Tips for Transitioning Veterans

Scott Leishman - AOK STAFFING, LLC - Executive Search and Consultation

(Our focus is 95% on all levels of permanent sales positions across the country)

scott@aokstaffing.com

 

Military Friendly Employers

Algoonik – mostly OCONUS Supply/logistics operations http://www.olgoonik.com

L3 MPRI – OCONUS and US various positions https://app.mpri.com/

SD Watersboten – commissioned regional broker http://www.sdwatersboten.com  Anyone interested should contact Denise Shamro, President via email: denise@sdwatersboten.com.

Wexford – mostly OCONUS Security www.wexfordsecurity.com

Other Resources

LinkedIn – get in and get networked, the more old friends, schoolmates, unit members, the better. Link with me. LinkedIn has its own, free job board. Search jobs, get jobs sent to you. “Follow” companies of interest. Find people you know at companies or in industries of interest. If you find a company or position you like, there is a chance someone you know within the company can refer you…Very powerful tool - LinkedIn Groups. Usually each group will have job postings specific to its members. Here are a few:

·         US Military Veterans Network

·         US Veteran

·         Federal Government Contractor Network (TFCN)

·         Iraq War Veterans

·         Linked-Vets

·         Many, many more by college, branch, military specialty, units and campaigns, job type, areas of interest

·         Make sure your LinkedIn Profile and Resume Match

Job Boards - Indeed.com. CareerBuilder.com Monster.com

Subscription services - Ladders.com and Execunet.com for positions with compensation > $100k

GlassDoor.com – hear what it’s like to work at companies from employee ratings.

Read “Headhunter Hiring Secrets” lots of great tips on job hunting in today’s environment.

Working with Executive Recruiters

Recruiters are generally working for the employer, not the candidate, on a contingency basis, meaning the recruiter doesn’t get paid unless the employer hires one of the recruiter’s candidates. Recruiters are given a specific template for each job position. The employer expects to see candidates that have that kind of experience. If you don’t have the “Musts” in a job description, or are very close, don’t bother sending a resume. There are recruiters who have many similar positions or focus on a specific area (like sales, medical device sales, IT, or accounting.) If you have a specialty, find recruiters who also have that specialty (LinkedIn) and speak with them about your resume and career goals.

If you have multiple specialties and multiple interests, you may need more than one version of a resume so that you can highlight and explain in detail exactly what a particular employer wants to hear, and summarize experiences that aren’t of interest to them.

Good Luck, Scott (former Army Infantry Captain, served with the 25^th ID)

Top 10 Sales Resume Tips

Scott Leishman – VP Executive Recruiting - scott@AOKStaffing.com

914-305-1437 -  www.aokstaffing.com

Top 10 Sales Resume Tips

In my job as an executive recruiter, I am trying to match your background with a specific set of criteria that an employer has given me. For sales positions, it is easy. Employers want to know if you can start selling their stuff tomorrow.  (You understand the technical aspects of and are currently selling their kind of stuff to the decision makers at their target accounts in their open territory.)  If you have a non-compete let me know,

1.   You can help me help you by providing the following info in your resume. Cover letters get lost. You have one ad for you and your skill set – the resume. If you have had a couple of careers, you may need more than one version of your resume. Highlight the activities that are responsive to a specific position, summarize those that aren’t.

2.   Keep a detailed log of where you have applied directly, what recruiters you are working with and where they have submitted you. When you are trying to sell someone on how detail oriented you are, and you talk to three recruiters from the same organization about a job you have already applied to on the company's website, you have shot yourself in the foot while your foot was in your mouth.

3.   Starting at the top – your name, address where you live now, one phone number and email. This tells me if you are in the territory or can commute to it reasonably. To me, people who leave out their address appear to be hiding something. Avoid any funky fonts. Most recruiters have a resume database which ingests and parses your resume. If you have the first letters of your first and last name stylized with a huge script font, you may end up in my database as Ichard Mith instead of Richard Smith. 

4.    Keep the “Greatest Hits” Summary to a minimum. I usually don’t read this.  All of you need to be “hard-working, strategic thinking, aggressive, collaborative, professional, outside the box, closers.”  I am looking for performance details at specific jobs. Worse I see a “Sold $3M on a $2M Quota” in here and I cannot attribute it to a specific position.

5.    Companies – Add a summary sentence or 2 about each company, what they sell, $ volume, representative customers or segment/vertical details.

6.    Within the bullets get specific. “Consistently over quota” is a distant third to “Sold $3.3M on a $3M annual quota.” The best resumes I have seen have a chart of the last 5-10 years of sales performance, listing company, quota, revenue achieved, %, rank versus peers and awards.  Are you selling 3 million $1 products of 12, $250K products? Include representative clients or vertical, and specifics on products sold and key wins. Clear, concise details.

7.    If you have had several positions within the same company, put the time frame for your entire tenure at that company at the top of this section. Employers like tenure.  Then list the time frame for each position under that company.

8.    Explain transitions – companies reduce staff, are purchased, close offices and get out of business verticals.  Adding these details can diminish the “Job Hopper” label.  Add details such as “promoted or recruited” to accentuate reasons for moving within a company or to a new employer.

9.    Make sure your LinkedIn profile matches your resume.  It is the first place people check to begin a reference check, even before they do a phone screen. See #10

10.  BE HONEST – people eventually find out.  If you aren’t a fit for a position, you are wasting your, my and prospective employers’ time.  Worse, you leave a job then have an offer retracted or get fired when the background check finds you didn’t graduate, extended employment timing to fill in gaps, or fabricated anything on your resume, including having graduated from Harvard. Oh, and by the way, ALL of those are actual examples from 2012.

See our Main Website for Job Openings

A complete list of our job openings is available on the AOK Staffing website at http://www.aokstaffing.com/