Military to Civilian Resume Sample

Make Your Resume Keyword Rich and Scanner Friendly

If you haven't looked for a job recently, there are new tactics that hiring professionals are using that you should be aware of before updating your resume.

Employers and recruiters increasingly rely on electronic resumes, resume posting boards and job banks to find job candidates. Resumes are either being scanned or input directly into keyword-searchable databases, and accessed when an employer inputs a keyword list of requirements that best describe the position they are seeking to fill.

The database searches for keywords describing job titles, responsibilities and descriptions, degree requirements, computer knowledge as well as personality traits. This software scans through thousands of resumes and identifies those that most closely match the imputed keywords. The more keywords or "hits" the software finds in a resume, the more likely it will be read by a HR professional. Keywords are the most important element of a scannable resume.

What exactly are keywords? Keywords are nouns or noun phrases that identify skills unique to a specific profession or industry. Although active verbs have long been essential for building a successful resume, now the noun or noun phrase that follows an active verb is equally important. For example:

- Self-motivated IT manager with a strong work ethic and problem solving abilities

- Talented Graphic Designer of 4-color direct mail catalogs and corporate web site design

- Accomplished in Microsoft Office software applications, Excel, Word and PowerPoint

- Nominated by the New York Times for the Pulitzer Prize in news photography

Keyword nouns are the experience and skills that are specific terminology used in your job and are still relevant to your job search. Other sources for identifying keywords are job descriptions, job titles, software requirements, educational degrees, college names, company names, professional organizations, awards you've won and personality traits. Words that are repeatedly used in trade journals and classified ads in association with the job title you are seeking are also keywords.

Whatever your final word choices are, your keywords should accurately describe your skills, talents, and experience. As a word only needs to be used once for it to be considered a "hit" in a keyword search, use synonyms wherever possible to broaden your number of hits.

The Summary area of your resume should consist of several short statements that highlight your most important qualities, achievements and abilities. By tailoring every word in the "Summary" to your targeted goal, you can make this area keyword rich.

The most common ingredients of a well-written Summary are listed below; use what best describe you:

- a sentence describing your profession

- followed by a comment stating your level of expertise

- followed by two to three statements related to any of the following:

- unique mix of skills

- range of environments in which you have experience

- a special or well-documented professional accomplishment

- a history of awards, promotions, or superior performance commendations

- one or more professional or personal characteristics

- a sentence describing your professional objectives or interests

It's important to list only the skills you would feel comfortable using if you were to be tested. Should the position you are seeking require knowledge of software you don't know, consider taking lessons before listing it on your resume. If you've submitted your resume online to sites like monster.com or careerbuilder.com your resume has already been electronically imputed into their databases. But what happens if when it's scanned from a paper copy?

OCR software attempts to match characters scanned from your resume with standard letter shapes. This makes it imperative that your resume is formatted with a font that OCR can recognize, font choice the single most important factor in creating a scannable resume. Simple, conservative typefaces such as Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana and Courier are some of the best choices.

Other content and design guidelines are:

- keep it simple and conservative

- use high quality 8-1/2 x 11 inch, white or off-white paper, print on one side of the paper only

- format headings with either Bold text or ALL CAPITALS.

- use headings sparingly but consistently to support your information structure

- don't use italics - it skews characters and confuses OCR

- don't use underlined text - it confuses OCR

- use no more than two fonts in sizes between 10 and 12 points

- allow margins and line spacing (white space) to keep the document from looking crowded

- use horizontal lines to separate sections of your resume

- don't use vertical lines, graphics, shading or boxes

- your contact information with your name is printed at the top of each page

- a summary, where your best assets, whether education, experience, or skills are listed

- categories are clear and text is indented

- dates of employment are easy to find and consistently formatted

- each entry highlights a capability or accomplishment

- verb tense is consistent; current job is in present tense; past employment is in past tense

- use a minimal amount of punctuation, it can confuse OCR

- capitalization, punctuation, and date formats are consistent

- no typos or spelling errors

- don't fold or staple your resume, if you mail your resume use a large envelope

Your resume should be a quick and easy to read, containing no fluff and no unnecessary words. As hiring professionals look through hundreds or even thousands of job applications, they may spend only a few seconds reviewing each resume. To catch their attention, you must quickly convey that you standout from the competition. A successful resume is one that does not exclude you from consideration.

