Judy Tomlinson ⋅ Richardson , TX Energy Future Holdings ⋅ 30 years experience

I'd be happy to take a look. Send your resume in Word format to: tomlinsonjk@aol.com

Charles Krause ⋅ Glendale , AZ CJK, Inc ⋅ 40 years experience

Al and Gerry have provided some very good recommendations. Education is a key element combined with a strong understanding of what you will be attempting to manage. Depending on your work in the Military, you should align it with civilian job openings and then go for the ones that you feel most comfortable.

Alex Reinders ⋅ Wheaton , IL IBM ⋅ 33 years experience

Hi Ronald, When tailoring your resume for a specific opening, read the job description carefully as advised by those earlier in this stream. Then, pull out specific examples of things you have done in your work experience that demonstrate the traits they are looking for. You don't have to have had a specific title to have the correct experiences that demonstrate you can do the job.
Good Luck.

GERRY KIRKLAND ⋅ Fort Mill , SC CGK Associates LLC ⋅ 49 years experience

Sergeant Kirby,
Thank you for your service.
Remember that hiring managers are looking for quantifiable results, numbers. They want to know how you can help them solve their problems and to ultimately help make their business more profitable. The trick is to translate the military jargon into the civilian language.

Charles Bonilla ⋅ Chicago , IL PeopleScout, A TrueBlue Company ⋅ 3 years experience

Ronald,

Al's advice is a great place to begin.

In the course of my job I frequently help veterans with their resumes. The key, the ABSOLUTE KEY, is to align your resume to the specifics of the job description. It's not easy, but it's not that difficult, either. It DOES take time.

The last thing a hiring manager wants to see is a "boilerplate" resume replete with generic key words. This resume screams "I submitted this same resume to 24 other companies," and it will quickly end up in the "unread" pile.

However, when you align your achievements to the specifics of the job description, you're taking a giant first step to adapting your skills and experience to THEIR problems and culture. You become their "Answer Man."

Consider going to the library and looking up this book: Expert Resumes for Military-to-Civilian Transitions by Wendy S. Enelow and Louise M. Kursmark. ISBN 978-1-59357-732-2.

Finally, keep in mind that a fair number of companies prefer a clean, chronological resume that goes back 10 to 12 years.

Best of luck.

Charles

Al Hope, Sr. ⋅ Water Valley , MS City of Oxford, MS ⋅ 20 years experience

Sergeant Kirby,

I'm also a retired MSG who once sought a similar career field. A good place to begin is by visiting the following sites: www.careeronestop.org This site has a mountain of information on service members transitioning allowing you to turn military jargon to civilian skills, knowledge abilities. It also has a resume tutorial that I find is more than enough for most employers. Remember to determine the type of resume you want to write. There are many examples but try to keep it less than three pages. Employers want to get to he point ASAP.

Also check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov/ooh. This site gives you the education requirements of all Standard Occupations Classifications (SOC). Most states also have this same information at the state level. Search your state employment agency for similar information. The competition is great so don't slack on education.
Hopefully this gives you a good starting place.

MSG Al E. Hope, Sr. USA (Retired)