Does your Resume look like a Job Description?

2014-11-30T21:20:43-05:00

It's recruitment time again where I work and we are taking on scores of people in both blue and white collar positions. We are even taking on over 20 apprentices. If you are looking for work with the Federal government (Navy, in this case), it's a good time for it. Look at your Resume` and look at the job descriptions that it applied to. If they look a lot alike, you might have too much job description and not enough "you" in there. It is a common habit to write about all the things the job did and to neglect what we did, how we did it and most of all, what difference it made. It might be nice to talk about the millions of dollars worth of government inventory we were signed for but it is more important to show how our diligence saved lives or money or time and how that all differed from what anyone else was doing. Check out your resume`; is it selling you or the job you did? I work with people on that subject every day and still find things in my own resume` that aren't saying things as well I thing they can be said. Anyone have anything to add? It's not a perfect science and we can use all the good ideas we can get.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 30 at 2014 9:24 PM

2014-11-30T21:24:32-05:00

Thanks for that great résumé tip, SSG Peter Muse. I have not considered that point. It's a good one!

Response by 1LT William Clardy made Jun 2 at 2015 9:57 PM

2015-06-02T21:57:56-04:00

SSG Peter Muse, here's a quick set of top tips from a job-seeker support group that I worked with back in California.

http://www.eu-connections.org/index.php?page=resumetips

Another suggestion is for cover letters: Copy and paste 4 or 5 key terms in the job listing which match up with items in your resume and make a bulleted list highlighting each term and how you meet that requirement. Not only does this make your cover letter a guided tour of how you are what they're looking for, it also ensures that you score higher when they filter out applications which don't include relevant key words.