Transition Insight

Tips for Completing Your Resume

By Barbara Adams, CPRW, CEIP, CMRC, CFRW
www.militaryresumewriters.com and www.careerproplus.com

When you apply for job openings you "MUST" differentiate yourself from the crowd. As competitive as the job market is today you "MUST" pull out all the stops. Throughout the development of your professional resume always keep in mind that your resume should be targeted to each position in which you apply. This one tip alone will dramatically increase your chances for an interview.

Carefully and thoroughly read the entire vacancy announcement. Provide ALL the information requested including documentation required for the position. Some agencies use automated systems and others accept resumes. Regardless of how they want you to apply, you must ensure your submission includes information in the following areas:

1. Write a list of your main accomplishments for each job you held.
2. Weave these accomplishments into challenge, context, action and result (CCAR) sentences.
3. Keep all sentences in an active voice (not passive.)
4. Answer ALL job-related questions to the best of your ability. Include accurate details of your experience, education, or training in the narrative input or supporting information fields provided.
5. Use ALL portions of the application to provide unique and exemplary information that sets you apart from other candidates.
6. Present your most important job-related competencies and accomplishments.
7. Present information in a polished (and accurate!) manner.
8. Double check for typos and grammatical errors.
9. Stress actions and achievements, and include a result.
10. Sell yourself!

For both paper and on-line resumes, you should use action verbs to show the degree to which you were actively engaged in performing work. Some suggested verbs to consider are:

Advised	Delivered	Investigated
Analyzed	Demonstrated	Negotiated
Arranged	Developed	Organized
Budgeted	Directed	Performed
Built	Drafted	Planned
Computed	Evaluated	Presented
Conducted	Filed	Repaired
Coordinated	Gathered	Researched
Counseled	Improved	Supervised
Crafted	Installed	Typed
Delegated	Instructed	Wrote

Barbara Adams, President and CEO of CareerPro Global (CPG), the parent company of www.careerproplus.com and www.militaryresumewriters.com, has been a member of the careers community for the past 20 years. Ms. Adams holds four prestigious industry certifications. CareerPro Global is the only ISO 9001-2008 Certified Career Service in the industry, as well as one of the fastest-growing Military, Federal, and Civilian Resume-Writing and Careers-Coaching companies. The team of Certified Professional Federal and Military Resume Writers at CPG assist thousands of clients in applying for and gaining employment each year. We can help you land your military to civilian job.

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Veterans job bill faces hurdles

Last month, we reported The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee chairwoman was pushing for a dramatic expansion of government programs aimed at helping separating service members find jobs. Now, it appears as though that measure is running into stiff opposition on two fronts, The Department of Defense and the bill's costs.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee chairwoman and chief sponsor of the 'Hiring Heroes Act of 2011', said the current veteran high unemployment rate "is simply unacceptable" and is a sign that current programs are not working.

"For too long, we have patted them on the back and pushed them into the civilian job market with no support," she said last week during a committee hearing that covered the jobs bill, S 951, and 34 other measures pending before the panel.

The Defense Department did not testify before the panel, but provided a statement raising objections to many parts of the bill, including Murray's insistence all the services adopt the Marine Corps' policy of making attendance mandatory for all separating and retiring personnel at the 2½-day Transition Assistance Program workshops, designed to help troops find post-service jobs.

Defense officials said they would be required to retain National Guard and Reserve members and people receiving administrative discharges on extended active duty until they could attend the classes, and would incur other expenses in providing transition help to about 160,000 people who now leave service without attending TAP courses.

Defense officials also oppose a provision of the bill aimed at boosting federal job opportunities for separating service members, which the statement says "runs the risk of making it extremely difficult for someone who is not a veteran to gain entry-level employment."

What might slow down the jobs bill is money. The Congressional Budget Office has not yet assigned a price tag to the measure, but Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the Senate veterans' committee, said cost must be considered in whatever the committee passes.

"As we examine each bill, I think it is important to keep in mind that our nation is faced with staggering deficits and debt and is on a fiscal path that is simply unsustainable," Burr said. "As we consider whether to create or expand veterans programs, we should start by taking a serious look at what programs already exist and how well they are working. We also should look at whether reducing any duplication could make existing services more effective and more efficient."

Murray, however, suggested that getting jobs for veterans could save money. The Army alone is spending $1 billion a year on unemployment compensation, a cost that would be reduced if separating service members founds jobs faster, she said.

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New bill would boost job-finding help for vets

By Rick Maze, Army Times

The chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee announced an ambitious goal earlier this month of finding jobs for 400,000 veterans within two years, a move that would reduce the unemployment rate for veterans of all generations from 7.7 percent today to about 4.5 percent.

To do this, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said he doesn't want to create new programs or spend additional money. Instead, he wants to concentrate on making sure existing public and private programs are working efficiently.

