Former
military personnel have one advantage over their civilian counterparts:
documented evaluations. Use them.
Each evaluation
should describe your duties, the number of people you were responsible
for, and will point out bulleted, performance-related results. Use these
RESULTS to sell yourself. Employers need to see accomplishments
that they can relate to with regard to the open position. The hiring
manager will want to know "What can this individual do for me?"
When it comes to getting a job, past performance is the best indicator
of future success. This is what you need to do:
QUANTIFY:
Describe what you accomplished with numbers and percentages. Explain
how many times annually, what percentage of increase or decrease you
produced, how large a group you supervised or trained or the dollar
value of equipment under your guidance. Here are some examples:
- Supervised
14 member staff
- Produced
150% over quota for eight consecutive months
- Resulted
in $250,000 savings
- Administered
travel budget of $15 million
- Reduced
inventory loss by 20%
- Developed
training program for a 600 person organization
Your previous
evaluations SHOULD have this type of action-oriented successes.
