It is evident that there are companies out there who are all about hiring Veterans/transitioning service men and women, but how can we make sure our resume gets reviewed and we're considered for employment?
Answers
Hi Erik,
I'm a veteran and a hiring manager at a large aerospace and defense company and so I've been on both sides of the desk.
My advice is: Make it easy to hire you. It's a pain, but tailor each one of your resumes and cover letters to the job that you're apply for. Address the required skills, education, experience etc., in your resume. Don't make me guess what relates to what? I've had over 200 applicants to one of the requisitions I opened. I looked at all of them, but quickly moved on from resumes that contained schools, training, experience and acronyms that didn't relate to the job posting. Make my life easier, make it a no brainer because I have 199 more resumes to review.
Good luck!
To answer that question of how to ensure your resume gets looked at, there is absolutely no sure way and actually, it is quite unlikely in mass mailings or even in carefully directed mailings. I urge everyone to carefully read "what color is my parachute" available at your library. it has the most relevant information on job searches.
Attending or best, participating in a local or international meeting in the field you are seeking employment allows that a job seeker to personally approach a hiring authority directly without the usual gatekeeper secretary screening incoming phone calls and when the hiring authority does not have a zillion meetings and appointments. Second best is, after digging carefully through a target companies information on key employees, to call directly to the person you think could offer you a job. Call early or late when those gatekeepers are not there. Be persistent until you get through and just request a brief meeting when you can make a carefully prepared presentation of how you can help the hiring authority achieve his goals. Try befriending employees in the department of the targeted company to gain insights into their organisation, needs, personalities and problems. the more you know, the better your chances.
Robert S Joslin, PhD former director of pharmaceutical research in 3 major companies and then a headhunter for 27 years 40 years of Naval reserves time.
Thank you for your service. My advice is to make your resume stand out from others. Have a solid, but not too wordy summary statement at the top and highlight your skills that directly apply to the position you're applying for. Don't use a template cover letter, write a short but concise cover letter for each position and specifically address how you are a good fit for the company. Hope this helps and again, I am grateful for your and so many others sacrifices.
Blessings,
Rus Cordova
flobot32@gmail.com
Hi, Erik.
Your question is deeply-significant not only for you, but probably for almost everyone seeking employment. It should be "pinned" at the top of the ACP site. So here's my input:
Ensure that your resume is in proper English. Your question on this site ends with a preposition ("at"), and that indicates that your English is not yet at the professional level. While taking more English classes could be a solution, I'm guessing that you don't feel that you have time to do this. So I have a partial solution that should work for you: Have someone with flawless English skills edit your resume for small errors like this. A more polished resume stands out easily over one with obvious errors.
Good luck with everything.
. . . Dr. Steve Sachs
Professor Emeritus
Use your linkedin investigative skills and try to find the hiring manager in a professional manor. Reach them direct and do one of two things: let them know your resume and cover posted on their corp site and request if you can send it direct to their mail. Lastly, a special touch is get your resume in postal mail with hand written note.
Eric,
Many people have all ready mentioned networking, my advice is to do a little research. Google the companies that you are interested in and see if they have a veterans association. It's a quick way to find a real live person to talk with that has shared experiences that can identify with your situation.
I always suggest asking someone who is NOT very knowledgable about your chosen field to review your resume. They will pick up on jargon used that may be unclear and may have questions to ask that others in your field would overlook. (Example - I am a psychotherapist and in the past when I did agency work, I asked my accountant/computer geek brother to review my resume. He noticed interesting things !!) You may also want to consider, in addition to a resume and cover letter, to prepare a single page of "special skills" or what you bring to the table that separates you from the rest of the crowd. I did this for a few jobs many years ago and was told that I was the only candidate who ever took the time to do this - it made it easier for the interviewer to zero in on my skills. Best of luck to you !! Corinne Kalat, Westchester, Illinois
Eric: Many thanks for your service.
I agree with most of the answers already posted, but want to reiterate and reinforce the importance and necessity of networking. First, be certain your resume is spot on. It must be grammatically perfect and must answer all the necessary questions. Have a few different people help you edit it. It's always good to get a new set of eyes on the resume. They will see it differently than you. Next, try to find out if there is anyone in the company you already know of who might be in some way connected to someone you know. There is nothing wrong with manufacturing a connection through networking.
