The Most Important Resume Tip for Military Veterans

Military veterans are currently experiencing higher unemployment rates than the rest of the U.S. population. In the past, military veterans were stereotyped as unqualified job candidates. This may have been true back in World War II where many soldiers did not graduate from high school. But this isn't true anymore.

The U.S. military services have extensive training schools for a wide variety of occupations including technology, engineering, communications, to name a few. If they are so well trained, then why do they have such a high unemployment rate? The usual reasons are that their occupational specialties have little need in the civilian world or hiring managers do not understand the military jargon in their resumes.

As a Navy veteran myself, I'll agree there is some merit to these reasons. But, there are re-training programs for military veterans. The Federal government awards most military veterans "preference points" for obtaining a civil service job. And, there are career transition services that can correct the "jargon" problem. Could there be any other cause? Yes. I think it's how military veterans explain their military service on their resume.

This week I reviewed a veteran's resume. He described his military service in the following way:

Truck Driver/Training/Driver Instructor, United States Army, 1992-2012. 
Served in many locations with a wide variety of diverse group of people within the transportation/logistical field; functioned as a subject matter expert within the military transportation units. Planned, coordinated, and executed several multinational exercises throughout different continents in refueling different types of aircraft, helicopters, tanks, and wheeled vehicles.

That's all?  Forty-nine words for 20 years of service employment. That amounts to 2.5 words per year!

This isn't the first time I have seen a military veteran describe his experience in this ultra-abbreviated fashion. I recall being contacted by a veteran who was having employment problems. I asked to see his resume. When I opened the file, I was flabbergasted: the resume was a half page long for 18 years of service. I told him no one was going to take him seriously with a half page resume. He told me that someone wrote it for him at his state's workforce development office. (Well, they didn't do a very good job.)

I also recall another military veteran who was having problems getting interviews. He had 15 years of service where he was a maintenance manager of a nuclear weapons site. He also had a 3-month internship at a Veterans Affairs Office. He printed out his online resume and sent it to me. There was a longer entry for the 3-month internship than the 15-years of military service. No wonder he was having problems.

So, how can we correct the problem of explaining military service on a resume?

Instead of grouping all one's military service into 1 employment entry, split up the military service into a chronological list of jobs at separate duty stations or commands. Using this approach will enrich the resume and provide a clear picture of what this veteran did over the course of a long period of time. Here is an example of how a military veteran divided each military position into a separate job:

SECURITY SUPERVISOR, U.S. Army Europe, Emergency Management Assessment, Schwetzingen, Germany, Mar 2009 – 9 Nov 2009
Supervised a rapid deployable team of 14 personnel to conduct chemical assessments. Supervised the planning, developing, and implementation of emergency preparedness initiatives. Coordinated the disaster response and crisis management activities. Conducted disaster preparedness training. Prepared emergency plans and procedures.  Conducted daily operations planning for the organization.

ASSISTANT INSPECTOR GENERAL U.S. Army, 1st Armored Division, Wiesbaden, Germany, Jan 2006—Mar 2009
Responsible for providing the Commanding General with continuous assessments of operational and administrative effectiveness of the infrastructure and matters affecting morale and welfare of the 1st Armored division personnel. Determined the adequacy and efficiency of operations and policies

PLATOON SERGEANT, U.S. Army, 529th Military Police Company, Heidelberg, Germany, Oct 2003 – Dec 2005
Responsible for training, development, and the operational readiness of 69 personnel. Responsible for the maintenance and accountability of equipment including 11 tactical vehicles, weapons, and radios, valued in excess of $264,000.

OFFICE SUPERVISOR, US Army Deserter Information Point, Fort Knox, KY, Jun 2000 Oct 2003
Supervised the daily operations of the Army’s National Crime Information Center terminals for the US Army Deserter Information Point. Supervised and trained five Soldiers and six civilians in the entry modification and clearing of federal warrants on Army deserters and parole violators in the FBI’s NCIC system.  Verified warrants and coordinated soldiers return to military control. Custodian of 5,000 Army Deserter files pending return to military control. Received and processed soldiers returned to military control.

PHYSICAL SECURITY INSPECTOR, US Army MP Detachment, Camp ZAMA, Japan, Dec 1996—Nov 1997
Conducted physical security inspections and surveys of mission essential and vulnerable areas (MEVAs) including arms, ammunition and explosives, and material/strategic supplies of US Army installations and activities on mainland Japan.

See the difference? This veteran had 12 years of experience and tells more about his experience than the 20-year veteran I cited early in this article. In addition, we see the career path of this veteran. He is in the security/law enforcement area and has moved from basic security work to management. We know he can manage teams and that is relevant to any "civilian" employer.

Why Your Resume Needs to Be Accurate

It seems like the most obvious declaration about a resume: the information within it needs to be accurate. But many resumes are not accurate. Should I say some resume authors stretch the truth? Granted, the truth has shades of gray. (For instance, one's years of experience. Your title may be administrative assistant but you may very well be filling the role of a project manager or even a tech support rep. So, how do you document that on a resume?) But, the greater issue is the employer's use of extensive background checks. I have been getting reports back from my clients that their references have told them (the job seekers) that an employer contacted the references even before calling the job seekers for a telephone interview. Employers are conducting more behind-the-scenes checks on job applicants than ever before. Facebook checks included! If your resume is inaccurate, you may disqualify yourself even before your horse gets out of the gait. And I'm not talking the Kentucky Derby here!

I am sent hundreds of resumes to review every few weeks. Most of them are accurate from what I can tell. But I have seen fraudulent resumes. Most of the time I can tell by the way the resume owner writes. If he claims he is a college graduate and he cannot write a simple subject-verb-object sentence (e.g., My car runs well.) correctly, I usually look much closer at his resume. I check dates. I will go to a Web search engine and verify if the company he said he worked at was truly located in Atlanta and it was in business when he said he worked there. But his lack of correct grammar isn't the only red flag of resume fraud. After all, some people just can't write. I look at the timeline of his resume. And, if he uses a functional format instead of a chronological format, I will check the resume more thoroughly. Functional formats are easier to hide employment gaps. Resumes are often called 'personal marketing' documents. But they enter into the legal sphere since they are assumed to be accurate and truthful. So, ensure that the information that can be verified is indeed accurate.

As I have suggested earlier in this article, some resume information is subjective. Years of experience possesses gray zones. One's skills' proficiencies is another gray area unless the employer specifically defines what they mean by an "advanced level of MS Excel proficiency." In addition, let's say you know how to do a few simple tasks in PhotoShop (e.g., resize a photo, rename a photo, etc.). Should you include it in your skills even though you really couldn't be a full-blown graphic designer.  Well, be honest. You clearly have a basic familiarity with the program. So, you could say you have a "Familiarity with PhotoShop," which suggests (at least to me) that you know something about it but in a limited way.

Recently, I have seen an example of where a resume owner thought she was being accurate but only caused confusion. In her work history, she said the following:

Digital World & Blankenship & Associates, Atlanta, GA (2005--Present)
Accounting Coordinator & Executive Assistant to President & CEO

• Accounts Payable responsibility for main and subsidiary companies
• Achieved monthly payment reductions with vendors by coordinating payment plans to decrease budgeting
• Organize and maintain daily calendar, schedule, coordinate, execute company travel 

The confusion arose because which role went to which company? Did she hold the same roles for both? Was she an Accounting Coordinator at Digital World and an Executive Assistant at Blankenship & Associates, or vice versa?  I contacted her for a clarification and she said the following:

"Yes, they are owned by the same people so I was doing work for both. I would also like to mention that I did accounting work for all sister companies including the main street cookie company, ox lumber company and ike macy's bookstore."