Your resume is a personal self-marketing tool; so make sure you get a powerful and accurate message across. By fine-tuning your keywords to meet the qualifications of each job, the more likely that you'll be asked to an interview where you can sell yourself.

Mary Carroll is a customer advocate for Video Professor, the leader in self-paced software learning tutorials, helping our customers to better understand Video Professor and how our tutorials can provide tools to learn various software programs to your desired level.

MORE ARTICLES:

Optional Resume Sections: Deciding When (And Which) to Include
Writing a resume can be complicated if you?re not sure how to convey the message that you?re the right person for the job A good way to get this accomplished, however, is by choosing the right sections to include in your resume

3 Tips For Writing A Great Resume
In most job interview situations, your resume will provide your potential employer with his or her first impression of you. If your resume makes a good first impression, you will move on to the next step in the hiring process. If not, your resume will likely be filed and you will never have the opportunity to progress to an actual interview. For this reason, it is essential that you take the time to create a resume that will make the first impression you need it to make.

Fax Effectiveness: New Resume Delivery System Gets the Job Applicants Want in 30 Days
Countless hours are often spent perfecting a resume and cover letter. They are then posted to various companies with great hope. Unfortunately for many job seekers it is not uncommon to receive not even one call in response to a job application. That is about to change.

Resume Objectives ... The Hidden Pitfalls
Why Use Resume ObjectivesBefore we can discuss the pitfalls you first need to understand the reasons for including your resume objectives and how they relate to your resume and interview selection process.Including an objectives section at the beginning of your resume provides a brief introduction to the purpose of the resume, highlighting your career objectives and the type of job you are seeking.

Talent Technology, Providers of Industry Leading HR Conceptual Search Technology, Launches Resume Mirror? Search Enterprise Product
Resume Mirror Search Enterprise allows advanced searching with "zero training" to quickly pinpoint and rank qualified applicants.

MilitaryResumes.com Resume Writers for Military Resumes and Federal Resumes Announces Sponsorship and Event Participation
The company, which delivers civilian resumes (www.militaryresumes.com) for ex-military, sponsored the 8th Annual Allen Stone Memorial Run in Virginia Beach, VA.

Beat the Crowd with Winning Resume Cover Letters
Far too many people underestimate the importance of resume cover letters. In a sense, a well written cover letter works like an agent on your behalf.

Resume Software – Advantages Revealed
The various resume software offered, particularly on the internet, can seem very attractive to job seekers; especially to those not comfortable writing resumes. At first glance resume writing software can provide a number of perks and can appear to be the perfect solution to many job seekers.

Resumes - Fixing the Bad Resume
Writing up your resume is a daunting and frustrating task at times, but it can become a real panic situation if you have gaps in your work experience or lack qualifications. You may even have left a previous employment on bad terms. Having a blemish on your resume isn't any reason to feel you can't aim for another good job, and there are ways to spin your resume to make it (and you) look attractive to a potential employer.

National Resume Writers' Association Seeks 2008 Conference Speaker Proposal Submissions
Unique opportunity for professional speakers to present resume writing, business, and career-related topics to more than 100 attendees and gain exposure to 400+ members. Deadline for submissions is June 30, 2007.

5 Ways to Drastically Improve Your Resume in 10 Minutes of Less
Follow these quick and easy tips to build yourself a better resume in under 10 minutes flat.* Use strong, action oriented language that describes specific skills or accomplishments.

Finally, a Solution to Resume Writing Stress That Will Eliminate Hassle and Have You Writing Winning Resumes With Ease
Resume writing is a skill that often stumps even the smartest of people. While people may have a knowledge of what resume writing is, it is an art that is used by every person in the workforce but isn't really taught at school. Finally there is a solution to make it stress free.

Four Simple Steps To Better Results With Your Resume
Is every job description you read the same? No.Is every job you submit your resume to the same? Of course they aren't.

How To Write A Resume, Avoid These Resume Mistakes
HOW TO WRITE A RESUME-MISTAKE #1NEVER USE THE WRONG PAPER! What kind of paper should you choose when typing your resume? The color of paper you will want to use will be white or ivory. You will also want to type your resume on a heavier paper, such as a 20 lb.