亲爱的安妮：我对您在6月10日的一篇关于如何在漫漫求职路中保持昂扬斗志的专栏文章非常感兴趣，因为我最近一直在帮助一位好友找工作。五个月前，他刚刚退役，从阿富汗回国。他在部队中接受过高级计算机培训，但这似乎并不能帮他找到工作。我认为，或许他需要改写一下简历。

    还有另外一件事：他服役前曾有过一份工作，但在他服役期间，老板竟然把这个职位安排给了别人（居然还是他的亲戚）。我记得，我曾经在哪里读到过，我的朋友应该有权要回之前的工作。如果真是这样，那就太好了，不过，真的可以吗？——忧心忡忡的平民。

    亲爱的C.C.：毫无疑问，对于参加过伊拉克和阿富汗战争的200多万名老兵来说，重新回到私营部门确实困难重重。毕竟，到目前为止的一年多时间里，这一群体的失业率一直保持在11%左右。

    猎头马克•赖登表示：“目前仍在服役的军人和已经退役、不得不离开部队的军人数量庞大，为他们创造就业机会的问题非常严峻，尤其是在就业市场普遍低迷的情况下。”马克•赖登著有《老兵求职金玉良言：一书在手，工作我有》（Veterans: Do This! Get Hired! Proven Advice for Veterans Who Need a Job.）一书。

    他指出，退役的老兵都面临着一个障碍。民企雇主“总是按照既定的程序，希望能够发现某种素质，但即便是最符合条件的老兵往往也无法按雇主期望的方式展示出这种素质。换句话说，老兵们说话的内容和方式不符合公司招聘员工的脚本。”

    既然你提到你朋友的简历需要彻底修改，赖登提出的四条建议可以使他的简历更合雇主的胃口。

    1. 明确写出服役时的工作时间。赖登表示，大部分招聘经理“根本不清楚军人每周工作多少个小时，所以应该在简历中提出。在描述履历的部分，可以加入下面一些内容：‘每周平均工作60个小时’。这表明，如果公司有至关重要的任务，需要一周工作60个小时，你是可以承受的，所以你能够胜任这项任务。”

    2. 数字至关重要。赖登指出：“雇主喜欢求职者的履历中带有数字说明。因为这表明，求职者也能为他们做到这些。所以，求职的老兵应该在简历中加入节省的时间和成本等内容，并详细列出每周、每月或每年节省的小时和费用金额。”另外一个重要的数字是：下属的人数。

    使用阿拉伯数字。赖登补充道：“如果有两份简历，其中一份写着：‘节省了十万美元’，而另外一份则写着：“节省了100,000美元”，相比之下，便能发现阿拉伯数字更抢眼。”

    3. 把履历摆在简历最前头。赖登认为，最近，用“目标宣言”开头的简历在一些招聘经理那里已经失宠，不过，他认为老兵们还是需要简短的自我介绍。

    他说：“个人目标部分可以迅速确定整份简历的基调，所以，求职者可以在这里写出自己的目标，以及自己有多少年的经验。比如，可以这样写：‘希望求得全职项目经理一职，以便充分利用本人八年的丰富经验’，这样可以直观地告诉招聘经理，求职者认为自己哪些方面适合这家公司。”

    4. 单独列出忠诚度证明。赖登发现：“许多老兵都有某些方面的忠诚记录，但却并未在简历中提及，或者只是把它们埋没在简历的某个角落里。”相反，求职老兵应该在简历中用单独的小标题，专门用来说明自己的忠诚度。

    “这样，如果所申请的工作有忠诚度方面的要求，雇主一眼就能发现，并把求职者归入‘适合’一类。即便工作未对忠诚度有任何要求，明确表明自己获得了忠诚度证明，也能让求职者脱颖而出。另外，这也表明，求职者值得信任，足够忠诚，否则也不可能得到此类证明，” 赖登说。

    另外一点：由于军队生活中充满了首字母缩写，而这些缩写对于普通民众而言非常陌生，所以老兵们需要确保在简历中把他们的职责和成就转换成通俗易懂的语言。

    话说回来，你的朋友完全有可能不必四处奔波求职——也就是说，他有权要回属于自己的工作。美国联邦法律《军事征召人员就业与再就业权利法》（Uniformed Services Employment & Re-Employment Act）规定，雇主必须恢复退役军人原先的工作职位，前提是他们必须服役超过180天，并在退役后90日内通知前雇主（最好以书面形式）其目前处于国内，希望能重返之前的工作岗位。

    你并没有提到，你的朋友是否已经通知了他的雇主，或者公司是否已做出回应。但即便超过了180天的限制，你朋友依然享有USERRA的部分权利。芝加哥费舍尔&菲利普律师事务所（Fisher & Phillips）的劳动仲裁律师史蒂夫•米勒建议，可以与当地的退伍军人事务部联系，说明具体情况。他说：“有时候，他们只需要一个电话，就能让老兵拿回本属于自己的工作。”

