The method behind the madness:

• A lot of interviewers open with it as an icebreaker or because they’re still getting organized, but they all use it to get a sense what you think is important.
• Many interviewers want to see how articulate and confident you are to determine what type of impression you would make on the people with whom you would come into contact on the job. 

The wrong response:

• DO NOT, under any circumstances, ask, “What do you want to know?” This tells the interviewer that you are unprepared for the interview and, potentially, the job. Have a plan and rehearse it.
• Avoid rambling, recapping your life story, or digging into ancient work history or personal matters. Understand that, as harsh as this may sound, the interviewer really doesn’t want to know about you as a person. Not yet anyway.

The correct response:

• The interviewer wants to know that you can do the job, fit into the team, are ambitious and accomplished in your prior positions, and how can you help their organization. Start with your most recent experience and explain why you are well qualified for the position. Sell what the buyer is buying.
• Hiring managers don’t want to look unprepared by reading your military resume in front of you, so provide them some topics to ask you about. Properly answered, this question can put you in the driver’s seat and steer the interview in a positive direction.
• Be brief – offer two or three interesting things that may be useful to the interviewer. Your answer should take about one minute.

Rather than dread this question, embrace it. Prepare an answer and practice it. With a well-planned strategy, it allows you to set the tone for the rest of the interview, setting you up to answer the questions you most want to answer.

1. Myth: All government jobs are in Washington, DC.

Fact: Only 15% of federal jobs are actually in DC…

2. Myth: Federal government salaries are low.

Fact: Actually, government salaries have risen faster and higher than private sector salaries. In most cases you will find they are very competitive. In fact, it’s been reported from 2000 to 2008, the pay for federal civilian employees skyrocketed 57%, while the pay for workers in the private sector grew by only 31%. And the White House recently proposed a 1.4% pay increase for federal employees.

3. Myth: To get into the federal government you have to be connected…

Fact: If that was the case, then the government wouldn’t currently have over 60,000 job openings worldwide. Don’t you think the people that know the current government workforce would have networked their way in if that was the case? Networking always helps…

4. Myth: The government is not hiring for what I do.

Fact: The OPM (Office of Personnel Management) uses a classification of 21 occupational groups and families for all GS (General Schedule) positions…. there are literally hundreds of job titles.

5. Myth: The federal government is one huge bureaucracy.

Fact: The Government is made up of several entities. Each of the over 300 departments and agencies operates as their own stand alone “corporation” within a network of agencies designed to serve the best interest of America. Some do operate more efficiently than others, and are more progressive than others. Based on your agency research, consider 3-5 agencies you would like to further explore.

6. Myth: All federal jobs are posted on usajobs.gov.

Fact: Only about 70% are on usajobs.gov. Many jobs are on each federal agency website. And some are not posted on the sites at all.

7. Myth: The federal hiring process is so long and complicated.

Fact: The federal hiring process differs from private sector hiring, and federal resume writing is different. But the process does not have to be long. There are programs, tips, and opportunities that drastically speed up the process…

To these 7 myths, I would like to add an 8th.

8. Myth: If I apply to enough federal jobs using my standard military resume, something will stick.

Fact: As Houston stated in myth #7, federal resume writing, especially federal military resume writing, is different. Federal military resumes must be carefully key-worded. Unfortunately, this is a little known fact among veterans seeking federal employment. As a federal job search trainer, I know this to be true. I hear the same story time and time again: “I’ve been applying for federal jobs for 6 months and haven’t received a response.” But there is good news; this doesn’t have to be your fate. Consider hiring the professionals at MilitaryResumes.com. Our professional military resume writers are experts are targeting federal military resumes using federal resume writing processes that produce results.

