Hazel Herber ⋅ WebProWriters ⋅ 8 years experience

This I never knew until I wrote an article about why 75% of resumes never even get seen by the human eye. These big companies have Application Tracker Systems (ATS) wherein a software scans resumes and is not always successful in reading the resumes. Sometimes it is the format, the layout, even the fonts! When the ATS cannot read a resume properly, the resume gets discarded. I hope this guides you. Good luck!

https://www.blog.resumedone.co/ats-resumes-9-dos-donts/

Grant Lewis ⋅ Virginia Beach, VA U.S. Navy, Lieutenant Commander ⋅ 20 years served

First, a reality check. A good resume will get you in the door but if you can't spell or use reasonable grammar, you won't make it through the application and interview process. You can improve your spelling and grammar in a reasonably short time. Good luck.

Charles Arvin ⋅ Poughkeepsie, NY IBM ⋅ 27 years experience

Resume writing is initially difficult for civilians as well. The key to resume writing is to look at several. It will give you an idea of what is available. You especially want to look at resumes for which position you are interested.

Even after doing this, you have to learn the civilian business language.

This is where civilians have the leg up. All of their school, jobs, previous work used the civilian language. The key is to learn how to to translate.

Here is a good article related to translating military positions / responsibilities into civilian terms. Once you translate military language into civilian language, you can write your own resume.

https://news.clearancejobs.com/2010/05/10/common-military-to-civilian-translations/

There are many links in the article.

One link takes you to to resume examples / templates.

https://news.clearancejobs.com/military-resume-templates/

Best Regards

Dan Dolphin ⋅ Willow Spring, NC IBM ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi Rauf,

There are many books that offer help on writing resumes however, there are some specific books authored by Carl S. Savino and Ronald L. Krannich that are tailored specifically for Military personnel needing help creating a resume that is consumable by the civilian world. I used one of their books (From Navy Blue to Corporate Grey) to help write my resume when I transitioned. That book is now a bit dated but those authors have published more recent books. You can find them on Amazon by searching for the author's names. I hope that helps you. It helped me.

Karen Frank ⋅ New Canaan, CT IBM ⋅ 15 years experience

Hi Rauf,

When thinking about a resume, people often try to replicate and translate in writing what they did (i.e., the activities) of their last job. I'd encourage you to think about transferable skills. Particularly as you're thinking of moving into a different type of job. For example, my first job right out of college was as a corporate event planner. It has zero to do with what I do today -- I was organizing events, handling high volumes of RSVPs, choosing font on invitations, menu selection, etc. Now, I'm advising senior leaders on what the people impact is on any changes/transformations they want to make to the organization and figuring out a way to change people's habits/behaviors. That all said, I take some of the skills that I've learned from my event planning days and apply them to the work I do today -- need for strong project management skills, attention to detail, thinking about a person's experience end-to-end, etc. It's those things that you want to call attention to when writing your resume, so that recruiters can easily translate your skill for fit to the job. Good luck and hope this helps!

Ashutosh Mehta ⋅ Edison, NJ ⋅ 16 years experience

Hi Rauf,

Thank you for your services! Happy Veterans day.

You already have good directions. My 2 cents will be to have good content as Laura Zoerner suggested. That you can get from many online resume building sites. I would suggest checking https://resumegenius.com/ where they can give you full sentences based on you keyword entry. You can use their formats as well content.

Another tip I would suggest is to check for job profile which you are targeting. e.g. If you are targeting a career in IT, try finding openings on job sites like indeed.com. If you are targeting a career in field of Finance, try finding opening for financial analyst or etc. You will see that employers are looking for and if it matches your skills & experience, you can use resume building sites to update your profile with full sentences or good content.

Also, update your LinkedIn profile.

Good luck!

Regards,

Ashutosh Mehta

Joy Bloomquist ⋅ Elkridge, MD CACI ⋅ 15 years experience

HI!!! Word of caution- do not pay for a resume. Looks like you have lots of folks willing to help you for free! B/R- Joy Bloomquist

Jeff Martin ⋅ Ashburn, VA The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ⋅ 25 years experience

I’d suggest that you network at the target company or industry. Use LinkedIn to find people already working there and reach out to them. Ask them the process they used to get hired and ask them to help you navigate the hiring process and if they are willing, ask them to submit you as a referral. These activities require much more time on your part but in my opinion would greatly increase your chances for success. Good luck!

Laura Zoerner ⋅ Littleton, CO W.L. Gore & Associates ⋅ 20 years experience

Good morning!! One of the hardest things to do when writing a resume is to get the CONTENT for your resume. The second is to get that content into LANGUAGE that is less military and more common.

