Questions about my resume.

LFry94

1Lt
5-Year Member
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Sep 29, 2011
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Hello! I have a few quick questions about my resume and was hoping to get some insight from you guys. I've been reading that there's a specific format that our resumes should be written in... Well, I already turned mine in, and I never saw this requirement that people seem to speak of.

My questions are:
1. Is it really a requirement to list EC and work experience in a specific format?
2. If so, is it too late for me to contact them and have my resume changed? (I didn't follow the format I've been seeing posted, but I've already had my resume processed.)
3. Is the resume limited to 2000 words, or 2000 characters? I submitted my resume with around 1900 words, because I outlined my EC/experience and then wrote a paragraph explaining my involvement in each. It let me submit my resume with 1900ish words, so I assumed it was okay...

I hope I didn't make a fool of myself by submitting an invalid resume! :redface:

Thanks for your help! :rolleyes:
 
First question.
Did you have your ALO review your resume before you submitted it?

Second question.
If not, why not? Your ALO is your Liaison to the AFA, they are there to assist you in this process. They also are the ones that know your competition in you area and will be able to highlight your strengths while de-emphasizing your weaknesses.

Think about it I bet at least a few of their candidates will be on at least your Congressional slate...those candidates are your competition which you need to beat out with your WCS. Their advise is invaluable.

~~~ Plus they write your rec which is a part of your WCS.

If you did ask; and they said submit you have your answer. You don't need to get opinions here.

Remember many of the posters here in your yr group are in the exact same boat as you, thus if you rely on their answers you are relying on people who have yet to be apptd. The blind leading the blind. ALO's are trained by the AFA to be an ALO.

Third question.
Have you pulled up your directions for submission?

If you have than again there is no reason to ask any of these questions because they will be clearly stated...i.e. it will say 2000 characters or words. It may say up to, but it def. will say characters or words in the directions.

Part of the big key here is following directions, because that is what the military impart is about.

I know for many colleges they stress that before any essay is read they will place it through a counter and draw a line at that exact number. Anything after it is masked (covered), hence if it is 2000 characters and that ended at your 1151st word, 750 words will never be read. If it ended in mid sentence, so be it, that is what you will be reviewed upon.

It is not only about following directions, but also making your argument for selection succinctly.

As far as re-submission, again ask your ALO or pm Flieger or CC. I don't have the answer, but my guesstimate would be no they will not allow you to re-submit. They gave you directions and it was up to you to follow those directions. Afterall, if they allowed you to re-submit imagine every kid who didn't proof their essay before hitting submit, but later realized that spell check auto corrected there to their, too to to, or Inn to in, so on and so forth, who now wants to correct their spelling.

JMPO, now through that in the recycling filing cabinet and move forward. I don't mean to sound harsh, if it comes across that way, please understand, my post is more about you can find out the answers via your ALO. Too many times candidates on this site rely heavier on posters here and "don't want to bother their ALO". ALO's are volunteer positions, they enjoy this job, so just remember that they opted to hold candidates hands for the yr. They want to be in the loop for you during this time.
 
First question.
Did you have your ALO review your resume before you submitted it?

Second question.
If not, why not? Your ALO is your Liaison to the AFA, they are there to assist you in this process. They also are the ones that know your competition in you area and will be able to highlight your strengths while de-emphasizing your weaknesses.

Think about it I bet at least a few of their candidates will be on at least your Congressional slate...those candidates are your competition which you need to beat out with your WCS. Their advise is invaluable.

~~~ Plus they write your rec which is a part of your WCS.

If you did ask; and they said submit you have your answer. You don't need to get opinions here.

Remember many of the posters here in your yr group are in the exact same boat as you, thus if you rely on their answers you are relying on people who have yet to be apptd. The blind leading the blind. ALO's are trained by the AFA to be an ALO.

Third question.
Have you pulled up your directions for submission?

If you have than again there is no reason to ask any of these questions because they will be clearly stated...i.e. it will say 2000 characters or words. It may say up to, but it def. will say characters or words in the directions.

Part of the big key here is following directions, because that is what the military impart is about.

I know for many colleges they stress that before any essay is read they will place it through a counter and draw a line at that exact number. Anything after it is masked (covered), hence if it is 2000 characters and that ended at your 1151st word, 750 words will never be read. If it ended in mid sentence, so be it, that is what you will be reviewed upon.

It is not only about following directions, but also making your argument for selection succinctly.

As far as re-submission, again ask your ALO or pm Flieger or CC. I don't have the answer, but my guesstimate would be no they will not allow you to re-submit. They gave you directions and it was up to you to follow those directions. Afterall, if they allowed you to re-submit imagine every kid who didn't proof their essay before hitting submit, but later realized that spell check auto corrected there to their, too to to, or Inn to in, so on and so forth, who now wants to correct their spelling.

JMPO, now through that in the recycling filing cabinet and move forward. I don't mean to sound harsh, if it comes across that way, please understand, my post is more about you can find out the answers via your ALO. Too many times candidates on this site rely heavier on posters here and "don't want to bother their ALO". ALO's are volunteer positions, they enjoy this job, so just remember that they opted to hold candidates hands for the yr. They want to be in the loop for you during this time.

I emailed my ALO but he's on holiday, and I know I'll get a faster response here. That's why I asked here as well. :thumb:

As for the directions regarding the resume, I'd love to go check them, but the application page doesn't let you check them after you have submitted your resume. Again, that's why I asked here, because I am hoping someone can give me a quick response. :smile: If I recall from my memory correctly, the directions said 2000 words, but after reading other forum posts about keeping the resume short I have started to doubt my own memory. :confused:

Honestly, I completed the whole process on my own (minus the CFA), before I found these forums. And, part of my problem is that I started out with an ALO who never responded to my emails, because he was in the reserves and had been placed on active duty. (That's my understanding of what he told me anyways.) So I was going to MOC interviews and filling out the application without the support or knowledge of an ALO. I did end up having a new ALO assigned to me later on, but that took a while.

I'm not afraid to "bother" my ALO, I just didn't have one at the time... or knew what one was for that matter.

So to answer your questions:
1. No I did not have an ALO read my resume before I submitted it. :frown:
2. Because I didn't even know what an ALO was, due to the fact that my ALO didn't respond to me.
3. I can't pull up the directions, because the ability to read the directions is disabled immediately after you submit your resume. (Unless there are more directions somewhere that I don't know about.)

Thank you for your response; I really do appreciate it. Hopefully I will get an email back from my ALO soon. :rolleyes:

In the mean time, if any applicants that haven't completed their resume yet have the time, could you let me know if the requirement is 2000 words or characters?
 
Lfry,

The beauty of this site is that you can look in the history of threads posted. Logic told me that this question would have been posed in the early fall time frame, so I hit page 6. Lo and behold this is the thread I found

http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=22520

For the essays on the application, the site says "250 to 300 words, 3000 characters max." I wrote an essay that is 500 words, yet only 2500 characters. Will this be okay?
 
Lfry,

The beauty of this site is that you can look in the history of threads posted. Logic told me that this question would have been posed in the early fall time frame, so I hit page 6. Lo and behold this is the thread I found

http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=22520

Thank you, but that refers to the essay, not the resume. My questions is about the resume.

The resume explains extra curricular participation, as where the essay is a response to two of the three essay prompts they give you.

I searched and found nothing about resume length. :frown:
 
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