Put the Uniform Away on Friday, Started the Job on Monday

I put my uniform in storage on a Friday and on Monday I started a job with the government. When I decided to get out I was about a year and a half out from my ETS date. I was a nine-year SSG (P) with a few marketable skills and no college degrees. Got a wife and at that point I had no children. My only "goal" was to have a job waiting for me when I took terminal leave. These are the questions I asked myself a year and a half out. 1. What do I want to do? Then what will I do if I don't get the job I really want? My job now was actually plan C of five logical avenuees I could take. My two dream jobs just didn't work out, but a couple of my back-up plans did. 2. What does my resume say about me? What do I offer future employers? A good clean resume was the hardest and most important part of my job hunting process.

• Some of the big things I learned:
• Resumes are not 1 size fits all. I have four different resumes custom fit for four different jobs.
• Bullet Points read so much more easier than paragraph style.
• And it pays to have someone "write" a professional resume for you but it does not pay to have someone "write" a federal resume. I found USAjobs was easy once I had a nice solid resume.

When I started exploring USAjobs I asked myself how does this site (and its sister sites) work? The single most important lesson someone explained to me was the importance of tailoring your resume and application to the the "duties" section. He explained how the initial resumes are often filtered by computer, by personnel who probably know nothing about the actual job. They are only looking for keywords that match the "duties" section. After a couple "no gos" I tightened my shot group and targeted those duties WORD FOR WORD. Then I started getting call backs from organizations. Get your heiny in the door then wow them with your deep vault of practical knowledge or shining personality face to face.

Hope that helps somebody... (Submitted by R. Flores)