Military to Cilvilian – Military to Federal? Hire Professional Resume To Do It Right

As a former or current member of the armed forces, you have already demonstrated personal dedication, perseverance and strong commitment to your country. Today, the US government is better prepared than ever to offer you new, economically competitive civilian employment opportunities. Whether you’re an officer, bookkeeper, aircraft repairman, supply clerk or administrative officer, the federal government may have the right job for you.

Professional Resume can create great Military to Civilian and Military to Federal Resumes.

First you will need a “military to civilian” or  “military to federal resume.” This resume style includes details of military experiences and duties, ranks, military operations and campaigns, specific training and certifications, security clearance levels, awards and honors, projects and accomplishments.  The resume is usually anywhere from 10 – 25 pages and also may include a KSA – Knowledge, Skill and Abilities that may be 10 – 15 pages.

Many military veterans find the resume-writing process difficult. In a recent class, soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center were interviewed about the hardest parts of writing good resumes.  They are:

•     Telling a good story.
•     Bragging about yourself.
•     Unlearning what you already know about resume writing.
•     Describing your work in detail.
•     Explaining the challenges of work experiences.

It is critical that you meet stringent requirements for your resume and KSA to be reviewed and ‘accepted’ .

Professional Resume has expert resume writers certified in creation of top-notch military resumes.

Call us now on 415.314.0982 to begin the process.  We can help.

How Important is a Thank You Letter?

So, how important is it to follow up with a Thank You Letter?  Let’s ask the experts:

Market Yourself Well
Thank-you notes are a nice gesture, and I would always encourage candidates to follow up with one after an interview. However, as far as influencing a hiring decision, I have yet to see someone being extended an offer because of it. The strongest candidate will get the offer. Every little bit helps in marketing yourself as the best and most enthusiastic person for the role. If you do send a thank-you note, always check for spelling and grammar.
– Bob Hancock, senior manager of global talent acquisition, Electronic Arts

No Question About It

Sending a thank-you note is a must. When a job candidate sends me a thank-you note, it shows me the person is truly interested in the opportunity. This simple gesture can distinguish one applicant over another. In fact, when considering multiple people for an open position, I typically recall who has and hasn’t sent a thank-you note.

The thank-you note is valuable for job seekers beyond demonstrating their interest in a position. This also is an opportunity to re-emphasize the skills and expertise they would bring to the role and address any outstanding concerns they may have from the interview.

The best strategy is to send a quick e-mail shortly after the interview followed by a handwritten note. Whether you choose to send a thank-you via e-mail or in writing, the key is to send one.

– DeLynn Senna, executive director of North American permanent placement services, Robert Half International

A Good Way to Stand Out

While my hiring managers or I would not make a hiring decision based solely on a thank-you note, a short and well-written note from a candidate following an interview will certainly not hurt their chances. As most candidates don’t follow up this way, you will automatically stand out if you do, and this can set you apart from the crowd in a positive way.

For example, a tasteful handwritten card sent to your interviewer is thoughtful, and will probably end up on their desk or bulletin board for a while, further reminding them of you when they see it. An alternative is to send an email note, which may appear more professional, will arrive more quickly and has the advantage of being able to be forwarded on to other interested parties within the company.

– Suzanne McFadden, senior technical staffing consultant, Wells Fargo

Boost Your Impact Easily

According to surveys, about 85 percent of executives say that a post-interview thank-you note has some influence on the hiring decision. While only half of candidates send thank-you notes, it seems to be an easy gesture everyone should use to greatly impact the hiring process. Surveys also suggest that hiring managers are divided in terms of preference for receiving thank-you notes by email or letter. It is therefore up to you to decide which method best fits the culture of the organization.

– Yves Lermusi, CEO of Checkster

Resume Tips

Make sure your résumé is FOCUSED -

The employer should not have to dig through your résumé in order to determine what it is you offer.  Avoid the all too common “catch all” approach of inundating the employer with volumes of unrelated experience. If the employer has to “guess” what you are targeting or offer, you’ve immediately lost their interest in what could be some dynamic qualifications.

Be CONCISE -

Keep the employer’s valuable time in mind when submitting a résumé.  Many people believe they need to provide excessive details, when in fact, what most busy employers want is a QUICK SNAPSHOT of what you offer them.  This is particularly true in challenging job markets in which the employer has plenty of résumés to choose from.

What Your Resume Is – And Is Not.

