Write to the future.
Resume writing is not about rehashing your past history and listing what you’ve done and where. Rather,
resume writing is about writing to the future, to the job that you want or the career
path that you wish to pursue. This is a critical consideration throughout every phase
of writing your resume and conducting your job search. Clearly define your objectives, identify the skills and qualifications
you’ve gained through your past experience that support your current goals, and then
focus on these elements throughout your search. Don’t position yourself as someone
who wants to be a sales professional; rather, position yourself as someone who is a well-qualified sales professional with excellent skills in delivering presentations,
negotiating and closing deals, planning incentives, and more. (If you’ve worked as
a military recruiter, you’ve certainly done all of these things and more!)
“Re-weight” your skills and qualifications.
When writing your resume, you want to bring the skills and qualifications that are
most relevant to your current career objectives to the forefront and put the most
emphasis on them. Consider the following example: during your four-year tour of duty,
your primary function was as a maintenance mechanic with collateral responsibility for technical training. Now, at this point in your
career, as you re-enter the civilian workforce, you want to work as a technical instructor.
To best position yourself for such opportunities, you’ll want to “re-weight” the information
you include on your resume and put greater emphasis on teaching and training than on the mechanic functions you performed on a daily basis.
Be inclusive, not exclusive.
Every time you include a military acronym or use other military jargon in your resume,
you’ve given a prospective employer a reason to exclude you from consideration. Employers want to know what you can do for them in language
that they will understand and appreciate. This is what the concept of transferability
of skills is all about. Change the language in your resume from military to civilian
so that employers in “corporate America” can understand what you did and how it applies
to them. Note: The only time this is not true is if you’re applying to a company or government
agency that works directly with the military and is interested in a candidate with
your specific military qualifications. If this is the case, you want to follow the
exact opposite strategy and incorporate all appropriate military language into your
resume. Consider who your audience is and then determine how best to write your resume
and present your skills.
Sell it, don’t tell it.
Resume writing means selling—pure and simple. You have a product to sell—yourself, and you must create a resume that highlights both the features (responsibilities)
and benefits (achievements) of that product. To accomplish that, change your resume-writing
mind-set. Instead of simply telling your readers what you have done, sell them on how well
you’ve done it. Consider the difference in the following two sentences. Tell: “Managed fleet of military vehicles.” Sell: “Managed fleet of military vehicles valued in excess of $225 million and achieved
100 percent operational readiness scores for two consecutive years.” See the difference
in impact?
Highlight your keywords.
Keywords are a vital component of every job seeker’s successful search campaign. Tens
of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of companies and recruiters use key words
as the primary vehicle to search their database of resumes. For example, a recruiter
might be interested in a candidate with a strong background in supply chain management.
If your background is in logistics, you’d be an ideal candidate. However, if you haven’t
included those specific words—supply chain management—in your resume, you’ll be passed over. Take the time that is necessary to learn the
civilian keywords that are important to your current career goals, and then be sure to incorporate
them into your resume (as long as you actually do have experience in each particular
function).
Create your own personal brand.
The latest and greatest strategy for successful resume writing is the concept of personal branding—creating
a brand that is unique to you and your specific skill sets. Here’s an example of a
branding statement for a veteran with extensive experience in budgeting and financial
management: “finance executive who has delivered double-digit gains in productivity,
quality, and cost reduction in operations worldwide.” By incorporating this statement
at the beginning of his resume, this individual has immediately communicated who he is and the value that he brings to a prospective employer in the civilian marketplace.
Make your resume inviting to read.
You’ve heard it all before. Use plenty of white space on your resume, use bold and italics to highlight important information, write in short paragraphs for a “quick” read,
and use bullets to showcase your achievements. In addition, consider using a typestyle
other than Times Roman, which is the most widely used of all fonts. Arial, Tahoma,
Verdana, Garamond, or any one of a number of other typestyles are clean and crisp,
yet they give your resume a unique appeal. These visual factors are important for
you to consider when preparing your resume. Not only must your resume contain solid
content that clearly communicates your value to a prospective employer but the visual
presentation must be sharp, professional, and easy to read.
Create three resume versions.
Every savvy job seeker knows that in today’s world of electronic job searching, you
must have three distinct versions of your resume—a Microsoft Word version, an ASCII
text version, and a scannable, or printout, version. You’ll use the Microsoft Word
version whenever you’re submitting your resume via snail mail or as an attachment
to an email message. You’ll use the ASCII text version when completing online applications
or when you know the company will not open a Microsoft Word attachment. And finally,
you’ll use the scannable version when employers request one, which they will scan
into a resume database.
Proofread, proofread, and then proofread again.
When you submit a resume with errors, you’ve almost certainly eliminated yourself
from consideration. Before prospective employers ever meet you, they meet a “piece
of paper” (or electronic file), and that piece of paper demonstrates the quality of
work that you can produce. If you want someone to extend to you an offer for an interview
and then a job, you had better be sure that your resume is 100 percent accurate and
indicative of the quality of work you will perform for that company.
Use your resume wisely.
Your resume can be a valuable tool throughout your job search. We all know that you
need to have a resume to generate job interviews. That’s a given. But also consider
these other uses for your resume: (1) as a tool for networking and contact development;
(2) as a tool to guide your interviews; and (3) as supporting information to help
you negotiate a strong compensation package. Then be sure to update your resume once
you’ve landed a new job. You never know when that next great opportunity might appear,
and you always want to be prepared with a current resume on hand.
