You could also get "Marketing Yourself for a Second Career," updated January 1997, which is put out by The Retired Officers Association, 201 N. Washington St., Alexandria VA 22314-2529. The booklet is free if you are/were an officer*.

TROA's number is (703) 838-8117 or 1-800-245-8762.

*As of 3-4-97, Col. H. W. Buse III, USMC (Ret'd) has offered to send the book free to enlisted folks too, as long as he can meet the demand. E-mail him your request at this address: buzz@troa.org

The main thing you need to keep in mind in writing your resume is to NOT just record what you did in the military. You need to START with a civilian job-objective and some information on what kind of work that job specifically involves. THEN look at your military experience and SEE WHAT APPLIES to the civilian job, and describe that relevant experience in CIVILIAN language. It's a kind of translation process -- the civilian employer is not going to be able to do this FOR you so it's up to you.

There ARE people in both the military unit you're leaving AND in the local employment offices, people whose specific job is to help you find out how your military experience translates into civilian language and job titles. It's crucial to get that straight, and NOT to expect that the civilian employers can understand the relevance of your military experience if YOU don't make it clear for them.

I hope this is helpful.

--Yana

P.S. ANY READERS who know more about military-to-civilian translation, please contact Yana.

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 8. "How do I include my salary history? The company said to send it along with my resume." --Kelly

Kelly, just because they ASKED for it doesn't mean you have to supply it!

In fact, it will just about NEVER be in your best interest to supply salary history information before you've been interviewed and offered the job.

So you have to GRACEFULLY STALL. Don't ignore the request (they'll just repeat it or think you weren't paying attention). Instead, acknowledge their request and then: artfully dodge! You might say (in your cover letter accompanying the resume) "Regarding your request for salary history, I would prefer to discuss salary at the time of my interview." If the question comes up on an application blank that you simply HAVE to fill out before being interviewed, you STILL dodge, writing "Will discuss at the interview." If the employer is impressed with your resume, they will want to interview you and your failure to supply your salary history will rarely stop them from calling you in.

Once you're AT the interview, the negotiating game begins in earnest, and you want to be very well prepared, because it can make a LOT of difference, financially.

Good books to read on the ART OF SALARY NEGOTIATION include:

• Sweaty Palms by Anthony Medley (Ten Speed Press)

• Negotiating Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute by Jack Chapman (Ten Speed Press)

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9. There's a job I want, and I think I could do it, but I have practically NO experience to put on my resume. What can I do? -- Vivian

Vivian, there are several ways to fix the situation, depending on whether you mean lack of ANY experience, lack of PAID experience, or lack of RELEVANT experience. Pick one or more of these solutions:

a) FIX IT. Get some minimal experience in the field before you apply for the REAL job you want -- through short-term temporary employment, or by briefly working for free in a similar role, if at all possible. Just having a LITTLE experience can get your foot in the door.

b) VIEW "experience" differently. Make sure you are counting ALL your experience, whether it involved pay or not. Volunteer work, self-employment, or even a hobby, ALL COUNT AS EXPERIENCE. You can even include this unpaid work in your Work History to help prove you have skills and experience. All you have to do is think up a reasonable job title for the Unpaid work (for example, "Freelance Guitarist" or "Coordinator of Volunteers" or "Owner/Manager") and be sure to label your work history section WORK HISTORY rather than EMPLOYMENT HISTORY.

c) Demonstrate your potential. If you're just entering the work force, after being in school, and have no paid work history, then use a functional format for your resume and include school activities where you gained skills -- for example:

• Working on a school paper or yearbook (researching, editing, writing, selling ads);

• Coaching sports;

• Class projects in science, photography, marketing, etc.;

• Helping promote a concert or school event;

• Holding an office in a school club.

You could also include a paragraph called "Relevant Coursework" and list every course you took that directly relates to the kind of work you want.

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 10. "I appreciate the information and tips on resumes. However, I am having a hard time finding actual examples of resumes." --Judith

Judith, you are absolutely right, I have not gotten around to posting enough actual resume EXAMPLES on my website. However, a colleague of mine has posted some of my resume examples on HER website -- called JOBSTAR, so the fastest way to see them is to go THERE. (But don't forget to come back!)

Questions 11-20 -- 21-30 -- 31-40 -- 41-50 -- 51.. 52

MORE locations on this website that answer questions asked by job-hunters and resume writers:

• "Twenty-Four Hot Tips on Resume Writing"
• "Tough Problems and Resumes That Provide Solutions" -- Excerpts from The Resume Catalog
• "Resume Pro Newsletter" -- Sample articles from past issues

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