Well, she didn't answer my original question for starters. But it also indicated that she wasn't entirely sure how to communicate her employment accurately. It seems like she worked for a holding company perhaps or at least one company that had a number of different businesses. So, I contacted her again and asked her, "Who pays you? What company name is on your paycheck?" Her response clarified the matter and resulted in the following:

Accounting Coordinator, Digital World,  Atlanta, GA (2005--Present)
Summary: perform accounting and executive assistant duties for the company and her sister business including Blankenship & Associates, Main Street Cookie Company, Ox Lumber Company and Ike Macy's Bookstore. Duties include the following:

•  Accounts Payable responsibility for main and subsidiary companies
• Achieved monthly payment reductions with vendors by coordinating payment plans to decrease budgeting
• Organize and maintain daily calendar, schedule, coordinate, execute company travel 

How To Write a Resume with Time Gaps in Employment

Besides providing job search consulting as my regular job, I spend a few hours a month volunteering in the employment assistance section of a social services and training nonprofit in Chicago. I provide resume help and job counseling to many different kinds of job seekers. This past week I helped a man who had a 10-year gap in employment. His work history stopped in 2001. Prior to this time, he worked as a business analyst and industry researcher. He was dressed in a suit, which isn't required, well-spoken and articulate -- not the type of person you would expect to have "dropped out." That's the way he explained the employment gap when I asked him about it. So, how do you go about helping someone write his resume who has a wide gap in employment?

Everyone has employment gaps. If you are laid off, it generally takes most people up 3 months to get re-employed. This type of employment gap is not a problem. Some people have employment gaps because they returned to college for 2 to 4 years. Again, this isn't a problem because the time in college is documented. A problem arises when people have employment gaps for a year or more. When they are unexplained, red flags go up in a recruiter's mind. Does this person have a personal problem? Long gaps in employment are assumed to be more than skills or interviewing issues.

When I reviewed his resume and began asking him about this 10-year gap, he revealed he had had two jobs: one as a handyman and another as an office worker for a "friend." He got the latter job through networking. Presently, he is a volunteer math tutor at a social service agency. He said he has a good relationship with the tutor manager and would ask her to be a reference.

As I alluded to earlier in this blog entry, an explained gap is not a problem. Unexplained gaps and reference checks are. Employers are rather aggressive about reference checks these days. I have a customer whose references were called before she was even offered an interview! So, references of 10 years ago pose a problem; it's unlikely he can even locate them. Without current work references, his employment search will go nowhere. In addition, online applications collect a lot of information on job candidates. This employment gap would be revealed early in the process.

For starters, he had to come to the realization he could not simply restart his old career. We looked at a few jobs ads for business analyst and industry researcher. We read the basic and desired requirements together. "I can't even do the first one," he said with a bit of regret. Realizing he had to start over was an important step for him. His new resume could not focus on old experience. Rather it had to be refocused on what he can offer an employer right now.

Rewriting his resume was a 3-step process:

• Select a realistic job objective
• Create a detailed and expanded knowledge, skills and capabilities summary
• Expand the current job descriptions while briefly summarizing the past ones

Realistic Job Objective: Since he realized he was not ready to be a business analyst again, he had to decide on what he could do. Over the past few years he had worked as an office worker, handyman and now is a math tutor. He did not want to be a handyman. We looked through some jobs on indeed.com and decided that some kind of office worker or administrative assistant was realistic.

Expanded Career Summary: While he may have gaps in employment, he still has the knowledge, skills and capabilities of a business analyst or researcher. He has a college degree. And he knows a lot of software programs. He's clearly a good tutor so he has good training skills. So, the task before him is to create an extended knowledge and skills inventory that will make up a big portion of the resume's footprint. Most resumes spend over 80% of the page on work experience. He can't do that because of the employment gap. So, he must spend  more time on his knowledge to demonstrate what he has to offer. In other words, he must weight his resume to his knowledge, not his experience.

Describe in Detail His Current Occupations: His current "job" is that of a volunteer math tutor. Most people would place a volunteer position in a "Volunteering" section of their resume. He can't do this because it would draw attention to his employment gap. So, this tutoring job needs to be treated as his current employment and his duties must be expanded in detail. He also must state in the summary of this "job" that it is a volunteer position. I have used this approach with other customers. What happens is that the volunteer situation is overwhelmed by all the detail in the job duties that the job type doesn't matter much. Next, he needs to use this same approach for his office and handyman job. For his previous experience, he must briefly describe it in a separate section at the end of the resume. He should list only job title, employer, location and dates. For this man, his previous employment written this fashion was only 3 lines of the resume.

Knowledge-weighting a resume for long employment gaps is only effective to a point. This approach shifts the resume reviewer's attention away from the employment gap. But, this approach will not always pass the background check test or the competition in online recruitment or applications. So, this man will need to use his knowledge-weighted resume as a job networking tool. He will be compelled to "work" his contacts more than people who do not have large time gaps in employment.

How To Improve your Resume's Job Duty Statements

When it comes to writing about what you did at each of your jobs on your resume, I'll admit that there is conflicting information regarding what your job duty statements should include. Most resume owners list their responsibilities, duties or a combination of both. Other experts claim a resume should include only one's accomplishments (sometimes called achievements). These statements distill how you excelled at the job. I have found one other recommendation by a recruiter: describe in detail projects you have completed and explain how you used your skills on these projects.

I have always found that resumes which only list a job's responsibilities to be weak and uninspiring. I have seen resumes where the responsibilities appear as if they were copied directly from a job ad or an occupational specialty handbook. A list of responsibilities do not tell a recruiter much about your capabilities. I always recommend taking a list of responsibilities and summarize them into one sentence as the opening statement of job duties.

For example, this list of responsibilities for an administrative assistant include the following:

• Preparing and revising leases, lease-related documents (i.e. amendments, extension agreements, termination agreements, letter agreements, lease summary sheets), other documents, letters and memos which attorneys and paralegals have drafted
• Providing clerical support such as filing, faxing, copying, opening mail, making travel arrangements, ordering supplies and answering phones
• If applicable, maintain a follow up system and send follow up letters on files in a timely manner

The above list could be summarized for inclusion on a resume in the following way:

• Provided office and administrative support for attorneys and paralegals in a commercial real estate office.

Some resume owners are unsure of what to include or exclude in a list of job duties. So, they put in everything: responsibilities, skills, accomplishments and mix them altogether! What they fail to realize is that most recruiters do not read resumes. Rather, they read or skim resumes in an inverted triangle manner. What I mean by that is they assume a resume owner has placed the most important and relevant information at the top of a job duty entry and the least important at the end of it. In addition, the reading turns into skimming by the end of the entry.

For example, this is a list of job duties for a computer support specialist:

• Worked with teachers and staff on hardware and software issues
• Experience shopping and ordering parts
• Responsible for over 400 computers, 60 printers, and 60 projectors
• Scheduled and worked on school-wide computer projects
• Experience with LANDesk Network Management software.
• Experience with troubleshooting and wired and wireless networks
• Experience with Windows Server 2000,2003, and 2008
• Managed Active directory on all servers and client computers 

 The above list could be re-ordered in an inverted-triangle, relevancy format in the following way:

• Experienced with Windows Server 2000,2003, and 2008, and LANDesk Network Management software. Managed Active directory on all servers and client computers
• Troubleshooted and wired and wireless networks
• Worked with teachers and staff on hardware and software issues for over 400 computers, 60 printers, and 60 projectors
• Ordered supplies and replacement parts.

