Pad Your Resume with VMIS

Are you somewhere right now...either in your life or where you are physically located...where you are not working in a paying job? Would you like to continue to have a record of your work history, even without that paying job? Be prepared at your next job interview with a record of what you have been up to, when you weren't working outside the home.

If you don't know it already, let me introduce you to VMIS - the Volunteer Management Information System. Record your volunteer hours and even take them with you when you move, along with your volunteer positions, awards, training and your entire volunteer history. No more will you have "dead space" on your resume, as the Army has made it easy to translate your work into DA FORM 4162, Volunteer Service Record.

When I wrote up my latest resume, I had 12 whole years of not working outside the home! My first thought was, who would even hire me at this point with such a huge gap in work history? I ended up using my previous volunteer experiences and what was on my Volunteer Service Record to beef up my resume. And it worked. I got a job that I love...and I'm even getting paid for it! What a novelty for me at least.

VMIS is an Army-wide system. I don't know if the other services have something similar at this point. If so, please post your programs below. The Army has only recently started VMIS online...I want to say in the last few years. For example, our post over here in Germany just started up this program and system last Spring, and our community has a Volunteer Manager who oversees the system and all the various volunteer opportunities on the site for our geographical area. All it takes is a search by zipcode on My Army Life Too, to find what's available in your area. Another great catch to the program, getting in as a volunteer can also eventually get you a paying job at that organization, if that is what you want. Another gem I've come across, VMIS links you into the Career Assessment Tool run by the Army Spouse Employment Partnership. This tool will give you greater clarity and direction in your career decisionmaking, as the site states. Give it a try as well. Access the site under My Army Life Too.

Last piece of information, the site is currently being merged with Military OneSource, already a great place to connect and get information for all military spouses. I bet they even have more things in store for us, when the system merge is complete, sometime in Summer 2009. I look forward to checking that out.