21: The Résumé

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US Air Force
US Department of Defense

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An up-to-date biography is an invaluable tool to help you build a résumé. Although the résumé is not an official Air Force document, it is discussed here to help you when you begin your transition to the private sector work force.

The résumé serves at least two functions: the individual components of the résumé convey important information about your knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the job while the résumé as a whole presents a picture of you and your experience to create a positive first impression. With a good first impression, you can rise above the competition and get to the interview stage where you will need to employ all the skills of effective speaking discussed earlier in this volume. The challenge is to produce a résumé that gets noticed.

Getting noticed is even more difficult today with the advent résumé search engines, online résumé sites, and software applications that make job applications easier to complete. While these advances make applying for a job easier they also increase the size of the applicant pool. However, with a good résumé at the ready you can master just about any online job application or résumé-building software. One advantage of the résumé-building software used by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website is the format standardization of all résumés-you cannot set the format and neither can anyone else-so make your résumé shine by building your résumé to accomplish a specific function and organizing your content to achieve that function. With a few simple steps you can create focus within the résumé and clearly link your knowledge, skills, abilities and experience to the qualities the employer is seeking.