1. Sales
2. CPA
3. Tax
4. Business Development
5. Marketing
6. Controller
7. Healthcare
8. Human Resources
9. Insurance
10. Software
11. Manufacturing
12. Finance
13. Retail
14. CFO
15. Medical Device
16. Pharmaceutical
17. Sales Manager
18. Software Sales
19. Financial Advisor
20. Pharmacist
21. Medical
22. Supply Chain
23. SAP
24. Accounting
25. Medical Sales
26. Account Executive
27. Audit
28. Tax Manager
29. Food
30. Engineer
31. Recruiter
32. Product Manager
33. Construction
34. Manager
35. Project Manager
36. Oracle
37. HVAC
38. Java
39. Operations
40. Director
41. Inside Sales
42. Hospital
43. Attorney
44. Call Center
45. SEC
46. Packaging
47. Pharmacy
48. Physician
49. Outsourcing
50. International Tax
51. Logistics
52. Deloitte
53. FAS 109
54. Compliance
55. SAAS
56. Real Estate
57. Electrical Engineer
58. Nurse
59. SEC Reporting
60. Security
61. Technology
62. Storage
63. Energy
64. ERP
65. Aerospace
66. Procurement
67. Private Equity
68. RN
69. Business Intelligence
70. Compensation
71. Cisco
72. C++
73. Engineering
74. Mechanical Engineer
75. Ikon
76. CPG
77. Chemical
78. ADP
79. Bank
80. Banking
81. Mortgage
82. Financial Services
83. IT
84. Business Analyst
85. Advertising
86. Accountant
87. KPMG
88. Product Development
89. Wealth Management
90. Transportation
91. Sales Engineer
92. Internal Audit
93. Benefits
94. BPO
95. Litigation
96. Lean
97. Series 7
98. Telecommunications
99. Government
100. CRM

In an article posted on www.fistfuloftalent.com entitled “In Memorium: Obituary of the (Dys)Functional Resume“, Dawn Hrdlica (PHR), an HR manager for MailSouth with over 10 years of HR experience, memorializes the death of the functional resume. According to Hrdlica, a functional format is only suitable for “experience too limiting to be forthright.”

Functional resumes begin with a professional summary that lists primary functional skills, such as project management, maintenance, reorganization, etc. This is followed by skills and significant achievements for each of the primary functional skill sets. Next is a tabular summary of employment (depending on the military resume), followed by education and certifications. Hrdlica’s issues with functional resumes are outlined in the following excerpt:

“Why am I frustrated with functional resumes and professionals who recommend them?

a)    If I see a functional resume, I know you are trying to hide something.  Or someone has advised you to hide something.

b)   They are difficult to read-too much text, no CONTEXT.

c)    They give the recruiter too much power.  Why?  By eliminating important details such as chronological order to your accomplishments, candidates are letting recruiters fill in the blanks for your story.  Never a good idea.

d)   It makes me believe that you are not confident enough with your work history or skills to be confident enough to work for my organization.

e) If you don’t have any work experience-GET SOME.”

In my opinion, there are three problems with functional resumes. First, they do not provide hiring managers with enough information. As a hiring authority, how am I to know if you have three months or three years of “project management” experience? Second, they come across as suspicious. Functional resumes are popular among people with something to hide, such as habitual “job hoppers” and those with large gaps in their employment history. Third, they tend to be heavy on empty phrases like, “exceptional leadership skills.” To a seasoned resume reviewer, this means nothing. A great resume leads the reader, on his or her own, to come up with the very assertions you would like to make. Aim to show not tell – a hard order to fill with a functional resume.

The best format choice for military-experienced job seekers aiming to highlight progressive leadership experience is a reverse chronological resume. This is the format always used by the professional military resume writers at the nation’s leading military resume writing company, www.MilitaryResumes.com. A reverse chronological resume lists employment with the most recent position first. Each entry includes the company, job title, dates, and a job description with an emphasis on accomplishments, and includes an education or certifications section.

In summary, readers want your military resume in a certain format. List your work experiences in reverse chronological order rather than by function performed. If collateral duties and multiple, simultaneous jobs make your reverse chronological timeline somewhat difficult to follow, add a “collateral duties” or “additional experience” section and keep the focus on experience most relevant to your target. While a functional resume may make you feel better about representing your skills, it will not please the reader and you could miss opportunities because your resume ended up in the trash.

1. Avoid applying for a job for which you are not remotely qualified for.

2. Avoid a lofty mission statement. Instead, convey to the reader that you understand his or her hiring needs and can best meet those needs.

3. Do not use a generic resume for every job listing.

4. Don’t make recruiters or hiring managers guess how exactly you can help their client.

5. Explain how past experience translates to a new experience.

6. Include a cover letter.

7. Do not be careless with the details (i.e. no typos)!

Because #1 (do not apply for a job for which you are not remotely qualified) and #5 (explain how past experience translates to a new experience) seem slightly contradictory, I’d like to include the following excerpt:

*Though candidates should avoid jobs where they have no experience, they absolutely should pursue new areas and positions if they can position their experience effectively. A high school English teacher applying for new jobs, for example, can cite expertise in human resource management, people skills, recordkeeping, writing, and training, says Anthony Pensabene, a professional writer who works with executives.

“Titles are just semantics; candidates need to relate their ‘actual’ skills and experiences to the job they’re applying for in their resume,” Pensabene says. An applicant who cannot be bothered to identify the parallels between the two likely won’t be bothered with interviews, either.

