Five Tips to a Great Military Resume

When leaving the military, you may wonder how to include all your military experience in just one page of a resume. It can be done, but you will need to choose the most important parts of your career on your military resume. Below, you’ll find some tips to help you do just that in a format that will get you hired.

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Draft a Sample

Take a look at some of the samples online. You will be surprised at how many there are and many will provide a sample of the specific military resume you need. Pay attention to the formatting. Then start drafting a resume in the same format. You can add in as much information as you feel is relevant at first. Once you start typing it up, you will be able to cut out the information that may not fit as well as you initially thought.

Chronological or Functional

When choosing a format for your military resume, consider either a chronological or functional format. A chronological format lists your employment in a chronological order. Even if you were in the military, you can still use this format. Start with your initial enlistment and then progress through the promotions you earned. Include a section on any awards or medals you received.

A functional military resume focuses on your skills and experience. You can list the one employer, but then add in any training, awards, medals, or special deployments. This is a good choice if you are searching for a job in the same type of field as you had in the military.

Watch the Abbreviations

There is probably no one career in the military that doesn’t use a wide range of abbreviations in their everyday conversations. However, the civilian world isn’t always aware of what these abbreviations means. When creating your military resume, make sure you don’t use abbreviations that may be misinterpreted. Take the time to spell out the message you are trying to convey.

Don’t Be Too Humble

While you may feel like underplaying some of the really impressive things you accomplished while in the military, there’s no need to be too humble. Those medals and awards that you earned say a lot about the type of person you are. It’s okay to include them all in your resume, starting with the ones that are most difficult to receive.

Additional Tips

Many companies will give special consideration to veterans. You may be eligible for additional points on a skills test or some companies could even move your resume up higher on the list to interview. Take advantage of this, as it can help you land a job faster than some other might be able to.

A Final Thought

Writing an effective military resume isn’t as difficult as it might seem. There are many samples available online to help you get started. Make sure you proofread your resume carefully and if you feel it’s too long, have someone else look over it. They may be able to see some areas where you can get rid of some information, so it all fits on one page.

Why You Should be Submitting Your Resume to Job Boards

The Internet has become one of the best sources available to help people find jobs in today’s economy.  It has become easier than ever for employees to locate those companies who are hiring individuals for different positions and it is equally easy for companies to connect with potential employees all over the world.  This is why it is so important when you are composing your resume to help you find a job, to place your resume on job boards that help connect applicants with employers from all over the world.

Do Employers Actually Turn to Job Boards?

When a company is looking to fill a position, they would naturally want to find the best people available from a long list of applicants.  This means that they will want to bring in as many people as possible so that they can have the pick of the crop.  One of the easiest and cheapest ways for a company to do this is by turning to job boards.  There will be a large selection of employees available on one of these boards, which means that a company who is looking for new prospects has several options to choose from.

There is also an incentive for employers to turn to job boards when they are looking for new employees.  Electronic resumes are submitted to these job boards, which makes it easier for employers to find the candidates who stand out more than any of the others.  This will allow employers to run searches through the various resumes to find the people who have certain skill sets that are going to be valuable to the position being hired for.  That can make it much easier for any employer to find the best candidates without having to spend a great deal of time on the search.

Put Your Resume on the Right Boards

An additional advantage to using job boards is the fact that many of these boards are very industry specific.  This in itself can help you maximize your chances of picking up a suitable job as you can post your resume in a board that is best related specifically to your field of expertise.  That is going to ultimately help you get immediately noticed, as there will be limited resumes posted on the board and it could be that some of them are actually more suitable to another field.

You will want to be careful, however, that your electronic resume is perfectly crafted.  Even though employers may be running electronic searches on your resume, they will still be looking at the document as a whole at some point during the process.  You will want to make sure that all of your most important information stands out in a way that will get you noticed to an even higher degree.  The way that you write your resume can have one of the most direct effects on getting the job which you desire.  Taking the time to make sure that you write your resume correctly and submitting it to the right locations will increase your chances of getting hired.

CareerRush has resume examples available in several different formats. Even the resume builder allows you to download your resume in multiple formats.