A list of one's accomplishments or achievements is the most challenging part of a job duty statement. The most common problem with writing these statements is the point of view. Most resume owners write accomplishments from their point of view instead of a recruiter's point of view. What this causes is the following types of accomplishments:

• One of the youngest Lab Managers in the company
• Promoted after consecutive high performance years
• Displayed strong leadership abilities 

While the above statements are meaningful to the resume owner, they are meaningless to a recruiter who has specific requirements she must fulfill prior to forwarding a resume to a client for consideration.  Accomplishments are statements of excellence measured against a standard. (If this standard has a numerical basis, all the better.) The fact that this job seeker was one of the youngest lab managers in the company only says he is probably a bright kid with some ambition. But, it could also mean he was darn lucky! What a recruiter really wants to know is what kind of "high performance" is he talking about? Give some detailed examples. In addition, he alleges to have strong leadership abilities. Well, this can mean different things to different people. He needs to give examples that demonstrated strong leadership. In other words, show don't tell.

The above list could be improved in the following manner:

• Successfully led laboratory through 3 major external audits including the planning of initiatives to resolve audit findings. Result: improved the laboratory's productivity by 30% as measured against the company's ISO 9001 quality management system.
• Provided timely data with highest ethical integrity and presented data to refinery blending team for potential profit maximization. Result: Production blending error was averted and a cost savings of $250,000 was obtained.

The goal of job duty statements is not simply to tell the resume screener what you were responsible for or what tasks you performed. Rather, they are meant to "sell" you to the recruiter who will then speak in favor of your job candidacy to the employer. 

How To Write a Resume's Career Summary

The Career Summary (sometimes called the Summary of Qualifications) is the most misunderstood components of a resume. Over the years, I've read summary statements that are short and boast about the candidate's team player ability. Other summary statements are mini-manifestos: long and meandering. How should a Summary be written? What's the purpose of a summary? Do you need one? These are the common questions I'll answer in this article.

Many people misunderstand the purpose of a Career Summary. While it seems rather obvious to me, it's not to many other people. So, let me define it: a career summary should summarize your resume's high points and reflect what the employer says it wants per the job ad. Not too difficult, right?

Not all resumes need a Career Summary. If you are an early career worker, you can go without a summary unless you have a specific set of skills that is relevant to the job opening you are applying to. For early workers, I usually opt for a Summary of Qualifications, which is a more basic list of job skills. Mid- or late-career workers should always have a Career Summary. By the time you've had 10 or more years of experience, your work life has gone through several cycles, industries or roles. The Career Summary gives a short "big picture" of this time period, as well as detailing the relevant skills desired for the job opening.

How do you write a Career Summary? It's a good question. My answer is: go to the job ad and see what the employer wants. Here's a job ad for an administrative assistant:

Basic Requirements

• Minimum of three years of secretarial/administrative experience, preferably in a legal environment.
• College degree or equivalent work experience.
• Excellent Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet and PowerPoint skills; Access skills highly desirable.

Preferred Requirements

• Demonstrated oral communication, organizational, and writing skills.
• Ability to handle multiple projects, prioritize own work and exercise independent judgment.
• Ability to assess a situation and determine appropriate action in the absence of his/her supervisor.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.

Let's reverse engineer these requirements to determine the categories of information the employer is seeking:

Basic Requirements:

1. Years of work experience in a specific work environment
2. Education
3. Computer skills

Preferred Requirements

1. Communications Skills
2. Project Management
3. Self-Directed 
4. Discreet

An effective Career Summary would contain these 7 pieces of information to reflect exactly what the employer is seeking. It could be written in the following way:

Career Summary

• 5 years of administrative office experience in a school environment. 
• Associates Degree in Office Technology
• Proficient with MS Office 2007
• Excellent verbal, written and public speaking skills including giving training to new employees
• Successfully managed projects in HR, Audio Visual and Curriculum Development areas
• Positive, upbeat and congenial person who takes ownership of a job to complete work on time
• Discreet person who respects managers, co-workers, students and visitors

This type of career summary of a resume is helpful to a recruiter who is trying to select candidates to call into the office for an interview. If the recruiter has to sift through your resume to find the years of experience or wade through the cliched terms such as "excellent team player," it only slows up the process. In essence, this structured Career Summary is all that a recruiter needs to select you as a viable candidate because it is a direct mirror of what the employer stated it want in the job ad.

Of course, a Career Summary for an administrative assistant is simpler to write than for an IT technician, for instance. But using the same process of going to the job ad and reviewing what the employer seeks, we can determine the categories of information that should appear in a technical career summary.

One caveat of writing Career Summaries is: don't overload with information and pack it with keywords. I have seen technical resumes where the career summary contained every computer language known to mankind! Yet, in the job narratives none of the keywords are used to explain how the candidate used these keyword skills to solve problems. A summary should be what it says it is: an overview of the resume that helps the resume reader absorb the salient information quickly.

How To Write a Resume When You Have No Job Experience

It boggles my mind that a college graduate would be allowed to graduate without an internship or some kind of practical experience on his record. I guess from the point of view of an academic institution the degree it awards should be all the new graduate needs to get an entry level job. But from the point of view of an employer who may receive hundreds of entry level resumes in job applications, a new college graduate without an internship or some kind of occupationally relevant experience (I'm not taking about fast food experience here) will not have as much hiring appeal as one who does.

As I write this blog entry, in my life as a job search consultant, I am working with a new graduate in accounting without an internship. He has received no interviews in the six months after graduation. Last year I worked with a chemical engineering graduate who chose to go to China and teach English instead of accepting an internship in chemical processing. While teaching English abroad is a noble thing to do and sounds like a great adventure, it isn't what prospective employers want to see on a resume. When he first contacted me, he said he was not getting any interviews. I asked him how his friends got their first jobs in chemical engineering upon graduation. Without hesitation, he said, "They were hired where they interned."

So, how do new graduates write their resumes if they have no internship or practicum in their field?  I've been asked this question a million times by new graduates. My first answer is: volunteer in an organization that needs your skills. My second answer is: sign up for temp jobs through online work platforms such as oDesk, eLance, or Vworker. These places hire people for very short periods of time and only care about what your skills not your work history. You can build up a work portfolio rather quickly. Then, go and look for a real job.

Writing a resume for someone who does not have any job experience is not as difficult as it sounds. Unfortunately, from what I have seen of resumes written with the guidance of college placement offices, the standard resume format is experienced-weighted. That is, most of the resume is filled up by an employment history. If you don't have a work history, good luck writing a resume with that format!

Let me get back to basics. What kind of raw information is described on a resume? They are:

• Knowledge: credentials and theory such as degrees, certifications, licenses, and areas where you have a lot of knowledge in.
• Skills: these are the job tasks that you can accomplish using the knowledge you have. fix a computer. give a flu shot (nurse), do a brake job, etc.
• Abilities: these are the work contexts that you could easily adapt to. office environment, cross-functional work team, lots of business travel, etc.

The above "raw" information is typically used in a standard resume format to describe your job experience. Call it the building blocks of a job history. But if you don't have a job history, you have to manipulate these building blocks in a different way (to fill up the page). Here is how the chemical engineering graduate used these building blocks to write his "no job experience" resume:

Areas of Chemical Engineering Knowledge

• Heat & Mass Transfer
• Transport Phenomena
• Thermodynamics
• Fluid Mechanics
• Statistical Process Control
• Computer Analysis/Simulation
• Material Science
• Experimental Lab Design

Core Competencies

Knowledge

• Knowledge and applications of aerospace transparencies.
• Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering.
• Basic understanding of chemical process engineering.
• Knowledge of laboratory and chemical safety procedures.