In this competitive job market, hiring managers can count on an influx of resumes unlike anything they have seen before. However, chances are the majority of those resumes will commit one or more of the 7 resume sins. Capitalize on this fact. Take this advice to heart or hire a professional military resume writer. The professionals at Military Resumes can create or edit your military resume to free you of transgressions and make you stand out from the crowd.

Get with the times. Know where the jobs are. Network.

It’s time to face the facts. Nearly everyone is using social networking web sites these days. I recently read an article that stated at last count, LinkedIn had over 60 million users. In contrast, job boards only contain about 3.5% of available jobs. This is common knowledge in the career industry, but it seems to be a little known fact within the community of military job seekers. Military job seekers spend an inordinate amount of time on job boards relative to the likelihood of actually finding a job on them. Why is this? Because it feels safer and it’s what they know. LinkedIn and similar sites, which are all about networking and socializing in an unfamiliar environment, can be intimidating. Make it your New Year’s resolution to get with the times and push yourself outside of your comfort zone. And don’t overlook companies like Bradley-Morris, Inc. and CivilianJobs.com. These leaders in placing military-experienced job seekers into the Fortune 1000 and emerging company sectors have done and will continue to do a substantial amount of corporate networking on behalf of military talent.

Understand your audience. Develop your brand.

Gone are the days of the monotonous objective statement – hallelujah! Objective statements are out; personal branding is in. Looking for a job is a sales situation. You are your product. To effectively brand your product, you must know your audience. Got your eye on that dream job with a stable company? Resolve to do some research. What are their two biggest needs right now that you could potentially fill? At Military Resumes, a professional military resume writer can align the “who you are” with the “what they need” in your most important marketing tool – your military resume. Let’s say that you are a career military recruiter looking to join an exciting start-up company. Your brand might be: “Seasoned Recruiter and Marketing Guru… Offering to drive growth by generating qualified leads, penetrating territories, and closing the toughest sales, consistently!”. Now carry your brand forward in your social networking profiles.

Treat your job search like a game.

Treat your job search like a game and plan to win. Set a goal for 2010. Maybe your goal is to get a job before you retire in March. Set up a strategy where you must do X number of things per day. Keep running totals, complete with which actions scored better results than others. For example, if setting up a meeting over coffee with just one individual lands more contacts and job referrals than sending out 30 e-mails, adjust your strategy accordingly. Everyone has a game-playing style that works for them. Find out which job search actions work best for you and focus on using them to get you to the winner’s circle.

The first question about e-mailing your military resume is whether to send it as an attachment or just paste it into the body of the email. Keep in mind that attachments may take up too much space in the recipient’s inbox, harbor security threats, or get blocked by a company’s security system. Furthermore, busy hiring professionals may not take the time to open an attachment. However, Word or PDF attachments are more attractively formatted than pasted-in text resumes and PDF attachments can’t be messed with. So what is a military job seeker to do?

• Try to do exactly what the company or hiring professional requested or find out what they prefer.
• When in doubt, try sending your military resume both ways; consider sending two e-mails: one with the military resume pasted in and one with the military resume pasted in as well as attached.

If you plan to paste your military resume into an e-mail, start the e-mail with a brief introduction of yourself (two paragraphs of two to three lines each, max) in place of a military cover letter. At the end of the introduction, indicate that you’ve pasted in your military resume following your signature and, of course, copy and paste your military resume accordingly. Here are some tips for formatting your pasted-in military resume.

• Keep each line short – between 45 and 60 characters.
• Use spaces instead of tabs for indenting.
• Use capitalization instead of bolding to emphasize text.
• Do not use exclamation marks in the subject line or body of the military resume.

A great way to get a hiring professional’s attention is to identify an issue or offer a solution within the subject line. This is an example of an attention-grabbing subject header: “Re: reducing operating costs by 20%”. And finally, make sure you follow-up, by phone, to ensure your military resume was accepted.

Now that you have positioned yourself for emailing success, you may be eager to hit the send button. Not so fast! Squeaking by the spam filter will do you no good with an ineffective military resume. It’s your resume’s job to land you an interview in this scenario. To accomplish this, your military resume should convey your ability to fulfill critical hiring needs within the target organization. Consider consulting the professional military resume writers at Military Resumes to ensure your military resume, newly received and read, makes the best first impression possible.