Placing Your Contact Information on Your Resume

Contact Info on Resume Examples

The resume that you send out is going to work as the first impression that you make on any given person who is put in charge of making a hiring decision for a new company.  Therefore, you need to make sure that anyone who reads your resume will easily be able to get into contact with you if they are curious about learning more about your past.  Where you place your contact information on the resume is going to be vitally important, as you will want to make it accessible but still be professional within the range of the resume itself.

Top and Center is Recommended

Most people who are writing a resume will make sure that all of their necessary contact information is located at the top and center of the resume itself so that anyone reading it can easily find all of the necessary contact information.  While it may be acceptable to place this contact information toward the bottom of the resume itself, should that extra page somehow become detached, there will be no way for the reader to find you again.  Therefore, need to make sure that they know how to reach you very easily.

However, it is equally important that you do not break the format of the rest of the resume; you will still want to make sure that your resume looks clean and professional at all moments.  This means you should keep your contact information looking like the rest of the document itself.  One option would be using a different font to call attention to all of your contact details, although you will want to ensure that it still maintains a fully professional appearance.

Ensure Your Information is Correct

This may sound like an obvious suggestion, yet it is one of the most important tips that you are likely to receive.  There have been many people who have missed out on a job because their contact information was not listed correctly.  One single digit being off on a telephone number will not allow others to get in touch with you and a misplaced letter in an email address will cut off communication.  To avoid this, it is important to make sure that you double check all of your contact information before you submit any resume to an official employer.

It would be a good idea to have someone else help you check all of the details on your resume as well.  This can help you confirm that all of the information listed is correct, complete, and spelled correctly.  You will want to make your resume as perfect as it can possibly be which ultimately means that you are going to need to take all necessary steps to help the resume itself be a great representation of who you are as a professional individual.  While the contact information may seem like one of the smallest parts of the resume, it is also one of the most essential parts and its importance should not be underestimated when crafting your resume.

CareerRush offers many new resume examples that will help you create a professional looking resume. In addition to resume examples, you can use CareerRush’s Resume Builder absolutely free.

Placing Statistics and Amounts on Your Resume

Resume Examples

One thing that prospective employers like to see is resolute statistics that prove how valuable a certain applicant will be.  The entire point of a resume is to show those companies which you are applying for what you have accomplished in the past, where your talents and qualifications are, and why you should be hired for the new job.  One of the easiest ways to do this is through the correct placing of statistics and amounts on your resume, for these specific examples are going to give you a leg up toward standing out against the rest of the crowd.

What Do Statistics and Numbers Say?

The best part about statistics is that they give an absolute definition of a fact about your past.  When you place definite statistics on your resume, you are showing anyone who is reading your resume a fact that they can use toward accepting you as the best new employee that they could hire.  A statistic is a fact that is going to help you stand out above the rest of the crowd for it is a number that can be referenced later on, proving that you are not being subjective with your analysis of your qualifications.

Numbers are also an attractive thing for recruiters and business managers to have because it will give them an absolute figure that they can work with.  Instead of learning that you have experience with dealing in a certain field, they will be able to look at the overall volume of work that you have been able to produce, which in itself is not something that most applicants are able to provide.  Therefore, the more pertinent numbers that you can include as a part of your resume, the better a chance you will actually have toward standing out above the rest of the crowd.

How Do You Work Numbers and Statistics In?

You will always want to be careful about the way that you bring numbers and statistics into your resume, however.  If you do not handle the process well, it is going to appear as if you have not taken the time to craft a professional looking resume.  That may only serve to hurt you in the end.  Therefore, it is important that you should look into various methods that help you to introduce these vital numbers into your resume in a way that will get them noticed in a positive manner.

The closer to the top of your resume that you place all of your most important details; the more likely they are to be noticed by the right people.  This means that you should figure out what structure you are going to use that will allow you to use statistics relating to your personal past work experience.  You will also want to resolutely show what numbers are going to be the most impressive to those officials who are reading your resume itself.  The better that you are able to make yourself stand out using facts, the stronger of a contender you will be for any job.

Check out CareerRush’s free resume examples by industry and find the resume sample, which best suits your needs… OR Try our Free Resume Builder Wizard.