Skills

• Demonstrated leadership skills including accountability, results driven, integrity and trust.
• Excellent team participation skills.
• Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• MATLAB
• SEM
• PRO II

Abilities

• Solving technical problems.
• Collaborate with cross-functional areas.
• Adapt to rapidly changing business priorities and assignments.
• Multi-task efficiently.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Willingness to travel for domestic and international assignments.

The above two sections take up about two-thirds of his resume. Add in the contact information and the education section and eighty percent of the resume is completed. Now, where did he get the terms in the Areas of Chemical Engineering Knowledge section? From the college course catalog for his major. In the Core Competencies section, he grouped his knowledge, skills and abilities in an expanded summary section. All in all, this type of resume emphasizes the building blocks of a job history, not the job history itself.

In the above example, the new graduate finally got hired. But it wasn't in chemical engineering per se. Rather, it was in an entry level chemistry position that required him to assist in experiments in a lab. This is one of the knowledge areas he listed in his Areas of Chemical Engineering Knowledge section of his resume.  This illustrates that if you have no job experience, your resume must focus on other things you do have: knowledge or skills.

How Jargon Can Help or Hurt a Resume

Jargon is specialized language used in a specific profession or industry. Medical terminology is a common type of jargon. Military jargon is another. Every industry has jargon. Jargon can help or hurt a resume's communication as well as search-ability in a resume database so it's good to know when and how to use it.

How does jargon affect a resume? For recruiters who do not understand the jargon, the resume can read like ancient hieroglyphics with few if any of them understanding what it is being communicated -- not a result a job seeker wants to happen! But for the right audience, jargon can speed communication and make it more effective. In the age of online recruitment, jargon has one more purpose: it is a ripe source of unique keywords; recruiters can use a phrase of jargon to search through hundreds of resumes to find a candidate of interest. In other words, jargon can improve a resume's database visibility.

When job seekers use jargon on a resume, they should seek a balance between the communication of unique skills as expressed by the jargon and the oversimplification of language that would eliminate the jargon altogether in the faux pursuit of clear communication. Let me give an example of the latter case.

In this example, a military veteran placed the following on her resume to describe her military experience:

• Secure classified documents to maintain proper accountability
• Managed receipts of logs, inventories, files
• Prepared military correspondence and documents for superiors
• Delivered personal mail in garrison and tactical environment

Since she removed the military jargon from the description of duties, most people would be able to understand what she did in the Army.  Yet, what remains is uninspiring language that describes skills anyone with a high school student could do. This veteran eliminated the benefits of military jargon so much she destroyed the positive and differentiating value of her military service.

Now, let's look at an example of how to use military jargon to improve a resume:

Example A

• Execute daily requests and track all ASR/AMRs via Secret Internet Protocol Router (SIPR) and Secret Voice over Internet Protocol (SVOIP) requiring access to SECRET classified information.

Example B

• INSPECTIONS / INVESTIGATIONS: Surveyed of mission essential and vulnerable areas (MEVAs) including arms, ammunition and explosives, and material/strategic supplies of US Army installations and activities on mainland Japan.

Example A includes quite a bit of jargon. But this military veteran (i) defined most of the jargon and (ii) crafted the statement in such a way that some readers can determine what he did. For the target audience who knows this jargon, the statement is very clear. Had he reduced it down to "Fulfilled daily requests of classified information" the value of the jargon would have been removed.

Example B improves on example A by providing an inline sub-head (i.e., Inspections/Investigations) that defines the subsequent statement. In essence, this veteran realized he had two audiences to communicate to so he wrote this statement for both the general reader and the target audience who understands the jargon.

Information Technology is another industry that is ripe with jargon. Here are a few examples:

Example 1

• Our team has decomposed the company's Regatta PLM process while embracing the Pragmatic Marketing framework to realign the skills, connections, and talent we have for NPD and Portfolio Management.

Example 2

• Full-blown PPM tools when applied to PML process did not provide the agility needed for rapid cycle, agile development. Evaluated Product Planning Management (PPM) tools but after detailed analysis we adopted a set of in-house tools for product development planning based on Microsoft collaboration and analytic products.

Example 1 contains two types of jargon: acronyms, such as NPD, and intra-industry denotations such as "decomposed" and "embraced." Acronyms are the most common and easiest to deal with -- simply define them. But new meanings or denotations for common terms is more difficult to deal with. As used here, "decomposed" refers to breaking down into its component parts to better understand the process to improve on it. Example 2 contains two sentences. The first sentence is jargonistic on both levels, while the latter sentences explains what they did in everyday language. The best solution for these instances of jargon is to define, preview and explain for both the general reader and the target audience.

Jargon can both help and hurt a resume. But it can also enrich the resume with a deeper level of keywords not on most resumes. Therefore, it can dramatically improve a resume's visibility for those people who use jargon to source candidates. In the end, the management of jargon is understanding that your resume has multiple audiences. Taking the time to write to both the everyday reader and the subject matter expert who knows the jargon can improve the effectiveness of your resume.

Tips on Posting a Resume to an Online Database

At some point, all job seekers will need to post their resume online whether it be for a job application, social recruiting site or a job board. On the face of it, the task of posting it online sounds rather easy. Click, upload and your done! Well, it's not always that easy. For example, sometimes the resume database software does not populate the fields of the database correctly. Nearly all resume databases allow you to manually check and modify your resume posting after uploading. But I have seen a few corporate career sites that appear to have been built in-house and don't offer the option to correct errors that occurred during resume uploads, but these are rare.

So, how do you post your resume online such that your career information is visible and your resume is frequently part of a recruiter's search results? This is the salient question for any job seeker who is not getting the callbacks that he or she expects. Remember, a resume database exists not only to keep track of the thousands or millions of potential job candidates, but also as a competitive ranking system. If your resume information has been posted in such a manner that it has a low ranking relative to other resumes in the database, your resume will be "invisible" and naturally receive fewer callbacks by recruiters.

Here are some tips of how to post your resume to a database so it is most visible in recruiters searches:

1. Completely fill out the resume profile. There are two types of resume databases: (1) resume is parsed and the career information is inputted into a single profile, or (2) resume is uploaded for viewing and downloads by the recruiter and a separate profile must be completed manually. The second option is how Monster.com has structured its resume database. If you only upload your resume to Monster without completing the profile, you will get few if any "saves."

2. Enter your keywords in the job title field. CareerBuilder used to indicate below the Job Title field of its resume database that this field is "what the employers will see when they perform a resume database search." In other words, this is one of the primary ways the software determines how to rank your resume. I have experimented with entering a personal name, a job title only, and a long list of keywords into the job title field on CareerBuilder. I have always found the personal name gets fewer searches than the long list of keywords. In addition, the most popular keywords are software or technical terms so make sure to include in your keyword string all your software skills with each separated by a comma. This will increase the likelihood of it being part of the search results.

3. Current job should match the job title field. Resume database software universally places the most emphasis on your current or most recent job. This is a departure from the pre-Internet days where years of experience ruled the day. Now, I am not suggesting that your years of experience are unimportant. I'm not. But, for a moment, think like an employer and a coder of resume database software. Employers assume that your freshest skills are the ones you currently use, not the ones you used 5 or 10 years ago. So, they would like to find someone for an open position who has recently been in the same type of position because they will be able to make an impact to the work team immediately (and without training or orientation). The coder will respond to this philosophy by ensuring the most current or recent job has greater ranking value than earlier jobs. And, in situations where both the most recent job (ex. Customer Service Manager) and job title keywords match (ex. Customer Service Manager, MS Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, etc.), the software will rank your resume higher and make it more "visible."