Many well-intentioned requisites, such as minimum years of experience and/or educational requirements, actually end-up working against hiring managers… and it is only a matter of time before this truth reveals itself. Who would you rather hire? A person who has 10 years of experience with marginal accomplishments and little ambition or an individual who outperforms all of their peers, no matter their length of experience, even though they’ve only been in the industry for seven years? At the end of the day, hiring managers are really looking for a return on their hiring investment and not a piece of paper or an arbitrary number.

The fact that some companies focus too narrowly on their industries often scares off military job seekers as well. But while an HR representative may be the one to point out that an otherwise impressive military-experienced candidate lacks specific experience with widget X, the CEO might not be willing to pass up a candidate with a documented track record of success improving efficiencies in their military unit and performing under challenging circumstances.

The success of the nation’s leading military-focused recruiting firm, Bradley-Morris, Inc. (BMI), in matching military job seekers with careers in the Fortune 1000 is evidence that military experience is valuable within a variety of industries. BMI markets the value of military experience and works with companies who need perpetual sources of talent, diverse candidates and team-oriented individuals – all of which are found in the military talent pool. Since 1991, BMI has helped companies understand which military occupational specialties have proven successful in their industry previously – no widget X experience necessary.

So now that we’ve revealed these “obstacles” for what they really are – arbitrary requests unlikely to be exactly matched – how should a military job seeker surmount them? I suggest starting with your military resume. With so many resumes circulating today, if military job seekers do not communicate their transferability in 15-20 seconds, they will not get a second look. So during this difficult economic time where military job seekers might opt to skimp on their military resumes, understand that by doing so, they may also be skimping on their futures. I highly suggest investing your time in communicating your value more effectively and convincingly. Your job search will be the better for it.

Or, if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, trust your experience and military resume to professional military resume writers (the writers at Military Resumes are experts in demonstrating transferability in their clients’ military resumes), ones who will represent you as the next best fit… next to the one that doesn’t exist!

I’m often asked, “Well, if I need [keywords], how do I know what [keywords] to use?” Here is a simple list of some great places to begin growing your keyword list.

Use Your Brain
I’m not being cheeky by saying that. I think we often overlook our own common sense because the online tools are so convenient.

Sit down with a blank paper and come up with as many industry specific nouns as you can. Don’t judge what happens, now is the time to get as big a list as possible. Later, we’ll hone it down.

Use Related Job Descriptions
I always tell people that job boards are good for at least one thing…finding job descriptions to mine for keywords. Companies will often (not always) include the keywords they look for when screen resumes in the descriptions.

Find 5-10 related job descriptions (doesn’t matter what location) and pick out the nouns that seem to be recurring. Add them to your list.

Read the Book!
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a book every year called the, “Occupational Outlook Handbook” which you can download for free. It lists out job descriptions for each category of job.

Find your job description and mine for nouns to add to your list.

Use Google’s Keyword Tools
Another great place to brainstorm for keywords is Google’s keyword tool. Now that you have a longer list of possible keywords, begin to plug them into Google’s Keyword tool. It will produce a list of keyword terms that are being searched. This indicates the current popularity of the term and possibly it’s viability in your social media profiles.

Make You Top 10
Now that you have a long list of words, and you have a sense of how popular those words are it’s time to cross off the ones that wont work and keep the ones that will. I like to have a top 10 list.

10 is an easy number to manage and to keep in mind while writing your profiles.

Joshua Waldman is a Social Media Career Consultant, lecturer and blogger for www.CareerEnlightenment.net. He has an MBA from Boston University and over 4 years experience working with Project Managers and Engineers in IT.

At Military Resumes, professional military resume writers litter their clients’ military resumes with keywords.  For more information on professional military resume writing services, please visit www.MilitaryResumes.com.

The Order also establishes a Veterans Employment Program office within most federal agencies. These offices will be responsible for helping veterans identify employment opportunities within those federal agencies, providing feedback to veterans about their employment application and military resume status, and helping veterans recently employed by these agencies adjust to a civilian workplace culture. Also of note, the Office of Personnel Management will issue a government-wide strategic plan that will focus on creating leadership commitment and an infrastructure in each agency to promote employment success for veterans. The strategic plan will also include marketing strategies aimed at agency hiring managers as well as veterans and transitioning service members.

The initiative’s timeline was not made clear in the press release. But there has never been a better time to explore federal employment opportunities and build your military federal resume. At the end of the fiscal year 2008, there were approximately 480,000 veterans employed by the federal government. It has been and will continue to be the largest employer of veterans. Find your ideal federal career at www.usajobs.gov. For reputable, professional federal military resume writing services, please visit www.MilitaryResumes.com.