"Good jobs are out there. We just need to retool our programs so veterans can compete for them," Miller said.

The problem might be more difficult, requiring that a broad sword be taken to bureaucracy that could be making it harder for veterans to land jobs.

Veterans looking for jobs — and the employers who might want to hire them — face a confusing array of programs, a panel of employment experts told the committee.

There are 8,000 websites providing information about veterans' employment, said Jolene Jefferies of Direct Employers Association, a non-profit group that helps 600 U.S. corporations with recruiting strategies. For all of that information, there is nothing available that tells employers how to locate veterans who are qualified for the available jobs, said Jefferies, the association's vice president for strategic initiatives.

Henry Jackson of the Society for Human Resource Management said companies trying to hire veterans are often confused about where to seek help.

"Employers would greatly benefit from having a more streamlined set of resources that they can consult to find veteran talent, post their open positions and find information about hiring veterans and other transitioning service members," Jackson said.

It also would help to know what works, said Kevin Schmiegel, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's vice president for veterans employment. His organization hosts job fairs around the nation to help link veterans and employers, but Schmiegel said it remains unclear how many veterans are landing jobs. After a big job fair in Chicago earlier this year, Schmiegel said a survey was sent to participating employers, but only 20 percent responded.

Schmiegel suggested veterans employment could grow by simply linking veterans and employers.

"Ninety percent of military occupations are directly transferable to the private sector," he said.

Marshall Hanson of the Reserve Officers Association said employers’ concerns need to be addressed as part of a hiring initiative, which could include increased notification time when Guard and reserve members are about to deploy.

Miller said there needs to be a careful review of what works and what doesn’t. There are advocates for a large federal program that would serve as a one-stop resource for veterans and employers, but it is not clear if such a program would solve the problems.

There are several bills pending before Congress aimed at improving veterans' employment, and Miller said he is working on his own package. He is still working on the details, but the bill will not create additional bureaucracy and won't have a large price tag, he said. He wants, in general, for the government to streamline existing programs to focus on what works, and to hold program managers more accountable for results — judged by whether veterans are getting jobs. He also wants to make sure that programs focus not just on newly separating veterans, but also on middle-aged veterans who have lost work and are far removed from the transition assistance and job training programs helping newer veterans.

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Veterans Take Advantage of GI Bill Benefits for Grad School

By Hal Donahue

The GI Bill may be best known for helping veterans earn a bachelor's degree, but at some schools, the majority of GI Bill students are graduate students.

At George Washington University, 70 percent of the student veterans are enrolled in graduate degree programs, said Mary Waring, the school's veterans coordinator. The school certifies more than 500 military veterans for GI Bill benefits every year, she said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said that 26,386 Post-9/11 GI Bill students pursued graduate-level studies in 2010. According to a report by the VA, about 10 percent of all students using military education benefits in 2010, including the GI Bill and other funding programs, were enrolled in graduate degree programs.

The opportunity to earn a master's or doctoral degree with GI Bill funds is a valuable one, but veterans need to do some research first. College administrators, student veteran and support organizations emphasize that aid packages and funding for graduate-level education varies widely, not only among universities but also within them.

Erik Brine, a graduate student at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, serves in the Air Force Reserve as a major. On active duty, Major Brine was a C-17 pilot who was deployed three times and served in 56 countries. At Georgetown University, he founded a chapter of Student Veterans of America, a national organization of student veterans that strives to ensure that veterans are welcomed and supported on college campuses. Brine advises veterans planning to use GI Bill benefits for graduate school to research both their own GI Bill eligibility and school policies.

"Veterans expecting to use GI Bill benefits for graduate schools should be sure they do their homework to understand what their benefits will cover before they commit to any specific school or program," Brine said. "The vet needs to know what percentage of GI Bill benefits he/she is entitled to. Then, if 100 percent eligible, determine if the school or program has a Yellow Ribbon Program (YRP), which requires 100 percent eligibility, and if so, what does it provide."

Currently, Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits are capped at the maximum in-state public school tuition for undergraduate programs. Veterans pursuing graduate degrees have to rely on the YRP to make up the difference. In the YRP, participating schools agree to contribute a certain amount toward the tuition fees that exceed GI Bill benefits, and the VA matches that contribution.

Starting in the fall of 2011, the GI Bill will cover graduate tuition at all in-state, public universities with no need for the YRP. However, tuition for graduate school programs at private universities could still exceed the maximum GI Bill benefit. Although the YRP program still exists for these schools, a new cap of $17,500 on VA contributions means that schools would have to either find new funds to make up the difference or pass those tuition costs on to veterans.

Under the new GI Bill rules in effect in 2011, veterans may face changes in their education benefits and tuition contributions, some of which are still to be worked out. Veterans considering using GI Bill benefits for graduate school should contact VA and school representatives to figure out what their education benefits cover and develop a budget to meet any additional costs.

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