Build your resume

- When we were in the military, our resume was essentially on our chest. You could figure out a lot about somebody when you actually looked at all the things that they wore, you know, in their dress A uniforms. In the civilian world, we don't have that. In the civilian world, you have to work on your resume. Your resume is how you're going to be introduced to someone, and it's going to be your first impression of someone. You have to think about that when you're writing your resume, and the words that you're using, and the things that you say. Is that how you want someone to perceive you the first time they interact with you? It's okay to write a new resume for every job interview you go do. You take the baseline and you modify it for what it is that you're going to go interview in. Don't ever go into any place with a resume if you don't know where you're going and the background of the person that you're going to talk to. Use the website, use Google, use anything. Learn about the people that you're going to interview with, because they're going to expect that you spent time learning about them just like they spent time reading your resume. Your resume shouldn't be more than two pages. It doesn't matter what you did in the military, if it's more than two pages you're telling them too much, and it probably doesn't make sense anyways. You have to understand that people who are successful for 30 years in the civilian world can still write a resume within two pages, so can you. References, references are very important. It's not about who do you want to go to war with, it's about who is going to be a good representative of you into the career that you're choosing to go into. You can customize those things just like you customize your resume for every opportunity that you pursue. If you want to go into the medical field, have a doctor be your reference. It doesn't matter if your platoon sergeant's your best friend, have a doctor be your reference. If you're going to go into a professional development career, then have somebody who can speak about professional development as your reference. These are the kind of things that you need to be prepared to do, and to change and put the time and the effort into if you want to be successful in transition. This doesn't apply for everybody, but for personally as an interviewing manager and a CEO of a company, you can write two pages worth of resume, but I'm going to read the exec sum and let the rest flow. Make sure that what you use and the message that you deliver in the beginning of your resume doesn't turn me off from reading the rest of your resume. That first executive summary is critical, it's the hook that you have to bait and sink if you want them to read the next two pages of your resume. The factors in an executive summary that are important to me, some of the things that I've seen that are successful are an understanding of the job that you're applying for and how your experiences relate directly to that job. An understanding of my objectives as a business and how you're going to contribute to those objectives as a whole. I don't need to know about your pet dog, I don't need to know about what your favorite hobby is, I don't need to know that you served 25 years in the military unless it's relevant to what it is that you're asking for from me. Think about that in all aspects of your interaction. It's kind of like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Anytime you interact with someone, they want something in return from you. It's not that they're selfish, it's simply this is life, and if you can't understand what the ask is from someone who you're talking to, then your message is most likely going to be off. Your message needs to be tailored to the person that you're asking for something from.