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John Wolfe, a career expert for Monster/Military.com, hosted TODAY's resume and interview workshops. Here are his 10 tips to crafting the perfect resume for Wednesday's virtual job fair.
Mistake 10: Including too much military jargon so a human resources professional cannot determine where you would best fit with the company.
Solution: Describe the skills that you gained in the military in a generally understandable manner. Don't focus on one aspect of your position but your responsibilities and accomplishments as a whole and that are not just specific to the military. The responsibility for translating your skills into English is yours! An effective tool is the Military.com Military Skills Translator.
Mistake 9: Including multiple phone numbers.
Solution: Include only your primary phone number and make sure you have an answering machine or voice mail on that number along with a courteous professional greeting.
Mistake 8: Leaving off your email address.
Solution: Always include your email address. This is the second most popular way, after the phone, the vast majority of employers and recruiters correspond.
Mistake 7: Including a picture on the resume.
Solution: Leave off all pictures. In the United States, this information could be considered discriminatory.
Mistake 6: Adding personal information about yourself, including marital status and kids.
Solution: Leave this off all together. You do not want to allow the hiring manager to make certain assumptions they are not allowed by law to make. The HR professional may feel that you will not travel, etc. because of your family.
Mistake 5: Including any information that would specifically lead a reasonable person to know from a resume the applicant's race, color or religious affiliation.
Solution: Leave off all information of any group or award that specifically reveals your race, color or religious background. This background is a hot potato for an employer and could cause them to immediately eliminate the resume from consideration.
Mistake 4: Submitting resumes longer than three pages.
Solution: The longest any resume should be is two pages. Remember that a resume is to tell a brief career history — the emphasis on brief! Many people feel they will look better to an employer having a longer resume. The reality is, the reverse is true. A curriculum vitae that is used in countries outside the United States and Canada should be longer, but not a resume.
Mistake 3: Using the word "I" anywhere in the resume.
Solution: A resume should be written in third person.
Mistake 2: Using elaborate or non-standard fonts.
Solution: Use a very standard font, like one that is used in a book. Both people and optical character readers (OCR) can read the standard fonts such as Times New Roman or Courier. Remember: The purpose of sending a resume to an employer is to have it read.
Mistake 1: Having a resume that does not match the person.
Solution: People are brought in for interviews based on their resumes. If the person during the interview does not match the resume, the company feels they have been misled.
Find more of John Wolfe's career tips on Monster.com and Military.com.
More from Hiring our Heroes:
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Capital One, Comcast pledge to hire vets
Comcast and NBC Universal will hire 1,000 veterans
Hiring our Heroes 'unlocks the potential' of vets
Jill Biden: Veterans will 'get the job done'
Bloomberg: NYC is committed to hiring veterans
For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.
Leave a Comment:
First let me applaud you for what you are doing. Bravo Zulu! I make micro-videos and I would love to see programs that are designed to help the self-starters (entrepreneurs). The so-called government websites that are (supposedly) designed to help veterans are extremely confusing; almost by design. Far too many so-called government programs are created to to maintain employment to the staff at the agencies rather than to help veterans. I make videos, and all I am asking for his a wee bit of financial help and help in exposure to the media that can use my videos (youtube.com/microdac). I am not the only veteran who have chosen the path of creativity. Help us too. Thanks. -dave clarke- microdac
Applying for position with Goldman Sachs:
SKILLS-
As a hiring manager, 2 phone numbers aren't a bad thing as long as one (as you've indicated has VM). Secondly however as much as I agree with leaving a picture off the resume; the problem is that linked in has become so popular that you will more often than not find a picture of your prospective candidate on his/her linkedin page or facebook page for that manner.
I too have interviewed far too many candidate who's resume doesn't match their actual skill set. This is often is discovered during face to face interviews. Unfortunately for me, I sometimes have to conduct telephone interviews and can not always gauge the person as well as an in person interview. Please candidates do not misrepresent yourself.
I don't want to cause a firestorm here but I want to address your point about leaving off information that may indicate your race, color or religious affiliation. Unfortunately for many people of color and Hispanic descent it very easy for a interviewer or company to assume that you belong to a particular race based on name alone. I often tell people to use their middle name if it is more common or in extreme cases just use their first initial.last name if necessary. I know that some will say it makes it seem like you're hiding something but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Great article with some very valuable tips!!
As an "Ex" member of the Military I wish my Brothers & Sisters the world of luck out looking for a Job in today's Economy.
Personally I do not even include my Military Service on my Resume, as it appears to hurt more than it helps.
People in Civilian World of America are great about talking up the "Game" not so much actually doing it and either they can't relate or worse. If you have nothing else by all means use what you have but as I said I dropped it from my Resume and stick to mentioning it in the Interview only if asked or I think the Interviewer can relate.
Just my 2 cents.....and your mileage may vary!
The companies are definitely more selective with veterans. I am interviewing with companies across multiple industries and they are setting up a 4th or 5th interview to attempt to weed out those without experience.
Most veterans do not have the experience and need either the OJT or training to be anywhere close to a comparable peer.
Additionally, HR and Recruiters are basing their opinions off of a person's hesitancy. People hesitate, say um, belch...these things are natural and do not lend themselves to a bad personality per say. As a small business owner, weaknesses are appreciated. We want people to focus on what they are strong in, and identify their weaknesses so they can become better, not so we get a "better" product in the door.
Be able to see potential. HR, and recruiters are so critical that vets may never get a chance. Give him the tools the veteran needs to succeed and hiring managers..... see the potential. No ones perfect, but the best workers tend to be the ones who are imperfect.
per se
I retired after 27 years of service and one piece of advice I received is to scrub your resume of information that may tell hiring managers how old you are. I am struggling to find work after submitting numerous applications and networking. One of the biggest problems I am encountering is converting my skill set to a specific civilian job. I worked with explosives in the military and there is not much call for this in the civilian world. When I talk to people that are suposedly there to help veterans, they are usually no help at all. I am skilled at many things but a lot of companies seem to want specific experience.
The frustrating thing is there is no magic formula for a resume or experience. Every HR manager seems to want something different and I am not certain how to break the code! My next option is to pay someone to help me.
I have not given up but it sure is tempting!
I work for an investment company. We accidentally brought in for an interview a woman who was married to a military sergeant. It was clear they are from a different world. I told her we start around 9:00 a.m. but none of us really makes it to work on time anyway. She thought that was late in the day. She asked what we do for lunch. I told her we have a chef but sometimes we go to the mall. She asked how we are able to get there and back in an hour. I said we just take a little longer; a couple hours is fine. I asked her how she handles deadlines and multiple priorities. She said she would ask her supervisor which activity she should perform first. Supervisor? I told her we have a two gyms, a personal trainer on staff as well as pilates, yoga and boot camp classes. She could not comprehend the boot camp class. I think she was thinking military boot camp! LOL
Fairly unhelpful for resume advice that was heralded as being veteran specific. Yes, the bit about jargon is correct and on-point, however the rest of the primer is quite generic and just as easily applies to most everyone looking for work. Stop wasting my time.
I have news for you....I work in healthcare as a data analyst. I can't even find interviews for internal jobs on claims slightly different from the ones I currently report on. Skills like (copied from a post below)
So tell me which one of these skills would make me want to hire you ?
Companies are so tight & lean on personnel right now. They want to do the least amount of training/educating they have to to get a new hire up to speed. I am not saying that vets don't have smarts or values but if I am an HR person I want skills..directly applicable skills. None of what is referenced above apply.....sorry. It's not me. I'm just stating the obvious.