4. Break out different positions in the same company. If you have worked for one company over 10 or 15 years and held several positions within that company, make sure to separate each position as a separate employer. If you group all these positions into a single employer entry, you will decrease your ranking because you will rob yourself of keyword data. This is a big problem with military veterans. If a military veteran is a retiree who has 20 years of experience from the U.S. Army and places it in one employer entry, his or her resume will be essentially invisible in resume searches because the recruiter sees only the last job and not the person's entire career path.

5. Be creative about detailing your skills. All resume databases have a skills section. Since recruiters use either the job title or skills to search databases, you should also make sure you have a detailed list of skills. Start with your computer software or computer skills. Then, go into skills about roles (ex. project management, budgeting, etc.) and finally get creative and add types of equipment, writing, or other specific aptitudes that may not be commonly listed. This will also improve your ranking.

How To Make Adjustments to Your Resume to Increase Your Callbacks

Prior to the common use of online recruitment, a job seeker would write a resume and cover letter on a word processor and then go to the local printing office and order 100 copies. Then the resumes would be sent out by snail mail and the wait would begin. How times have changed! Today, printed resumes are infrequently used. Most resumes today are transmitted electronically. One of the advantages of online resumes is that it is much easier to make changes when a job search campaign warrants doing so. (Making changes to a paper resume was a hassle as well as an expense.)

Under what conditions would a job search campaign warrant you making a change to your resume? This question tends to confuse some job seekers because they see a resume as a job history or skills document, rather than a competitive marketing tool that's similar to a product brochure. The "key" word here is competitive. Different job campaigns have different levels of competition. To succeed in obtaining callbacks from online resume postings or applications, one usually needs to make adjustments based upon the level of competition you are likely to have.

How does job competition actually work? How do you know whether you will experience more or less job competition? Well, there are three types of competitive job campaigns. They are:

• Position
• Industry
• Combination (Position + Industry)

Position Campaigns
A positional campaign (commonly called the ‘lateral move’) is where a job candidate is looking for another position that is within the same industry or business line and is also the same type of job with same job title. For example: an administrative assistant in the financial industry who is looking for another administrative assistant job in the financial industry. Since skills, experience and corporate culture are likely to be the same in different companies within the same industry, this type of campaign has the least amount of job competition. It's also the easiest way to change jobs. The resume you used for your last job search could very well work for you in the next search. Of course, you would need to update your experience, skills and any training or education you obtained. 

Industry Campaigns
An industry campaign is where a job candidate is looking for the same type of job (title) or role but in a different industry. This happens during recessions a lot or when an industry is restructuring and lots of people are laid off. For example, an admin assistant with financial industry experience who was laid off and is now looking for the same type of job in an engineering consulting company or a manufacturing company or a doctor’s office would have this type of job campaign. This type of job search campaign is more competitive than the positional campaign because (a) skills gaps and (b) cultural differences and (c) the people who already have experience in this new industry are preferred over people who do not have this new industry experience. This means your resume needs to be adjusted for this new industry. To do so, review the job ad again. Look for language that suggest "industry experience." This could be a duty or it could be a productivity tool or even an industry certification. You need to close the "industry" gap as much as possible in order to compete against the industry veterans who are on the hunt for a new job.

Combination Campaigns
A combination campaign is a combination of a positional and industry campaign. This is where someone is looking for a different job (title) or role in a different industry. For example, an administrative assistant in the financial industry who is now looking to be a  project manager in the IT industry because of her new PMP certification. So, she has a competitive hill to climb. Not only is she competing for a new type of job, this new job is in a company in a different industry, which is likely to have different requirements and a different culture. It’s the most competitive type of job search campaign. To succeed in this type of campaign, your resume needs to communicate "rare" skills and capabilities. For this administrative assistant, she needs to find positions that need a project manager who has administrative assistant experience. Your resume needs to be much more detailed; that is, you need to overwrite your resume in order to completely convince the recruiter that you are better than the standard position & industry veterans who have applied to the same job.

Making resume adjustments is sometimes a trial and error procedure. In fact, sometimes the adjustments you will make are subtle. But, the goal is to mirror as closely as possible the profile that was used to create the job ad you read. These days employers are seeking the perfect job candidate. To do so, they look for the "right" person who matches not only the job's duties but also the work environment and the current project team. This, of course, introduces more competition into the hiring process that the old days of paper resumes.

How to Choose a Quality Resume Writer

There are both good and bad resume writers out there; between the state of the job market and the ease of operating a business online, many people are taking up resume writing as a service that is very much in demand. Before hiring someone to write your resume for you, you need to do your research into the writer’s background. Some things to look at include a website (if they have one), a portfolio, and any credentials or testimonials they have available. Here are some of the things you should do before hiring a resume writer:

1 – Check for Certifications
Make sure that the writer you are interested in hiring has some sort of certification or other credential in the field. Experience is also important, but credentials are easier to verify. You can do so online through the website of the company that issued the certification.

2 – Obtain the Writer’s Full Contact Information
Does the writer have their full contact information on their website? If not, ask them for it and verify it before doing business with them. Do not do business with anyone who will only give you their email address; if something were to go wrong you will need more than just an email address to take action.

3 – Track Down Testimonials
Whether they are testimonials, user reviews, or other user generated content regarding your chosen writer, you want to see positive stories about the experiences other people have had. Ideally you will want to find reviews that speak highly of both the writer’s skills and their customer service!

4 – Read Some of Their Other Work
Does the writer have any work you can review? Things like articles or blog posts about the job search industry would be very helpful to determine if the writer has a good command of the basic skills they will need to write your resume. These types of materials will also tell you how much the writer knows about job hunting and the industry in general.

5 – Get Their Policies First
Before hiring anyone, make sure to get their policies confirmed up front. Things like payment arrangements, payment terms, confidentiality agreements, and any other items you feel are important. These policies should be easily available through the writer’s website.

6 – Make Contact With The Writer
Ideally you want to make contact with the writer you wish to hire long before you hire them. Get to know them a little and get an idea of their fees. Ask any questions you might have and also take this opportunity to communicate what you expect to receive if you hire them. Resume writing is a collaborative exercise, and you will be counting on your resume writer to make things happen. They need to be able to live up to that potential!

How Grammar Problems Can Kill a Resume's Appeal

Resumes are often identified in resume databases or social recruiting sites based on keyword searches. So, many job seekers focus on getting the right keywords in their resume and profile to ensure they are visible in recruiter searches. But once a resume is identified as a good candidate for an open position, before a callback is made, the recruiter will review the resume to become familiar with a candidate. If your resume is ripe with spelling, grammar or word usage errors, your resume's appeal will be on the same level as bad breath.

I have reviewed hundreds of resumes over the years that have had grammar errors. I often wonder why. I can understand the innocuous error; we all make them. But serial language or spelling errors reveals a symptom of a more basic problem: a lack of understanding of the importance of language and communication in today's workplace. Sure, technical skills are of critical interest when sourcing a resume. If a recruiter needs a UNIX Administrator, she needs to find candidates with UNIX skills. But once identified, a job seeker must prove he or she can do the job, interact with other team members, write reports, consult with internal experts and external vendors, among others. Today's market replace requires more written communication skills since more work is going virtual.

So, how does a job seeker address his or her grammar problems? Well, the first step is recognize that grammar and written communication is not your strong suit. Then, get some help to not only correct the problem, but also to do remediation to learn how to correct the grammar problems on your own.

