Deb Miller ⋅ Bardstown, KY US Postal Service ⋅ 16 years experience

So many awesome responses, please allow me this quick one...go to www.usajobs.gov - they post new jobs every week - often in the Evansville, IN area. Could be a good start while you search for your preferred job or could turn out to be the job of your life. I agree with the idea provided for UPS, don't forget the other logistic companies out there, USPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. Also, I was in logistics in the Army, I have found Marketing of all things to be an excellent transition from logistics. So much of what you did in logistics you will find in Marketing. Just a thought. LinkedIn is an awesome way to network, too.

Steve Enck ⋅ Clinton, IA Bodine Services of Clinton ⋅ 10 years experience

My company has job openings in that area. If interested look at bodineservices.com

Chris Caldwell ⋅ Louisville, KY Broadway Baptist Church, Louisville ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi Manny,

I'm a pastor in Louisville, but we have a couple of people in our church with ties to Evansville. I'll send your question to them and then post back if they have any leads for you. You might check with UPS in Louisville. I know that's a couple hours away, but might be worth checking.

Chris

k H ⋅ Cleveland, OH Clev ⋅ 30 years experience

Since you are narrowly focused, geographically, I strongly suggest joining Linked-In. Do a search in Linked-In for people you know and soon you will be making contacts and through the 'ol six degrees of separation, opportunities may arise for you. Good Luck!!

Barbara Stern ⋅ Boulder, CO Affordable Closets,llc ⋅ 35 years experience

My first step would be to ask yourself what type of company would you like to work for? Design the employer first and then since you know where you want to locate, check out the local Chamber of Commerce and see what companies are members. From reviewing the mebership you can start calling the chosen companies and see who the HR person is and make an informational interview appointment with these people. You will be creating a network of people who may be able to provide you with referrals to positions in the area where you could add your skills. Often times by asking a business owner/HR person to coffee, helps them get out of the office and gets you in front of them. Develop a questionaire that you can use in these conversations that highlights your skills and the kind of position you are seeking. You will be doing market research and this will add to what you can offer to a future employer.
Best of Luck!

Matt Garley ⋅ Elm Grove, WI NextHire Recruiting ⋅ 30 years experience

Manny...

Good move in getting a jump-start on preparing yourself for your future civilian career.

There are many ways to go about this, but in this message I would like to provide guidance in terms of when you are connecting with potential employers, how to make the very best professional presentation in terms of providing high-value reasons they should hire you.

The corporate hiring process is highly dysfunctional, with employers complaining they can't find good people to fill their positions--and at the same time well-qualified people are complaining they can't get any type of response back from employers when they apply for jobs.

Part of the problem, and employers' top complaint about job seekers, is that resumes "lack focus". What is really meant by that: The resumes lack focus relative to the employer's job- specific needs.

Your future resume could be a potential poster child in this regard: You are indicating you have functional experience in "asset accountability", "warehousing", "procuring", and "fiscal concepts". And it is likely you would prepare a resume that would tout all four of those areas equally to be submitted to positions seeking expertise primarily in one of those areas.

By preparing a single resume, and submitting it for all four of those functional areas, you are:

- Relying on the employer to connect the dots in finding the things on the resume that are directly relevant to meeting the employer's needs.

- Providing a lot of information that has absolutely nothing to do with their needs-- essentially saying "look at all the things that I've done/would like to do, that have absolutely nothing to do with what your (the employer's)needs are".

- In essence sending a resume that contains 25-35% directly-relevant information and 65-75% non-relevant information. A highly effective resume the vast majority of information would be highly relevant and directly relating to the employer/job need and requirements.

To avoid that, look at your four functional areas of experience and stack rank them in terms of which you feel would be your greatest strengths, as well as what you would most-like to be doing for the next 3 to 5 years.

To help you in this endeavor, use www.indeed.com to search for jobs using search terms such as "asset management" "warehouse management" "procurement" "supply chain" "buyer" "sourcing". Not sure exactly what you mean by "fiscal concepts" but if it is simply concepts vs. experience/expertise, move that to a minor area vs. major area.

