Another Resume question

[Joca]

Hello everyone,

I graduated with a degree in Forestry in 1995, and I had a difficult time finding good paying jobs in forestry.  Here is a link to the resume that I am working on

http://members.cox.net/lebellap/resume.htm

My career did not go the way I planned, and the last few years have left me wanting to get back to the outdoors and the field of forestry.

I am hoping that someone in this forum may be able to throw some constructive critisism my way and help improve my chances before I start applying for jobs.  The resume is not quite a finished product, so any suggestions would be welcomed.  I am currently employed, but would like to land a job that meant something to me.

Is there any chance of me to getting a descent job as a forester?  If not, what would you suggest I look into?  Thanks for any help you can provide.

[beenthere]

Sorry to hear you are having problems finding the job you want. Probably good to ask the question, to try to find out more about why this is not happening.

Look at your resume as if you were hiring someone to do a "foresters' job. What in your resume would you see that would make you pick it out of a stack of others also wanting to be hired?  Take the objective first.  "provide all of the knowledge and experience considered necessary for a life-long career...""  That is pretty general, and pretty impossible to attain, in my opinion. And it is not what someone wants to hire you to do for them. Make your objective exciting for you and more to the point, and such that it will be easier for the employer to want to pick you for their staff.

Education - point out the courses that you liked that you feel will help you do the work for someone looking for help. Just to say you have that BS degree doesn't give any specifics. Because the degree is almost 9 years old, you are not likely on the cutting edge for someone to hire for the "latest" methods used in Forestry (not that there are any, but application may have changed, and software to assist application has likely changed). Hits against you are jobs outside of the Forestry career, which I understand is not the way you planned or wanted it to be. But it is reality, and what you need to overcome some way or another.

My suggestion would be to join the Society of American Foresters, attend their local and State meetings, and rub elbows with others in Forestry. This is in hopes that you can show others what you know, what you want in life, and learn from them what their Forestry careers are like, and what they are doing in Forestry.

Forestry is a good, but general, education in many areas. Doubtfully anyone gets ""all the knowledge and experience necessary for a life-long career"".  

Also, on your resume you might indicate the reasons you moved to a different job, hopefully it was for more responsibility and in persuit of some of your goals to becomming a Forester.

I hope this helps. Wish you luck, and keep looking at the bright side of your pursuit.

[Joca]

Thank you for your honesty.  I do realize it will be difficult to break into the field, and the SAF suggestion is a good one.  I will certainly renew my membership.  

Maybe I could look into related fields.  I might try to talk to some local foresters, and ask if I could help out part time and learn the ropes (while keeping my current job).  Kind of like an internship.

Are there any other groups like SAF that would be worth looking into?

[rebocardo]

I am lousy at writing resumes. Though your first sentence sticks out wrong:

> To attain a position that will provide all of the knowledge
> and experience considered necessary for a life long
> career in the field of Forest Management.

It is what you are supplying to them and not what they supply to you that counts. Consider they take 100% and give 0%.

Why should they supply you with knowledge and experience and have you take a life long career somewhere else?

Make your first sentence count.

Howza about:

'I am looking for a company where I can bring my knowledge and experience to bear for long term employment."

[Ron Wenrich]

Who do you want to work for?  Forestry is a fairly diverse field.  But, you can work for either government, industry, or associations.  

Industry hires procurement foresters.  They do some management work, but not quite as intense as consultants or government.  Consultants are hard to break into, and you'll be doing a good bit of selling your services.  Government can be hard to get into, and you might have to start at a lower level and part time.

For industry, you need to develop some skills.  rocurement foresters have to be able to buy timber.  They also have to be able to recognize quality, unless you're just buying fiber.  I started working at a sawmill as a lumber stacker.  Eventually made it to log scaler, mill foreman, then procurement forester.  There was a lot of transferable technology.  Went on to doing some consulting work.

Associations don't use foresters to do as much management work.  Usually its for promotional purposes.  But, organizations like the Nature Conservancy are always looking for people.  Pay isn't that good, but you get some good contacts that you may cultivate.

[Furby]

Joca,
I took a course on this just the other day.
Rebocardo is right on the money with his post. It's never about what YOU will get, but what YOU will give.
I think his change would work great.  ;)

[Joca]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I will follow up on several of them.  I guess I was really just looking for a direction to start in, and the advice from professionals is always welcomed in my book.  I am going to look into some forestry related fields like landscaping, surveying, arborist, etc...  I do like living in the New Orleans area, and maybe a future in "urban forestry" type work will suit me fine.  My grandfather and father did tree work most of there lives, and they will be great  resources for me.  Thanks again for everyone's suggestions.

[Tillaway]

I used to write resumes that way... the prospective employer is not interested in your job duties specifically but what you have acomplished in those duties.  Speak of sales increases, time saved, turnover reduced, problems solved etc.  Its what you have accomplished not your duties that will get you a interview.

....while at ____ chemical I was a team member responisble for the flow of _____ to ____.  downtime was reduced by 10% and this lead to an increase of profit of 15% over all other shifts.  I indentified a flow bottleneck and implemented new procedures increasing flow transfer rates....

Always show results of what you did not specifically what you did.