Join Linked In and use it to research people already employed in the company to will be applying to.
You should be proud of your service and proud to talk about it to a prospective employer. Veterans have training that civilians have never received. We know the meaning of commitment, know how to follow up and follow through. Finding a new job in a new career is difficult work. It's currently your "job". You must work at it every day to achieve success. And never forget what you learned as a Marine, "The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer" SEMPER FI!!!
Find out who the real decision maker is and send your resume Fedex to that person. Another option is to find a company that is interested in hiring veterans. One company in the Financial Services space is Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. They are interested. Jim Meehan one of their top managers was on TV last week speaking about their efforts. Send an email to Jim at
Meehan, James <jmeehan@1847financial.com>. He is an ex Naval officer. He will get it into the right persons hands.
After you have submitted your cover letter and resume, wait about a week to 10 days. Then follow up with a phone call or email checking on the status of your application file. If you are lucky enough to talk to a secretary/administrative assistant, tell them your name, the position that you have applied for, and tell them that you are still very interested in the position that they have posted. Ask the secretary for a timeline for hiring, and then reiterate your desire for the HR person to know that you are still very interested in the position.
Good Luck!
Hello Erik! Hope your job search is going well. These responses are all very good. However, as a veteran that has recently transitioned within the last two years, I can at least give you a few pointers that I have found out. It has taken me a few different job changes to finally find what I have been wanting. I went from private to contractor to federal back to private; from financial service into the world of IT (which was my overall goal). As for resumes, every single resume I submitted that I was hired off of did not contain a coverletter. Make sure your resume contains many of the key words that they are looking for and contains the minimum number of years of experience. Make sure that you keep it to one page and only include items on your resume that pertain to the job posting, leadership, teamwork, or times of exemplary performance. Also, remove the military jargon. If you have any questions or anything, please feel free to send me a message!
Thank you for your service Sergeant Schlacter. I agree with the responses, and would add that it's important to talk about the company instead of only talking about yourself. I see this mistake on cover letters and in interviews. Companies want to know that you understand their work, you are excited about it, and that you're a fit for their culture. Good luck!!
Hi Erik,
I would also consider looking for a career services agency near you that works with veterans and employment. My company is partnered with an agency that sends us resumes of veterans free of charge for us to consider for employment. It's a great way to get your resume in front of a company that is serious about hiring veterans.
My other suggestion is that in this day and age of job seeking, employers get hundreds of resumes for each position. Time is of the essence, so pick a certain time each day to do your job searching and stick to it. We immediately start reviewing resumes, and the first ones applied to the job in the first few days that it is posted are the first ones reviewed. Set up saved searches on some job websites and try to apply to positions you are interested in as soon as you can.
Best of luck!
Hi Erik,
You are getting all good suggestions. While there are many articles on the topic, I would suggest few points which you may already know:
- Use the language of job description i.e. if requirement is for supervisor in late shift (night hours), you may want to mention something stands out as your interest in working late shift hours
- Use company language - i.e. If Microsoft is hiring, you may want to research on Microsoft's motive/focus in current year at that location. i.e. People First or Buy Local etc.
Also, it is important to get your resume visible in career sites like Monster. Every site has their own filters criteria and you should know it and use it for getting yourself picked up by recruiter. e.g. If you update your resume in Monster just before 10 PM ET and just before 7 AM ET, it will get picked up by Monster's 'robots' to be in top of the list for recruiter.
The only answer I can agree with is Jim's - Don't get rejected with common resume errors. The question is how can you guarantee a resume gets seen by a company claiming to market that they hire vets. Yes they hire vets who are at least equally qualified for a position, this an end of the line decision not part of the screening process. The only suggestion I can make is to call and ask them who handles their veteran community relationships and ask the question how they select veterans for consideration and see if there is a path to follow.
My answer is cynical and yes everything else written here is great advice but has nothing to do with the person who thinks they can apply for a job and be considered because they are a veteran. I work with a lots of people in transition (veterans and not) and there is no way to make sure you are seen in the application process but you can take steps to not be screened out. So after my rant, follow the advice of the networker and get introduced to someone who really does care about hiring a vet and giving them a well deserved chance.