Indeed.com is the world's largest resource for searching for jobs--it's free, doesn't require any type of membership or login, and is very simple/easy to use.

When finding jobs that appear to be a good match for your skills, knowledge, experience and expertise, copy and save them to a file to be used as guides in preparing your future resume.

To be most successful in your job search you must view it from an employer's perspective and imagining they for any position you apply for they asked the singular question: "Why should I hire you?".

Translation: "Why should I hire Manny Garcia to help my organization meet its business objectives, instead of Michael Smith, or Linda Hernandez, or other qualified candidates that have applied for the job?"

The resume that will most effectively answer that question, is one that focuses almost entirely on the particular needs and requirements of the particular position that the employer is trying to fill.

The ideal resume will be one that largely reads like the job described in the job posting; focused on what the employer wants and need--not everything that Manny Garcia has done over the past 10 years.

A good litmus test for you in terms of what should be on the resume is imagine the employer/hiring manager reading your resume and for each item on it asking you:

- "So what?"
- "What difference does that make?"
- "why should I care about that?"
- "Why is that important to me in meeting the requirement of the job you applied to?"

If you were unable to provide a good response to the employer for each item on your resume for any of those those questions, there is a good chance that the item provides absolutely no value on the resume.

Using the position's actual job description/job posting as a guide, you are able to best determine what is important to each employer/job that you are applying to and focus on articulating your knowledge, skills, experience, expertise (value to employer) in those areas.

Ideally you will craft a separate resume for each of your core functional competencies to be used when applying to each of those job types, and in doing so you will gain a significant competitive advantage in the job search and in achieving your career objectives.

I know this must seem like a lot of work but the resume will be the most important document of your career moving forward and will play a significant role on your being able to achieve your professional goals in your upcoming job search and for the rest of your life.

NOTE: In providing the book recommendation below, I have absolutely no personal, professional, business, or other affiliation with its author, Amazon, related third party, or any associated business entity.

A good, inexpensive and very-effective guide for preparing a focused resume is "Top Notch Executive Resumes: Creating Flawless Resumes for Managers, Executives, and CEOs" for $15 on Amazon.

As the title states--it's written towards management/executive roles; but all of the approaches, concepts, and tools can and should be applied to your situation.

Also--reading/digesting it will provide you with invaluable insights in helping you understand and close the mindset gap between a decade of USMC thinking and the corporate business world mindset that you are now seeking to become a part of.

An invaluable practice that you will discover in the book is the importance of demonstrating your value to potential employers in terms of your job-related accomplishments, successes, achievements and results (YOUR VALUE to the organization) vs. activities, duties, responsibilities and tasks (simply a job description).

This will distinguish your resume, and your value, from most other resumes, which rarely include such job related accomplishments, successes, achievements and results.

"Activities", "duties", "responsibilities" and "tasks" describe the job you were assigned to.

"Accomplishments", "successes", "achievements" and "results" describes how well you performed the job.

Additionally, it will go far in showing potential employers that you've got your head in the game in terms of what's important to THEM, and how you can help their company meet their business objectives--which is what hiring managers are most interested in.

Employer: "Why should I hire Manny Garcia?"
Manny Garcia: "Because I can help your company meet its business objectives."

With your resume and interviews demonstrating HOW you helped your previous employer meet their related/relevant critical unit objects.

In summary: I know this is a lot to take in-- but I wanted to give you a brief overview of how to prepare yourself to be successful in getting the job once you do identify the employment opportunities of greatest interest to you. The book I referenced above does a great job of laying down the background of why the things I have identified above are so important, and how they help can provide you with a substantial advantage in achieving success in your job search.

Hope this helps. Thank you for your service and good luck to you.

Matt Garley, Navy Vet 1977-81 FTM2
2015: Master Recruiter, Career Coach & Resume Writer