You may be a bold, audacious, risk-taking warrior. You may do more before dawn than the average person does all day long. You may aim high, be an army of one or a club-card carrying member of the few and the proud. Hooah. Nevertheless, you may tremble in your boots at the very thought of writing your own resume.

Never fear. Help is here.

At some point in your illustrious military career, you may find yourself in need of a resume - the kind that you give to a civilian employer in hopes of landing a job. There are a few nuggets of wisdom to keep in mind before you pen your life story for the world to read.

1. Accept that your resume is written about you, not for you. One of the biggest mistakes that job seekers (including future veterans!) make is thinking that their resumes are written for them. They are not. They are written for a potential employer and it's vital to keep that in mind. What's important to you may not be relevant to the job you're seeking. Relevancy is the operative word here. It will also help in keeping your resume at a manageable reading level of one to two pages.

2. Know your job objective and basic resume format before you begin. First, you have to at least have a clue about what you want to do. Assuming that item is in check, your resume should reflect (whether physically written on it or not) a clear objective. Likewise, your information should be arranged in an easy-to-read format. If you are staying in your current career field and have a steady work history in that area, opt for the chronological format resume. This will highlight your work history, most recent first and working back roughly ten years. It should reflect career progression and increased responsibility.
   

   If, on the other hand, you want to change career fields, consider using the functional format resume. Instead of predominately highlighting your work history, this type of resume brings your areas of expertise to the forefront. You should still include a work history, but later in your document. Focus instead on your relevant skills, abilities and experiences.
   

3. Don't confuse your resume with your military evaluation reports. Using the catch phrases and buzzwords on your NCO-ERs and OERs may seem like a quick fix. It is a quick fix…for a resume disaster. Certainly refer to your evaluations in order to capture specific accomplishments and numbers that you should include in your resume. After that, put them aside and concentrate on bringing your resume to life with active words and not canned job descriptions.
   

4. Use “resume” sentences reflecting the language of the industry you’re targeting. Forget everything you ever knew about correct sentence structure. In writing your resume, avoid using personal pronouns such as “I, me, or my.” Start your sentences with an active verb and quantify where possible. For example, instead of saying “I supervised soldiers” write “Effectively supervised 24 employees.” Drop the “I,” translate the word “soldiers” and give the reader a true picture of your scope of competence and responsibility.
   

   Should you translate your military lingo into real English? That depends. If you are targeting a job within the defense community, you may be able to get away with using the military-ese you've mastered in uniform. You should consider who will most likely be reading your resume and write appropriately. If you are seeking a purely civilian position, definitely translate the jargon.
   

5. Understand that one size does not fit all. You may secretly harbor the misconception that once you've written your resume, it is done. In a perfect world, that would be the case. Our world is a different story. You must accept two ideas here. First, you may wind up writing several drafts of your resume before it's really good. It's worth the effort and frustration to do this. Second, once you've finally written a good one you may still have to tweak and tailor it for specific job opportunities. In other words, it's a never-ending work in progress. If you accept and apply these views, then you will increase your chances of being summoned to the sought-after interview.

• Jobs and the Military Spouse
• Military-to-Civilian Career Transition Guide