By engaging in your self-assessment by asking the right questions, you know what kind of job you want, where that job is likely to be, and how much money that job is likely to offer.
Based on this knowledge, you should have some idea about which kind of resume is right for you-the chronological resume, the functional resume, or the combination resume. You have some idea about the parts of a resume, the caption, the headings, the entries, the functional subheadings, the leads, and the dates. Now you must focus on resume content. What goes in, and what stays out?
If your resume is going to succeed, it has to present your qualifications, abilities, and accomplishments in a favorable way. This allows hiring executives to see the value a company will realize in you. This task is not easy and will be the toughest part of your career transition program. You have to be able to get your thoughts on paper in a logical, understandable way. If you can write a document such as a fitness report, regulation, instruction, or order, then you can describe your back ground in an orderly, organized way. Even if you are not a great writer, you certainly know yourself better than anyone else does.
Some of the most effective resumes we have read have been written by people with no writing experience at all. The problem is not knowing what to write but knowing what to leave out.
Overview
Here on resume content we'll take a quick look at the resumes dictating the overall content and length of your resume. We'll then review some potential headings in a chronological resume to see what might appear in each heading. We will talk about the strategy you should use to position your headings in the proper sequence. Following that, we'll discuss the all-important technique of choosing the right leads. Finally, we'll clear up the horrible mistakes people make with the dates on their resumes.
Overall Content and Length
You must now begin to review your own experience to decide what to include in your resume. As you do this, keep several things in mind. First, as mentioned above, don't include every bit of information about yourself. If you do, you'll end up with an inordinately long resume that will bore the employers to tears. Second, you should try to get your resume on one or two pages. There's no absolute prohibition of a three-page resume, but don't go any longer than that.
Third, in deciding what to include, apply the does-it-help? Find out. Look at each bit of information and ask, "Does it help my message?" If the answer is no, then the information stays off.
Visiting the Various Headings
Let's begin a review of the potential headings of a chronological resume and see what kind of information should appear in each. By the time you finish studying this section, you should have a good idea about which headings should appear in your resume. Here we go. Here's a review of the headings, in no particular order.
Education
The Education heading gives military people the chance to shine. Training and education have been a major ongoing program throughout your entire time in the service. In order not to dilute the significance of your military schools, it is best to break Education into two headings: Academic Education and Military Training. This approach will allow you to focus better on training that is significant to your capabilities in a specific field.
Academic Education
Under Academic Education, your first entry should be your most recent educational experience, which might be your high school, trade school, college, or graduate school. The entry should include the name of your school, the city and state where the school is, the degree you received or expect to receive, and the date of the degree. You need not include the mailing address of the school, college, or other institution.
Again, the entries should be brief but should include below.
- type of degree received
- name of the institution
- major field of study
- the year that the degree was conferred
- any honors received
- significant grade point averages (GPA) either overall or in your major
If you have any college experience, it is probably not necessary to list your high school diploma. Obviously, you had to complete high school to get into college (in most cases). The exception to this rule would be a case where you had attended a highly regarded and well-known college preparatory ("prep") school. If you have not completed any college, then listing your high school diploma would be optional.
Technicians: A Word of Caution.
For technicians, be careful not to go into too much depth concerning your knowledge of test equipment. Some things are understood by technical recruiters.
For example, if you write that you are qualified "to trouble-shoot and repair computer equipment with appropriate test equipment," it is not necessary to list every single type of equipment. If you indicate you have experience in rebuilding diesel engines, it is assumed you know how to use screwdrivers, ratchet wrenches, and torque wrenches.