To help with this, I’d recommend that you have “mock” interviews with different people. Give them categories that they can ask you questions about and have them take notes about what you said. Then, discuss their notes together and refine or revise to clarify any points. Use those notes to create the content in your resume.

Some areas for the interviews might be:
* tell me what you do in regular day at work
* what do you like about your work
* what was something that was hard but very rewarding
* what tasks or skills do you not like.

I’d be very happy to help anytime!!

James Vickery ⋅ Ogden, UT Northrop Grumman ⋅ 33 years experience

Rauf -

One way to build a resume is to have a 'master' or 'base' resume with everything you have done, with many details and data on every job. This could be quite long, depending on your job experience, education and background. This is main resume should be updated every few months with more details on dollars saved, projects worked, increases in profits and decrease in spending.

When it comes to applying for jobs, use your base resume to build a tailored two-page resume for the job you are after. Using the job requisition, use the specific duties and responsibilities you would be expected to do as a search tool in your base resume. Find those key words and fine tune your resume to the job you are applying for.

As a veteran one of the hardest parts of writing your resume is taking out all the jargon, acronyms and military-speak and making it sound like 'plain language' for anyone to understand. Changing terminology from 'squad leader' to 'small team leader' helps even old military guys like myself understand what you did. For those hiring authorities without a military background, this is even more important.

John Volpe ⋅ Seaford, NY Robbins-Gioia ⋅ 18 years experience

Rauf:

I see that you’ve received some excellent offers of assistance with your resume writing . I’d also like to suggest that you do a search for an on-line course in English grammar. I noticed there were several free or inexpensive ones that sounded helpful. And just so you’re aware, we all struggle with the finer points of English grammar so stay with it!

Good luck

John

John Volpe ⋅ Seaford, NY Robbins-Gioia ⋅ 18 years experience

Rauf:

I see that you’ve received some excellent offers of assistance with your resume writing . I’d also like to suggest that you do a search for an on-line course in English grammar. I noticed there were several free or inexpensive ones that sounded helpful. And just so you’re aware, we all struggle with the finer points of English grammar so stay with it!

Good luck

John

Jim Schreier ⋅ Milwaukee, WI 212 Leadership/Career Coaching ⋅ 50 years experience

Happy to help with both resume and cover letters. You can also find some very specific advice at 212-careers.com

Lex Levin ⋅ Northborough, MA Lex Levin, LLC ⋅ 13 years experience

Raul,

Happy to help you. I'm a full-time professional resume writer and a former Fed specializing for the last 11 years in working with Active Duty and Reserve Service Members, Veterans, and Military Spouses transitioning to Federal or private sector work.

I don't use templates and do all the work myself.

You can best get in touch with me through my website contact page: https://lexlevinllc.com/contact/. Just answer a few questions, upload your resume, and I'll review and advise.

Lex

Matthew Anzalone ⋅ Melbourne, FL Northrop Grumman ⋅ 1 years experience

I would love to take a look at your resume but understand the way application processes works now puts you at a disadvantage for applying to jobs and makes it difficult to be seen. I recommend tailoring each of your resumes for the particular job your are applying to I will list some websites to use that can make it a lot easier.

www.jobscan.co
Is a website that takes the listed job disruption and applies it to both your resume and which algorithm the company uses on their job posting and tells you key words or areas to focus on to give you a greater chance of being noticed. 80% or higher on your resume for the job is the goal.

https://resumenow.net/resume-writing-service.html
From my experience this is the best resume building website this is what I used when searching. I use it even today if I need a way to explain something I have done in an impressive way. It provides both resume and cover letter assists along with a review service.

If you have any questions on anything please reach out.

Preston Webb ⋅ Madison, AL Still Serving Veterans ⋅ 1 years experience

Hi Rauf,

I'd be happy to take a look at your resume! I work for a non profit organization called Still Serving Veterans and resume review is one of the services that we provide. All for free! You can look up more about us at ssv.org but in the meantime, please feel free to shoot me resume. You can send it to pwebb@ssv.org.

Christine Kuffel ⋅ Westchester, IL Harper College Library ⋅ 10 years experience

Rauf, Thank you for your service.
A few tips:
Tailor the resume and cover letter for the specific job to which you are applying (make sure to use keywords named in the job posting).
Make sure someone proofreads your letter and resume.
A lot of community colleges have career resources departments who can help with the letter/resume for free or a small fee.
Highlight the other languages you speak.

Rauf Safarov ⋅ Fayetteville, NC U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 4 years served

Thank you very much each one of you for nice tips and comments.
I have built my resume, I ask for professional review. Thank you

Rauf Safarov ⋅ Fayetteville, NC U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 4 years served

Thank you Preston and Mattew for answer.
I will try all these you mention in your text.

Preston, I already sent the my resume to your address.