Sergeant Schlacter,
First of all, thank you so much for your service. Here are my experiences as part of the decision making and hiring group.
I personally don't take networking into consideration when interviewing for a position. I like the slate to be clean and free of bias, so the playing field is even for all applicants. I do judge heavily on your resume accuracy, that your skills align (almost word for word with the job description if not better), and that there are no errors, grammar and spelling. Then, I also judge heavily on how well you answer questions and how you sound in the interview. We do want to know that your personality will mesh well with our group. So just a few thoughts for you to dwell on.
Sergeant Schlacter, thank you for your service. One way i to get a free basic website in your name www.ErikSchlacter.com and post your profile, CV and bio there. An easier way is to join www.LinkedIn.com and post your details as well and invite your colleagues (in and out of the service) to join your network. The U.S. Marine Corps is big here in North Carolina and there are lots of companies like mine (www.ProSidian.com) that have signed the "I Hire Military" Pledge. Loo into that organization and others like the Defense Leadership Forum (www.defenseleadershipforum.org). Basically, you have to start networking my man. and although you are part of the proud - the few - the Brave, don't be afraid to tout your service and your skills as well as your interests. look for opportunities that are not only directly related but also tangential to your MOS. Good luck and thank you for your service.
I agree with all the answers on the importance of networking -- it's critical. But you also have to try and do everything you can to make sure your resume isn't quickly -- almost immediately -- rejected because of errors or "too much information" or it's just a standard resume with dates, lists of boring duties, lots of skills, etc. Your resume MUST focus on accomplishments. For veterans, I've also noted some common errors like the "too much information" noted above. You can check a couple of different articles I've written for this site that talk about this. I'm also more than willing to review your resume for you and help you revise it to be stronger.
It depends on the job you are looking for and in the industry you are looking for. I have a lot of career counseling background, feel free to reach out to me directly if you'd like a bit of one on one advice (I also work for one of the most well-known, military-friendly (where we HIGHLY value applicants with service) companies in the country. :)
Good luck and thanks for your service!
Erik -
I agree that networking is the best way to jump to the top of the pile, another thing to consider is that hiring managers often use either software or quick scans to sort large volumes of candidates by skills and keywords. If you're applying to large companies, especially if you're applying through a portal / online, make sure you match your experience to the skills in the job description using the same skills keywords. For instance, if your resume or letter talks about leadership or technical skills, but the job description talks about 'leading teams' or names the skills differently, adjust your language to match theirs. Getting picked up in the initial sort allows you to show that you're qualified and that you understand how to translate your experience to what they're seeking.
Good luck!
Sara
I wouldn't forget about the military specific hiring fairs where companies, on site, are taking resumes and often doing "spot interviews." There are a variety of ways to research where the job fairs are, to include through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "Hiring our Heroes." You might also explore companies which have military specific recruiting teams and dedicated websites for military members seeking civilian employment such as Capital One.
Good luck!
My answer is a bit more simple. Resumes that are noticed, get read.
Put a nice picture of an American Flag on the cover letter and send in a 9 x 12 envelop
If emailing, then the flag is even easier.
I completely agree with Bill here. Network your way in. LinkedIn is an incredible resource to establish contacts from within the company. Start by connecting with that individual, as well as others, comment on their posts and establish some sort of a dialogue/rapport before jumping right in and asking about the position. Make sure you pump up your profile as well before going in, as your LinkedIn says a lot about your background.
Take some time to learn about the company as well. Employers will see you taking the initiative to know something about them as a sign that you are truly interested in them as a company and a career option, not just a job.
Good luck to you!
This has become a huge black hole IMHO...hiring managers get inundated with so many resumes- making it very hard to stand out.
To increase your chances of being noticed, I would find out who the hiring manager is, and reach out to them on LinkedIN. Let them know you are interested in their position, and establish a dialogue that should help you to stand out.
Good luck, and thanks for your service!
Thank you all for your thoughtful answers, I truly appreciate it!
Semper Fi,
Sergeant Schlacter
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