There has been a misguided belief that word processing software will catch these embarrassing problems. This is not true. I do a lot of writing over the course of my workday. Yes, I rely to some extent on the software to catch the most egregious and obvious grammar errors that usually are due to my less than stellar typing skills. However, before the final draft, I go through what I have written line by line to ensure I am communicating error-free.

So, beyond getting some outside help, how can you catch your grammar problems (especially if you aren't sure where they are)? If you are an experienced worker, and you have written language problems, it is unlikely that you have the time to learn to write perfectly. Well, I don't think you have to and that shouldn't be the goal. But, what you can do is learn a few of the most basic grammar problems and focus on correcting those. Doing so, your written communication will improve to the level that what remains is few and far between. So, let's go through the big ones:

Spelling: focus on headings, section headings and introductory information or the first word of a job duty description. If you get these items spelled right, and the recruiter skims your resume fast, any other problems may be skimmed over. When in doubt, I go to a search engine and type in the word. What usually appears is the dictionary entry, which is spelled correctly.

Tense Changes (Subject/Verb Mismatches): generally, resumes are written in the present or the past tense. It doesn't matter which one you use; just be consistent.  Here's an example:

Original:
Installed security software.
Helping users troubleshoot computer virus problems

Corrected:
Installed security software.
Helped users troubleshoot computer virus problems.

Misuse of the Apostrophe: this problem is one of the most glaring grammar problems that occur on resumes. An apostrophe is a punctuation mark that indicates (a) possession, (b) contractions and (c) plurality. Here are the examples:

Possession: Misuse: Bobs car; Correct Use: Bob's car.
Contractions: Original: should not; Revised: shouldn't
Plurality: Misuse: computer's were installed; Correct Use: computers were installed.

Wrong Word Usage: this problem will not be caught by word processing software if the worngly used words are spelling correctly.  Here's are a few common examples of word usage problems:

Their: indicates possession (Ex. Their car has bad brakes.)
There: indefinite pronoun (Ex. There is a car with bad brakes on the street.)

Run-On Sentence: This sentence fault is very common in all writing. The writer connects two separate sentences with no punctuation or improperly with a comma. The best way to deal with this problem is to write short sentences. Here's an example:

Run-On Fault: I inspected the computer, I fixed the problem in no time.
Correction: I inspected the computer. I fixed the problem in no time.

If you attempt to learn how to identify these four grammar problems and correct them, your resume will drastically improve its appeal. Granted, there are other grammar problems that can plague a resume. However, these are the most obvious ones and the easiest to correct.

Resume SEO: How To Use Keywords For The Best Results

Keywords are specific words or short phrases that are used by a recruiter or hiring manager to source a qualified job candidate in a resume database. In the past, the popular keywords were verbs such as manage, coordinate, supervise, oversee, etc. While these keywords should be used in the description of your job duties, they are not used in resume database searches; rather, nouns or noun phrases are used for searching purposes. Software or certification are the most common keywords (e.g., PhotoShop, MCSE, BaseCamp, InDesign, Lotus Notes, A+, MatLab, PRO II etc.) A resume without keywords place strategically on it will either not become part of the search findings of a particular search or, if it does, will receive a lower ranking when compared to other resumes. In other words, a resume without keywords is virtually an invisible resume to the recruiter's attention.

The power of resume keywords is not a simple mathematical formula. In other words, the number of keywords is not the primary driver of resume database visibility. Packing a resume with tons of keywords will not necessarily get you better results than a resume with few keywords. Rather, it is how the keywords are (1) strategically placed within the resume and (2) how the resume and profile information is entered into the job board's candidate database which determines the ranking, visibility and type of recruiter response you receive. In addition, recruiters have become wise to the clever techniques that job candidates use to place keywords on their resumes. So, after a resume is selected by a recruiter, she will determine the depth of use of the keywords, which will influence if she passes your resume onto her client -- the employer.

Keywords that are placed within the job duty narratives or accomplishments section are more powerful than those keywords placed in a list at the top of a resume, typically in the summary of qualifications section. Recruiters know that anyone can find a list of keywords and put them on a resume. But it is the candidates who really use these keyword skills will place them deeper in the resume and demonstrate (1) how they used the keyword skills and (2) the hands-on results they obtained with these keyword skills. Of course, this is not a rule that says do not list your keyword skills in your career summary section. Rather, it is a guideline that demonstrates the depth and competence of those keyword skills.

Here are a few examples of how keyword skills were used in job duty narratives that demonstrate a depth of knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Chemical Engineer: Used PRO II, a process engineer simulation system, to design the cracking and quenching section process flow diagram and to run simulations.
• Information Technology: Initially, an Apache tomcat was used as web server, which led to the critical problem of large size documents not uploading properly. My solution was to change the web server from Apache tomcat to IIS webserver. Result: Uploads of single documents (1 Gb) are accomplished without issue. Project completed successfully under budget.
• Military: OPERATIONAL READINESS / LOGISTICS: Led the detachment on a 1,200-mile convoy in support of a joint mass casualty exercise without any incident. 

Placing keywords in a resume does not necessarily mean all you need to do is upload your resume to a job board and wait for the recruiter calls to roll in. Rather, the resume needs to be entered and the profile completed such that your keywords will be accessible during database searches.

The primary place for resume keywords is the "Resume Name" or "Job Title" field of the resume database. Do not name your resume by your legal name. Rather, use the job title followed by comma separated keyword skills. Some resume database give you up to 128 characters for naming or titling. Use all of them! Here's an example of how a Job Title field was entered such that it received many recruiter inquiries:

• Integrated Marketing Specialist with website project management, HTML, Illustrator, PhotoShop, Dreamweaver exp.

To get the best results from your resume's keywords, always think in terms of what the employer needs and how you can fulfill those needs. To accomplish this challenge, go back to the job ad. Read it a couple of times. Look for keywords. Use a yellow highlighter to note unique, detailed terms or short phrases. These are the important keyword skills the employer wants. Place the ones you possess on your resume at strategic points. For those you do not have, take a course to fill in your skill gaps.

Using Tough Interview Questions to Improve Your Resume

A resume can be improved on a variety of levels. The basic level typically involves spelling, grammar and other language improvements. The goal of basic resume improvements is to eliminate simple errors that would otherwise create the impression in the eyes of an employer that you lack an attention to detail or have written communication problems.

The medium level of resume improvement focuses on completeness. Ensuring you have documented all your skills, certifications, licenses and duties will improve a resume immediately. Many resumes are weak on information, that is, there is more white space than text on the resume page. Many do not even include the most basic software skills. The goal of medium improvements is to "beef up" an underwritten resume so it mirrors the skills and experience cited in a job ad by placing them on the resume. The medium level frequently moves a job seeker from the rejection pile to the initial group of candidates to call back.

Both the basic and medium levels of resume improvement do make a difference. But would these improvements move you to the handful of candidates who are invited to onsite interviews and have a shot at a job offer? Not always. Competition is tough nowadays and employers screen lots of resumes. So, is there any other way a job seeker can improve his resume to make it sing with hiring appeal? To get a resume that sings with appeal, you need to go to the advanced level of improvements.

The advanced level of resume improvements tells a potential employer not only what you are capable of doing, but also how well you performed based on past work experience. This seems like quite a hill to climb. It's not as hard as it sounds. By looking at the toughest interview questions, we can get an idea what employers really want to know about a job candidate. And then crafting answers to these questions and placing them strategically on a resume can make a good resume a killer resume. Let's look at a few tough interview questions.

