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Resume Format and Writing

Veteran

Franklin Rossetti Arlington, VA

Good Afternoon, I am looking for some assistance with my resume format and some of the creative writing within. I have been in the Army for nine years as a Military Police Officer and I am looking to transition over to Amazon doing incident response and management. Is there anyone here who can help me out?

-Franklin

5 November 2021 4 replies Resumes & Cover Letters

Answers

Advisor

James Vickery Ogden, UT

Franklin,

Thank you for your service and good luck with your transition to veteran status and civilian life. Writing a resume to 'de-mil' the language was challenging and took many iterations on my part, along with several reviews from trusted colleagues, both in the service and industry, to finally get it right. One big hurdle is to write a resume to focus on key words to get through the automated filters at Amazon get to an HR recruiter.

You have valuable experience you can capitalize on in your resume. While you cannot show how you made money for the government while in the service (that is illegal and a potential employer will see through statements to that effect) you can still show a return on investment in time, training and resources.

I have a resume template, used successfully with two people (a third is pending) to net job offers if you are interested. This helps refine what we did in the service and translate that into 'civilian speak'. This is still challenging to add descriptors that explain how and what we did (especially if there were any classified elements to our work), but it is very doable.

Part of this effort is designed around building a master resume with great detail, then using that document to tailor a focused resume to each job requisition you are interested in applying for. I am happy to review and share this data with you if you desire; send me a message and we can set up a time to discuss.

Advisor

Scott Forbes Saint Johns, FL

Try reaching out to Hire Heroes USA (HHUSA) and Still Serving Veterans. They both provide a resume service in which you will just have to provide your OER's/NCOER's and give them a little info. They will produce a general resume for you. From those build something 1-2 pages that you feel good about.

Advisor

Venkat Narayanan San Jose, CA

Hi Franklin,

First, thank you for your service. Here is a website that will give you ideas on how to format your resume (i.e. the layout). An eye-catching layout will make your resume inviting and easy to read.

https://resume.io/resume-templates

The content requires some creative writing. Since resume scanning is automated, you should use words that are common in the line of work that you are seeking to transition to. You could read the profiles of similar candidates on LinkedIn to get keywords or you could harvest keywords from the job description. A useful test is to take a step back and ask yourself, "Would you hire yourself based on this resume?"

This could be an opportunity to network! You could ask if a person (may need cold calling) already in that line of work would do you a favor by reviewing your resume.

Best wishes,

Venkat.

Advisor

Jim Schreier Milwaukee, WI

Happy to help with your resume -- plus a lot of specific advice with some articles I've posted on this site plus more specific veteran-related advice on 212-careers.com Send your current info to me via this site or info@212-careers.com.

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