the Army as a civilian employee. I am in my 4th position and only had 1 boss who was ex military.
3. Deprogram your language. We all know the military has it's own language. Force yourself to use civilian terminology. Remember it's 1pm not 1300. Even working for the Army, I rarely use military time outside of my timesheet.
4. Learn to love being a worker bee. Many of you are NCOs and Officers. I have observed (at least in the Federal government) that most people do not walk into a position that was equal to the responsibility they held in the service. Part of that for us (I cannot speak to the private sector) is that leadership and supervision start at much higher grade levels than in the military. So enjoy being responsible for only yourself.
5. Keep the good traits. For example showing up 10 minutes prior to everything. This is a very good practice that has served me well in my civilian career. Most times everyone is 5 minutes late lol.
6. Don't share more personal things than you have to. Many of us have issues with anxiety, depression and so on. Unless there is a need to, no one else in the workplace needs to know. A good example is boss asked to do something that is a known panic attack trigger, then yes it is probably a good idea to let them know. Also, just because you suffer from anxiety, depression, PTSD and so on, do not become the label. You are a person that brings a lot to the table. Becoming the label takes away from that. I learned this one the hard way lol.
7. No matter how bad things get at work remember this. You aren't being shot at or blown up (usually) so don't stress the deadlines and the workload.
8. Civilians are not in the military so you cannot talk to them that way or expect military type behavior. You have to learn to sell things to your audience. Trying to pull rank or cite a policy wont get you very far. Again, I learned this the hard way lol.

I can keep going, but I will stop here since I wrote a wall of text lol.

If you know you are getting out of the military, save your money. I saved $5000.00 living on ship and base.
If you do not have an education, start working on something you like. Take computer classes as an example.
Your resume should not read how well you can blow stuff up. For example: I performed duties loading munitions onto trucks for transport. This required a strict method and following rules. State time in what group and awards given if any.
What are your goals: I am training to be a Master electrician.
This shows goal orientation and you followed orders form your Supervisor.
There are you tube videos to help you and Rally Point has individuals posting with correct grammer and punctuation.
Resumes might be thrown in the can if they have misspellings.
Be yourself. Be confident and don't tell anyone to get a dam hearing aid.
M. Morris RVT

I honestly don't think there's anything civilian recruiters can tell military transitioners that would help them acclimate properly to the civilian life again. You're taking absolute structured disciplined highly Advanced trained individuals and dropping them back off into a world of chaos! And then they recommend counseling so you go to the VA and the VA just wants to experiment pills down your throat! Before you know it you're an addict homeless and don't know what the hell happened. I'm not saying there's not some successful people out there I'm one of them however I see more failures than I do anything else and it's not because people getting out did not try. There is no real system in place for transitioning soldiers.

Actually transition from military life to post-military life has not changed much over the past 20 year at least COL Mikel J. Burroughs IMHO.
In addition to returning to school, working for someone else or working for yourself, other options are volunteering for a worthy cause; relaxing and traveling as a retired service member for a time; and mentoring others in areas you are competent in, etc.

The one thing I wish someone would've coached or mentored me more on during the transition is how to market myself better, or not to downplay my achievements. I've always put the praise on my troops and taken the hit, and the hardest thing in the world for me to do is brag about myself. (Talking smack is a different category entirely). I still have problems with self Evals and I've been out for 17 years now! Because of that, I've had a lot of frustrating times, been taken advantage of by both supervisors and peers, and ended up being "over worked and underpaid paid"

Don’t expect to jump into a position or job equal to the responsibility you had in the military. Be prepared to start at a lower pay than you expected to make. When I retired, I took a job I was way over qualified for. I felt I had to start somewhere and gain experience in the civilian world. Within three years I had people looking to recruit me rather than having to scrounge around for a higher paying job.

One other thing: Resist the urge to throat punch your first civilian boss even though they might be 20 years younger than you and have little more practical work experience than a being a cashier at Walmart.

Honestly the best advice we can give our vets leaving the service is to have realistic expectations about life after the service. A lot of our veteran transitioning are still in their 20s early 30s and they are expecting to make 25-30hr to start off. I constantly preached to my Soldiers on active duty for them to utilize tuition assistance while they are still in the service. But a lot of them end up ETSing with 0 college education thinking that their MOS will be suffice to net them a job. We should start the transition process at least 2 years out. This would give the Soldiers enough time to come up with a plan and implement it. Recruiters and transition personnel just need to not sugar coat job opportunities. Brief our Soldiers on what they can do to increase their chances on landing an actual career after service not just a job to pay the bills. Help show Soldiers how to effectively translate their military experience and education into civilian jargon that anyone can understand.

COL Mikel J. Burroughs
The best advice I can give anyone thinking about civilian careers is what do you love doing and how can you figure out a way to get paid to do that? Continuing your education is great BUT why have you not already done this? IF you do not have at least an AA degree, look at that person in the mirror and ask them why they have been cheating you?
The time to start planning what you are going to do after the military was yesterday...you are already behind on planning but it is never too late. When I was a Guidance Counselor, I would often ask new soldiers what they were looking to do when they got out...this is why.
What is your 'perfect' career? Why? What skills, education and training do you need to get that job? Get them now.

I think everyone touched on the key points...First, if you don't have a Bachelors Degree all you can hope for is a Job. If you want a Career you will need a degree. Secondly, the Degree will usually just get you in the door. You will need to prove yourself capable and competent to move up the pay scale. Third, people mentioned Networking because most positions are only filled by Friends or Relatives of current employees.

The Best advice I can give any service member is to have an offer letter before your EAOS. Use at least 2 weeks of leave for Interviews. The best time to look for work is while you have a job...So always keep looking for better opportunities. Don't limit your job search to just one geographic area, the service will pay to move you back to your home of record or anywhere else so use that benefit to move you where your next job will be.