The toughest interview questions are behavioral questions. What are they? Why do they exist? Behavioral questions are a fairly recent trend. In the past, basic and proficiency questions were commonly asked in job interviews. What are you good at doing? What are you good points and bad points? These questions often elicit memorized or canned answers which do not really help the employer determine how well you will perform on the job. The answers to behavioral questions cannot be memorized. They require you to answer about a specific experience you had on the job in a structured answer format. They require you to explain the (1) problem, (2) the challenge of solving it and (3) the final outcome. Here are a few common behavioral interview questions:

• Please relate a work situation where you were graceful under pressure?
• How do you overcome errors at work?
• Provide an example where a goal was set for you. How did you meet it?
• Tell me how you came to making an unpopular decision and how did you make it popular?
• Give an instance where you had a disagreement with a co-worker. How did you work through it?
• Relate a time when you had a difficult customer and how you overcame the difficulty?

So, how can we use these questions to improve a resume. Let's work through the following question: Provide an example where a goal was set for you. How did you meet it?

Let's say you worked for a school system that had a tight budget. And all school departments were told that they had to find a way to reduce costs--this is the goal or the problem. All businesses or schools who are instructed to reduce costs have problems doing so --this is the challenge. But, by being clever and conducting some research, let's say you found a way to buy a different kind of office materials that would save money -- this is the solution. Condensing this story a bit, here's how a computer technician at a school system phrased the answer and placed it on his resume:

• Cut costs by over 200% by recommending to the School District to switch to recycled paper and toner cartridges.

Cutting costs is a simple way to demonstrate to a potential employer what you can do for them upon hiring. But not all things can so easily be reduced to cost cutting or told in a single line. Here's another example of the advanced level of resume improvement. In this example, the employee had worked for a business publication that was trying to find ways to obtain more advertisers. This employee helped the advertising sales people by giving them information in a spreadsheet regarding which advertisers were renewing their contracts:

• Increased Advertising Contract Renewals by tracking the success rate of external clients in both the print and online publications and providing the account executive and external clients this originally sourced data. Result: improved client visibility and satisfaction to enable the account executive to increase contract renewals thereby protecting existing revenue streams.

The advanced level of  resume improvement is not always easy to do but it is the most effective at demonstrating your hiring appeal. Many people can implement the advanced level on their own. But in cases where you can't, it is useful to talk to an expert resume writer who can not only identify these important stories, but also craft them in appropriate language for a resume.

15 Reasons Why Your Resume Doesn't Get You A Callback

After job seekers post their resumes online or apply to a job, they usually anticipate a week or so delay in getting a telephone callback from a recruiter or hiring manager. While this can stretch into 4-6 weeks for large company, government or academic jobs, the time between application and callback should not be inordinately long. So, what happens when they have not receive any callbacks for 2 months or more?

They typically wonder if they have a bad resume and it needs to be rewritten. If you feel this way, then you should have your resume reviewed by an objective authority or at the very least a friend who can give you some honest and constructive advice. But if your resume has gotten you responses in a prior job search campaign and it reflects most of the requirements listed on the job you applied to, then you should consider the possibility that there are other reasons why you are in the no-callback, no-response dead zone of your job search campaign.

It's been my experience that that are 15 reasons why your resume doesn't get you a callback. A few are directly related to your resume's quality. But most of them are external to the resume. I found out about these external causes of resume non-performance by spending three years tracking job seeker behavior between 2002 to 2005 with about 2,000 job candidates who were having the no callback  problem. Let me briefly go through them.

1. High Job Competition: online recruitment has become so effective at sourcing resumes for early-to-mid career jobs that obtaining 200 applicants for a job is common. High competition is not going away. I have seen as many as 1300 applicants for an Online Marketing Manager. When there are a lot of job candidates, the employer will try to eliminate as many as possible.
                  
2. Low Job Demand: if you see very few job postings in your target location, this is a sign that either the job market is in equilibrium or there is very little demand for a specific job. Low-demand jobs can artificially create high competition due to the number of job applicants that are generated.          

3. Improper Job Ad Selection: when a job seeker does not fully read a job ad's requirements, there is a likelihood that he/she will apply to a job that they are either not qualified for or partially qualified for. When the employer applies its HR filter, these resumes or applications usually are eliminated in the first round.

4. No Resume Database Visibility: a "visible" resume is one that appears in the search findings of a resume database search engine. To be visible requires that the resume is both detailed enough to have keyword correspondence with a recruiter's search terms and it is integrated into the resume database correctly. Sometimes when a resume is uploaded into a resume database, the software does not correctly populate the database fields.

5. No Keywords: this reason is associated with no resume visibility and usually occurs with 1-page resumes that have so little information that it will not possess enough keywords to obtain high ranking in database searches.

6. Misspelled Words: language and grammatical errors are common reasons why a resume is eliminated.

7. No Work Schedule Flexibility: many jobs today work on flex or rotating shifts. If you are only available for an 8 to 5 shift, you may never be contacted if a job has a shift that runs from 11am to 7 pm.

8. Missing the Closing Date for Applications: this reason usually applied to government jobs that are posted for brief periods of time. On the job ad or vacancy announcement, you will see the closing date. If you miss the closing date, your application will be disqualified.

9. Incomplete Applications: job applications today often require more than a resume and cover letter. References, college transcripts, work portfolio and supplementary statements or questionnaires are often part of the entire application package. Without a complete package, your application can be disqualified.

10. Large Gaps in Employment: If you have not worked recently or there are huge gaps between jobs, your resume will have less value than if you have explained all times between jobs. Now, a month or so between jobs is not what I am referring to here. Rather, 1 year or more. You should explain these long gaps.

11. Ineligibility: your ability to work legally in the U.S. is critical to your job application. If you do not have a work permit or require sponsorship, you will not be called back unless the employer makes arrangements.

12. Non-local Job Candidates: this reason is one of the subtle causes of the no callback problem. Prior to online recruitment, qualified, non-local candidates were flown in for interviews and offered sweet relocation packages. But, today, with large resume or social databases, most employers prefer local candidates. They will conduct candidate searches by zip code, which will bypass a non-local candidate.

13. Lead Generation Ad: some job ads are not really job ads. Rather, they are posted to source the job seeker as a potential customer of a product or service.

14. Phoney Job Ad: these job ads may look like a job ad but are not. They are not trying to generate sales leads. Rather, they are intent on damaging you or your identity in a criminal scheme.

15. Not Enough Time: rarely will an employer respond to a resume or job application in less than a week for a legitimate, occupationally specific position. Remember, employers will source resumes using a variety of avenues. They want to get a full range of candidates to find the one who is most suited for their open position. This process takes time.

How To Use the Government KSA Model To Improve Any Resume

With all the blather in this political election season about how government is broken and the only good comes from the private sector "job creators," one can only ask that if the government is that bad, how did it plop an SUV-sized scientific laboratory (rover) on the planet Mars traveling at the speed of 13,200 mph? Sure, the government isn't perfect and it isn't totally broken yet. And when it comes to resumes, someone in the government created decades ago the Knowledge, Skills & Abilities (KSA) model that can help anyone improve their resume.

While there's no published record of when the KSA model was first created, it has been used until recently in the supplementary statements of US Federal government job applications. I should note here that supplementary statements recently have been phased out to simplify the paperwork (yes, the government is trying to un-break itself) of job applications. But the KSA model can still be used to organize the way you write a resume so it stands out from your competition.

What is the KSA model? It's a rhetorical guide the breaks down a job candidate's skills and accomplishments into 3 categories. They are:

• Knowledge: includes all credentials, degrees, licenses, certifications and other expertise in a specific work discipline.
• Skills: includes all the observable job task duties that are performed to successfully perform the requirements of a job.
• Abilities: includes all the soft skills needed to successfully work on a team in a specific organization.

