I was recently discharged from the U.S. Army after 14 years as 88N. I have done many things in the Army as transportation coordinator & scout... just wanted some feedback on my resume its 5 pages which i was told was o.k but i don't fell comfortable. resume sounds repetitious but that is what i was told to put.
Answers
Enrique
Thank you for your service.
Kimberly covered alot in her answer. I will add just a few thoughts.
Make your resume to fit the job that you are applying for.
Where applicable- make your bullet statements P-A-R (Problem- Action- Result). I am willing to bet that there was a few days that you had to think quick to resolve something. Tell your employers what happened, what you did, and what the results were. If you can somehow quantify it(how much did you save? did you increase effeciency somehow?)
Always read your own resume and put yourself in a potential employer's shoes. Read the resume with cold eyes. After each bullet, think about this.. Does it tell them something about you and what you can do for their company?
I thought my own resume's were stellar, and then I followed the above advice. I found myself saying "so what" to my own bullets that I thought were so grand. I was rehashing what my military responsibilities were and was not telling employers what I could bring to their company.
Good luck
Enrique,
I have seen many different resume styles and I don't think there is an actual RIGHT way or WRONG way for it to look. You can use any "blueprint" that appeals to you. You can google resumes or even, if you are doing your resume in MS Word or another application, you can use their templates. There are a few key points that I would recommend you keep in mind as you build your resume.
1) Keep to only one page as much as possible
2) Use terminology that someone who wasn't in the military can understand
3) When you are listing your "skills" use action words, for example:
-Toured visiting soldiers
(makes it more effective than:) I took visiting soldiers on tours around Fort Stewart.
4) List your most current positions first, then list prior positions held in chronological order, making sure that the dates are listed. When you put the two jobs you held, they wil have coinciding dates which should prompt your interviewer to ask about that and give you the opportunity to elaborate.
5) Also list your strengths and be able to give examples of how you used those strengths in your previous positions to accomplish your goals.
6) You don't have to list your ENTIRE history on a resume, just the ones that are applicable to the position you are applying for, or the most recent ones. If you have everything down to your part-time job in High School, interviewers get more than your skills applicable to the job you are applying for. Interviewers are looking for gaps in employment history (e.g. they will ask you why no job was listed for the two years since you worked for Fred's appliances). They are also looking for professional skills that you would have learned in the positions you held.
Best wishes to you as your put together your resume and I hope that these tips help. You are welcome to contact me if I can be of further help. Thank you for your service to our country!
Kimberly Nichols
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