Your Resume is a very important tool in your search for a job.  With the current state of the economy, a powerful resume could be your key to finding employment.  It is essential you understand exactly what a resume is and is not.
Your Resume is:

•     A concise presentation of yourself targeted to the needs of a specific employer
•     A marketing tool that distinguishes you from the competition (highlights your major accomplishments)
•     A document that focuses on “the whole person” (your unique qualities, experience and strengths)
•     A results-oriented document, which highlights not just what you did but the IMPACT your efforts had on previous employers
•     A document that demonstrates career progression or an increasing level of complexity in your work experience

Your Resume is NOT:

•     A history of your life from high school to business school
•     An autobiography which describes your life to date
•     A laundry list of everything you have ever done
•     A long (2+ pages) document that is dense and difficult to read; 2 pages are fine if your work experience requires two pages
•     A detailed list of all your job responsibilities

What Job Hunting Is Not…

Job Hunting Is Not:

• Wasting time
• Worrying about how to get started
• Feeling lost
• Sending Resumes that companies don’t read
• Losing documents or other important information needed for applications and internet postings
• Forgetting the critical follow-up (thank you letters and call backs)
• Spending time what to say in a cover letter
• Sending the WRONG resume
• Not understanding your unique value in the marketplace
• Having the tools needed to get the job you deserve

Professional Resume can help you transition into a new job.

Professional Resume Potential has a VALIDATED CAREER ASSESSMENT with worksheets
designed to help you understand your strengths and career potential, specifically
matched to your abilities, interests and personality.

Professional Resume Research is designed to help you find the hidden opportunities within the
unpublished job market, which account for over 75% of available jobs today. Without
these skills, your chances are slim of finding your ideal job.

Professional Resume Marketing provides all the tips and tools you will need to market yourself to
prospective employers.
Professional Resume Interviewing contains the do’s and don’ts of interviewing, prepares you for
the difficult and unusual questions, shows you how to resign, negotiate your compensation
and handle the difficult transition from former company to future company.

Professional Resume Career Assessments help you identify and search for job opportunities
that best match your experience and abilities. All our assessments are validated
and exceed U.S.Government Guidelines for industrial use.
Professional Resume provides a link to the online U.S. government informational website on job
classifications. This is a user-friendly resource, providing an easy-to-understand
frame of reference for occupational profiles as stated in our Career Reports

Professional Resume can help you in the job hunting process.  Call our staff on 415.314.0982 and we will help!

Welcome to Professional Resume and Career Development Center

Here is some information about Professional Résumé and what we do:

What We Offer:

We offer two basic levels of service:

The first is a writing service. We take your raw data and transform it into a powerful marketing brochure that will tell the prospective employer why you are the best candidate within that critical 15-second window of opportunity.

Secondly, we offer reformatting if your résumé does not require editing.

How much does it cost and what form will it be in?

We have résumés from $50 to $400. That’s a broad range, but we work with people in all fields and at all levels, from entry-level high school students to senior-level executives and professionals. We have a broad range of styles and samples, but our signature trademark is a distinctive brochure style of résumé that is available in one, one and one-half page, and two-page styles.

All final products are available in hard copies, scannable copies, fax copies, electronic copies including Adobe PDF files ready to send as an e-mail attachment, or post to the Internet.

Lifetime updating means that if you lose a copy of your résumé, we’ll still have it. We have a secure database of thousands of résumés.

Tell me about your company:

Our company is part of the world’s largest and oldest résumé writing service established in 1959.
We are certified by the Professional Association of Résumé Writers (PARW) and each writer on our present team has a minimum of five years of experience.  We’re members of the major trade associations including the Professional Resume Writers Research Association (PRWRA).
We’ve been represented in the Kansas City and the Bay Area marketplace for nearly 40 years.

Have you worked with many people in my field and do you have a specialty?

We’ve written résumés for every imaginable occupation – A to Z from dog catchers, brain surgeons, rocket scientists, morticians, musicians, senior marketing managers, executives, evangelists – about every profession you can think of.

Writers on our staff have expertise in different specialty areas.  We have writers who specialize in senior-level candidates, sales professionals, IT/IS consultants/analysts/programmers, education, healthcare, insurance, engineering, accounting, food service, retailing, etc. You name it and we’ve done it.

On a one-on-one basis, we will show you concrete examples of résumés we’ve prepared for people that you will be competing with — real résumés that have proven results.

How do you work, what is the process?

We conduct our business by conference call, internet, email and Skype.

1. We start out by setting an appointment (phone interview) for a free consultation.
2.  We  review the résumé you’ve used in the past, or you fill out a profile to provide us with the information. We talk to you about your goals, how you intend to market yourself, where your skills lie, clarify your job duties, and any unique circumstances we  need to know about.
3. We then talk to you about current trends, philosophies and what human resource managers want to see.
4. We will describe, fax, or e-mail Adobe PDF file samples of résumés that will  be in your area of specialty.
5. If you are satisfied with what you see, we will then settle on the price of the package. This initial process takes approximately 30 minutes.
6. If we’re going to develop a résumé, it will take about another 45 minutes after the initial interview to collect the information we need to properly tell your story. We schedule a time to visit by phone if required.

