Haven’t written your resume yet? Or is the resume you’ve written not getting you the results that you want? It’s understandable – writing a resume is difficult for everyone, and if you’re a veteran it’s likely that you haven’t needed a resume for the civilian job market for a while, if ever.
The resume is one of the most important components of a successful job hunt. Veterans face particular challenges in ensuring that the person reading the resume fully understands their history and skills, even if they don’t have military experience to draw on.
Here are three things that veterans should keep in mind when making out their resumes.
- The clearest and most effective way to make sure a potential employer understands a position you held is to indicate three duties associated with that position. Choose a diverse assortment of the most important tasks you had to make sure the person reading the resume is able to see the picture.
- Remember that it’s okay – and recommended – to boast of your accomplishments. That’s the point. Just be sure that you communicate these accomplishments in a way that a hiring manager can understand. (And don’t be afraid to cherry pick your accomplishments and to highlight the ones relevant to the job you want.)
- Remember to indicate your sub-specialties and, again, be sure that hiring managers understand what these specialties entailed. You don’t have to go into too much detail – when you land an interview, they’ll be sure to ask more questions. But this can help to show them just how rounded and developed your particular skill set really is.