Developing a resume using the KSA model many times runs counter to how most people think about resume writing. Most people assume resumes should be short, sweet and brief. In many respects a short resume is all that's needed if you can personally hand your resume to a hiring manager and are given a chance to talk about why she should hire you. Unfortunately, this type of retail job seeking is going by the way side; it's been replaced by electronic middlemen -- job boards and social recruiting sites -- that integrate your career information in a database which is then anonymously searched via specific keywords. This type of candidate sourcing requires a job seeker to have a much more detailed resume. The KSA model can help you obtain it.

Let me give an example of how the KSA model can work for you. Due to the limited scope of this blog entry, I'll only discuss the "Summary of Qualifications" section that is on nearly all resumes. A typical summary section usually contains a few bullet points that telegraphs to the reader what the candidate has to offer. Here's a typical example:

Summary of Qualifications (Without the KSA Model)

• Adept at using word processing and spreadsheet software (MS Word, MS Power Point and Excel)
• Fast learner
• Thorough
• Highly adaptable
• Consistently meets job expectations and deadlines
• Fluent in English as a second language, both expressed and written

On first read, this summary seems okay. But, what's really wrong with it? Well, the main problem with this type of summary is that it is all too common. If you were to read 100 resumes, I'd guess over half would have identical summary sections. So, how does a recruiter differentiate between candidates with near-identical information? That's a good question. Whatever the way, it will take longer and time is not what most recruiters have. In the end, someone will be passed over.

Now, let's turn to a Summary of Qualifications that uses the KSA model:

Summary of Qualifications (with the KSA Model)

• Industry Knowledge: Consumer Goods, Transportation, Logistics, Ecommerce, Industrial Automation
• Management: Strong general management and leadership skills with experience in project planning and program management. Ability to organize and drive projects to timely completion, outstanding analytic and problem-solving abilities. Ability to communicate accurately and positively by telephone, e-mail, and other media. Demonstrated excellence in writing, editing and content design abilities.
• Supporting Skills: Gifted team builder and communicator who can interact effectively with individuals and departments at all levels within an organization. Can manage multiple tasks and meet deadlines in a high-pressure environment. Integrity and ability to establish credibility amongst peers. A strong work ethic and attention to detail.

This example is from an experienced project manager who has worked in many different industries. While this summary section takes some liberties with the KSA model, it generally follows the format. This candidate started with his industry knowledge. While he could have included his degree or certifications, he felt his vast industry knowledge was the best way to brief the reader on his employment value. Since he is a manager, his job-task skills are focused around his management skills. Finally, his abilities are describe in what he calls "supporting skills." Clearly, this a very detailed snapshot of the job candidate. It had immense market differentiation. It is so immediate that a busy recruiter would likely pick this candidate's resume over many others.

Here is another example taken from a resume of a military veteran. He also has taken some liberties with the KSA model. He has renamed the summary section "Key Attributes." No matter what the name, the  section is very effective at making the resume reader stop to read more. Here it is:

KEY ATTRIBUTES:

• Leadership/Team Building: Built a mission-focused, cohesive unit from one that previously had a severe morale problem.
• Problem Solving/Interpersonal Skills: Overcame the sub-standard leadership styles of supervisors that were detrimental to mission success through teaching and training these mid-level leaders on effective personnel management and appropriate corrective actions for minor infractions.
• Security Planning: Ensured the physical security on a military base for an open-to-the-public event of over 10,000 people. Months in advance planned security procedures with different sections (security, medical, fire department and police) to ensure a secure event and safety for all attendees.
• Management: Improved the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the Inspector General office. Provided customer service training through better communication.
• Policies and Procedures: Established an efficient, 24/7, information call center with quick resolution of issues and consistency of information. 

He also does one thing more. He merges the KSA model and the core competencies that are stipulated in the Federal hiring requirements for the position he is applying for (Security Manager). These bolded-subheads make this section more skimmable. He is indeed a candidate with hiring appeal.

Download sample KSA statements at KSAdoctor.com.

How Competition Determines the Effectiveness of a Resume

When job seekers who've never had a problem obtaining a job interview begin experiencing long periods of no recruiter callbacks from their online resume postings or job applications, the natural response is to pursue a resume makeover. While this is a natural response, it may not always be a necessity.

If you've had success in the past with your current resume, what has changed? Most likely your resume has not. Rather, there must be something else that is interfering with your resume's effectiveness in "marketing" you. So, before you begin on the journey of a serious resume-rewrite, take some time to determine if there is anything else that's causing a problem the no response/no callback problem.

In general, there are many reasons why an experienced job seeker does not receive a telephone call for an occupationally specific interview. (I am excluding the calls for interviews that life insurance companies send nearly every job seeker who posts his or her resume on the most popular job boards.) One common reason for a lack of callbacks is excessive job competition.

Having been a job search consultant for over a decade, I've learned that most job seekers do not fully appreciate the level of job competition that exists in today’s job market, engendered by the precipitous adoption of online recruitment, and, more importantly, how this competition changes the resume sourcing or selection behavior of recruiters, which is the ultimate determiner of the effectiveness of a so-called "quality" resume.

What kind of competition am I talking about? 200 applicants is common. 1,300 applicants is possible. (As an aside, when an open position obtains over a 1,000 applicants, this is generally due to the centralized location of the job such that applicants are pulled in from the adjacent states within perhaps a 200 mile radius or the "collar" suburban areas.) When an employer or recruiter receives this many applications, there is NO way she will go through them all!

A couple of things go on with employers when they receive an excessive amount of applicants. If all these resumes are posted in a resume database, they will use a filtering parameter (education, salary history or specific job skill) to filter out a huge amount of applicants. Another option is that they will go through the pile and after identifying perhaps 25 high-quality applicants, they will pass over the remaining applicants. The final option (which I've heard happens in the Federal job sector) is that they will divide all the applicants' resume in three piles and give 3 different hiring managers a stack. Any error in the application package or a grammatical error will get the applicant disqualified.

So, how do you solve this problem?

Avoid the ‘distribution’ solution. Basically, this is the "shot gun" technique where you apply to anything in the hopes one application will hit the mark and get you an interview. The problem is that when there is a lot of job competition, everyone is using this failed technique. It only causes gridlock in the hiring pipe line. In addition, the job seeker has a tendency after getting frustrated to begin applying to jobs he is not fully qualified for. (In one case I know of, the employer got so many unqualified candidates, she set aside the entire stack of resumes and hired an external recruiter to source "qualified candidates.)

Be selective and only apply to jobs you are truly qualified for. That is, if you possess a unique or "desired" skill the employer is seeking, use that skill as your search keyword to find jobs. Now, I'm not referring to everyday skills like MS Excel. Rather, something truly rare such as Ruby-on-Rails  or switched mode power supplies or Basecamp. This requires a lot of self-screening on your part. This will result in fewer jobs but by self-screened jobs you will find jobs where you are very competitive for.

Remove the middlemen out of the hiring equation. Take a break from the job boards for awhile. Make a list of twenty-five employers that are (a) local and (b ) you really want to work for because the company has always interested you. Then, go to their websites, search for jobs, post your resume, and set up job alerts on their career sites. Many times jobs will be posted there that are not indexed by a job-ad aggregator or posted on the popular job boards or simply overlooked. This will result in fewer applicants and less competition.

If you indeed have rare skills, and are very experienced, then go to Linkedin or other social recruiting platforms. But only if you have a rare skill. There is a lot of buzz about social recruiting. While it is true that job recruiting is moving to social recruiting, the actual hiring based via social media is still only about 3.5% of  all hiring sources and far behind referrals at 28%.