The benefits and features of a professional writing service. Our services far outweigh the cost.
We specialized in developing a résumé that sells YOU on paper/electronic file.
We maximize your number of interviews by telling why you are the best candidate in the first half of the first page, or 15 seconds, the average length of time a résumé is read.

Our résumés are like a sales brochure. WE CAN GUARANTEE A 60% INTERVIEW RATIO TO RÉSUMÉS MAILED OR SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY.

What information do you need from me?

A. The chronology of employment and education.

B. Your areas of strength, effectiveness, demonstrated performance, quantifiables, how you’ve been able to solve problems or make money for the companies you’ve been with.

C. Accomplishments,achievements, recognition, anything that you can tell us that will help us tell someone whey you’re the best candidate for the position within the 15-second window of opportunity. That’s the average length of time résumés are read.

We give the résumé the proper focus and write a scenario that tells your story. We use the combination style of résumé that employs the best parts of a chronological and functional style.

We have a profile form that we may fax or e-mail to you. Fill it out with your detailed information and/or submit your old résumé, and we’ll schedule a time to talk with you.

Most importantly:

We specialize in is developing a résumé that WILL INCREASE YOUR NUMBER OF INTERVIEWS – a résumé that will tell why you are the best candidate in the first 15 seconds! A SALES BROCHURE, about you — we SELL you on paper to maximize your interviews.

MORE OF THE BASICS:
We craft:
Résumés
Cover Letters
Follow Up Letters
Thank You Letters
Salary Histories
References
Custom Letterhead
Custom Labels
…anything you will need to market yourself professionally and discounted packages containing all of the above

Where do we go from here?
If you’d like to request a profile form to fill out, submit a resume, schedule an appointment, provide intake by telephone, fax, or e-mail more information about yourself, contact us in one of these ways.

The staff at Professional Résumé is looking forward to working with you!

The Best Career Advice You Were Never Told…

The most effective people make career choices for fundamental reasons, not instrumental reasons.

That’s one of the key points from Dan Pink’s excellent book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.

Dan Pink’s book is excellent on two counts.  First, it presents the material in a creative and engaging way -  the book is actually the first American business book in manga.

Second, the content is helpful — and sometimes counterintuitive.  Here are the six lessons of the book:

- There is no plan.
- Think strengths, not weaknesses.
- It’s not about you.
- Persistence trumps talent.
- Make excellent mistakes.
- Leave an imprint.

Here is some advice for those who aren’t sure what to do next.  Make your next choice for fundamental reasons, not instrumental reasons.

Here’s how Pink explains it (via one of the characters in the book):

“You can do something for instrumental reasons — because you think it’s going to lead to something else, regardless of whether you enjoy it or it’s worthwhile.

Or, you can do something for fundamental reasons — because you think it’s inherently valuable, regardless of what it may or may not lead to.

And the dirty little secret is that instrumental reasons usually don’t work. Things are too complicated, too unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen so you end up stuck. The most successful people — not all of the time, but most of the time — make decisions for fundamental reasons.

They take a job or join a company because it will let them do interesting work in a cool place — even if they don’t know exactly where it will lead.

There’s the key idea. If you don’t know what you want to do next, do what you think is inherently valuable. You don’t need to know where it will lead. And, almost certainly, it will lead to someplace interesting, because, first, you already are doing something interesting (that was the point of your choice!) and, second, we are more effective when we are doing something exciting and placing ourselves in a ‘growth’ mode.

Even if you do have a clear goal for where you want to end up (which is a good thing), don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you will best get there by making a bunch of instrumental choices to do things you don’t really want to do, but which will “keep your options open” and eventually let you get closer to your interests. This approach usually backfires. Instead, have your large goal, but stay open to seizing unplanned opportunities to help get you there, and along the way seek to follow the path of doing what you find inherently valuable.

Applying for jobs and not receiving call backs? It is your resume…

Looking for a new job but wondering why you’re not getting interview calls?

It must be something to do with your resume.
Why do you need a professional resume writer?

Your resume is the first thing that communicates with recruiters. Remember that it has just 30 seconds to make an impact on them. It should provide relevant, up to date, true and compelling information about you and your work experience. In addition to providing convincing and gripping information, you must take care of font sizes, font colors, grammar, spelling, punctuation and choose the right resume format for the kind of job you’re looking for. Make sure that the details included in your resume are not conflicting with each other. Make use of a spell check software in order to ensure that there are no fundamental spelling errors. Read more >>

What were they thinking??

They should of been thinking they needed help! Funny résumé blunders.

The Make-or-Break Moment of an Interview

“Now, do you have any questions for me?” the interviewer asks. This is the make-or-break moment of the interview.