Linda Todd

At GE we recognized that military veterans have a lot to offer. We value your strong work ethic, teamwork, problem solving skills, and ability to perform under great pressure. These skills will serve you well in Corporate America.

The job search is an integral part of your post-military career transition. GE is poised to assist you transition to civilian professional life by providing resources that can be used in your career search. The process starts with your resume.

A resume is a brief summary of your skills, education, experience, and accomplishments. It is a key part of your job search strategy and can give employers a first impression of your professional background and talents. Employers use resumes during the hiring process to better understand your transferrable skills so highlight your most applicable abilities in your resume and provide a verbal picture of your qualifications to catch the recruiter’s attention.

Your resume writing process will begin when you’ve identified a specific job that interests you. Read through the job description and familiarize yourself with the responsibilities, minimum qualifications, desired characteristics, and the business.

 Before you start writing, ask yourself these questions:

  • What are the essential responsibilities and job duties for the open position?
  • What skills did I develop in the military and how can I apply those skills to the open position?
  • How can I contribute to the organization?
  • What are my successes?

Develop a comprehensive “brainstorm” list from the above questions. Highlight what makes you right for the job, emphasize your successes and focus not only on what you did, but how well you did it. Explain how your past experiences make you a good fit for the open position. You want to target your resume to reflect that you understand the qualifications necessary to do the job and are familiar with the specific career field.

Format your resume:

  • Include your name, address, email address, and phone number where you can be reached
  • List job titles, educational background and achievements in reverse chronological history
  • Organize content with dates, which will give us a clear indication of your growth. Be prepared to explain any gap in dates
  • Describe your responsibilities and achievements using bullets
  • Quantify your achievements with numbers when possible
  • Explain acronyms! Remember that we may not understand military lingo

A well designed, concise, and easy-to-read resume quickly sets you apart from other applicants. Make sure that what you include in your resume is relevant to the specific job that you are applying for.

You’re not done!

Get at least three different people to critique your resume and proofread, proofread, proofread! Strive for consistency, grammatical correctness, and visual appeal. Familiarize yourself with your resume, because at any point you could be asked to explain the content in greater detail.

You may also want to think about ways to market the skills that you’ve highlighted in your resume. Are you leveraging social media tools like LinkedIn? Have you considered reaching out to our recruiting team through Twitter at @GEHiresHeroes? Start connecting with people who can advise you about career opportunities at GE or make referrals for you.

With a well written resume, you will have a clear understanding of why you would be a good fit for the position. Remember, in the military you had a great responsibility and opportunities to lead others in challenging situations. That makes you an ideal candidate for jobs in Corporate America so help us learn more about you through your resume. Good luck!

Linda Todd is a Recruiting Specialist supporting the US Recruiting & Staffing Center of Excellence. Her role focuses on expanding military recruiting efforts & talent community outreach, leading social media strategy, and managing recruiting projects for GE Energy & GE Transportation. Linda communicates with the military community through the @GEHiresHeroes Twitter account, where she tweets jobs, news, information on military recruiting efforts, and career advice. Prior to her current role, Linda was a student at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell University.