    米勒补充道：“大部分雇主都希望能让退役的老兵重回工作岗位。通常情况下，老兵可以与雇主通过对话解决问题。所以第一步是要开始对话。”

    反馈：如果你是一名招聘经理，你会给求职的退役军人什么建议？如果你是刚刚退役的老兵，哪些建议会对你的帮助最大 ？欢迎留言评论。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Dear Annie: I read with interest your June 10 column on how to stay upbeat during a long job search, because I've been trying to help a close friend who has been out of work since he came back from active duty in Afghanistan five months ago. He got a lot of advanced computer training in the Army, but it doesn't seem to be helping him find work, and I suspect that's partly because he needs to rewrite his resume.

    Another thing: He had a job before he left, but his employer gave it away (to a relative, no less) while he was gone. I think I remember reading somewhere that my friend has a legal right to get his old job back. It would be great if that were true, but is it? — Concerned Civilian

    Dear C.C.: No question about it, returning to the private sector is proving difficult for the roughly 2 million veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among whom unemployment has been hovering at around 11% for more than a year now.

    "With so many servicemen and women doing their duty and then electing to leave the service, the problem of getting vets jobs is huge, especially in this job market that is terrible for almost everyone," notes Mark Lyden, a job recruiter and author of Veterans: Do This! Get Hired! Proven Advice for Veterans Who Need a Job.

    One obstacle for returning military personnel, he points out, is that civilian employers "are programmed to look for certain things, and even the most highly qualified vets often just don't give employers what they are looking for in the way they are looking for it. In other words, what vets say and how they say it doesn't match the script that companies are using to find employees."

    Since you mention that your friend's resume may need an overhaul, consider these four tips from Lyden on how to make a CV match up with employers' "scripts":

    1. Count your hours. Most hiring managers "really have no clue how many hours per week military people put into their work, so you should mention it," says Lyden. "In the part of your resume that describes your experience, put in something like, 'Worked an average of 60 hours per week. This conveys that, if there are occasions where a 60-hour week is needed to get something critical done, you're used to that, so you're up to the task."

    2. Numbers are crucial. "Employers love to see experience with numbers attached," notes Lyden. "It suggests you will do the same for them. So you should always cite things like time saved and cost savings you achieved, with specifics about hours and dollars saved per week, per month, or per year." Another important number: How many people reported to you.

    Use numerals instead of writing out these figures, Lyden adds: "If you are glancing at two resumes and one says, 'One hundred thousand dollars saved' and the other says, '$100,000 saved', see how the numerals pop out at you?"

    3. Mention your years of experience right up front. Lyden acknowledges that starting a resume with an "objective statement" has lost favor with some recruiters and hiring managers lately, but he believes vets still need these brief introductory paragraphs.

    "An objective section lets you set the tone of your entire resume quickly, so it's the perfect place to say what you want and how many years of experience you have," he says. "Writing, for instance, 'A full-time project management position where I can utilize my eight years of experience' immediately tells the hiring manager where you see yourself fitting into the company."

    4. List security clearances separately. "Too many veterans have some kind of clearance and don't mention it, or else they bury it in the text of their resume somewhere," Lyden observes. Instead, create a separate heading under which you state your clearance.

    "If you're applying for a job that has a clearance requirement, the employer quickly spots it, and you go into the 'yes' pile," Lyden says. "But even if the job doesn't require a clearance, clearly highlighting that you have it makes you stand out from the pack. It also indicates that you're trustworthy and honest, or you wouldn't have gotten it."

    One other thought: The military life is loaded with acronyms that are foreign to civilians, so vets need to make sure that their duties and accomplishments are translated into plain English on their resumes.

    That said, it's entirely possible that your friend doesn't need to be job hunting at all -- that is, he is entitled to get back the position he lost. A federal law called the Uniformed Services Employment & Re-Employment Act (USERRA) says that employers must reinstate returning servicemen and women in their old jobs, provided that vets who have been away on active duty for more than 180 days notify their former employers within 90 days (preferably in writing) that they're stateside and want to return to work.

    You don't say whether your friend notified his employer, or what the company's response was, but even past the 180-day limit, your friend still retains some USERRA rights. Steve Miller, an employment attorney at Fisher & Phillips in Chicago, recommends contacting the local office of the Department of Veterans Affairs and explaining the situation. "Sometimes a phone call from them is all it takes" to get a vet's old job back, he says.

    "Most employers really want to put returning veterans back to work," Miller adds. "Usually, you can establish a dialogue and work something out. So the first step is to get that dialogue started."

    Talkback: If you're a hiring manager, what advice would you give veterans who are job hunting? If you're a veteran who has returned to the civilian workforce, what helped you most? Leave a comment below.