Show your support and help 2,000 military veterans and their family members on their next important mission: to get a great new job in the civilian sector.  For just $5 you can provide them expert insight to ensure success in their civilian job search by sending them a copy of the Veterans Edition of the best-selling book, Signs of a Great Résumé. You can give back to the brave men and women who have proudly served our country and to the military family members who have made personal sacrifices to support the mission here at home.  Will you pledge $5 to send a veteran a valuable resource for their job hunt?  Can you spend $100 to help a whole squad of veterans get a job?  It’s our turn to give back.  Pledge what you can today!

Where does the $5 go?  In order to help as many veterans as possible, transparency is important to the mission.  Each $5 you donate goes directly towards printing, shipping and distributing the books.  The books are printed in South Carolina, sent from the manufacturer to a central distribution location and then shipped to veterans service organizations across the country.  That's it.  This mission is purely to raise awareness and give veterans the help they need to find a great new job.

When the book officially launches in May 2014 the publisher has set the retail price at $12.95 plus tax, shipping and handling.  That's why it's important that we get these books out to veterans as part of this campaign NOW.  For this campaign only, the publisher has agreed to send 2,000 copies of our book to veterans service organizations around the country for the reduced rate of just $5 per book. How could anyone say no?

We need your help to make it happen.  Please contribute today and share this campaign with your friends, family and battle buddies.  Thank you for supporting our nation's proud veterans!

I'm Scott Vedder, a best-selling author and a Fortune 100 recruiter. I recently received personal invitations to meetings at the White House and the Pentagon as a subject matter expert on veterans’ résumés.  I discussed with senior officials how my approach to writing résumés has helped thousands of job seekers across the country to get great new jobs.  I shared that approach in my original book, Signs of a Great Résumé which became a best-seller.  Now I’ve written a special edition including all the expert insight from the first book, plus several new chapters to help veterans explain and quantify their valuable military experience in a way civilian recruiters can understand.

Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition uses my proven approach to help veterans and military family members understand exactly how to showcase their skills in a way a civilian recruiter like me can understand.  Using the book, veterans can show they're qualified for civilian work by quantifying experience gained in their MOS, through collateral assignments, in formal training and beyond.  Veterans learn to explain their military values on a résumé and to tell civilian recruiters "I am a P.A.T.R.I.O.T."

Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition also helps military families showcase the skills they learn through volunteerism, participation in Family Readiness Groups, by raising a family and through managing a family's expenses while moving around the world to support a military service member.  Military spouses are critical to the success of our military's readiness and they deserve our help too!

Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition explains the best way to show the value of military experience to a civilian recruiter.  When you pledge as little as $5 you'll help a veteran learn to write a résumé that's full of !@#$%, the Signs of a Great Résumé.

Here’s an excerpt from the back of Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition:

GET TO WORK SOLDIER!

This book is your field manual to help you on your next important mission: to get a great new job in the civilian sector! Learn how to explain and quantify your valuable military experience in a way civilian recruiters can understand.

Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition helps veterans, transitioning service members and their families write a résumé that speaks for itself, using !@#$%, the Signs of a Great Résumé. Each sign helps you describe your proud military experience, highlight your outstanding achievements and showcase your skills.

! Experiences that were "amazing!"

@ Defining places, dates and things

# Numbers that prove past successes

$ Dollar values of your contributions

% Figures that show growth and results

Tell civilian recruiters, “I am a P.A.T.R.I.O.T.” Learn to highlight the military values and characteristics that make you a great candidate for the civilian workplace.

#1 best-selling author Scott Vedder has brought his expertise on veterans résumés to the White House, the Pentagon and beyond. Let him help you!

So what are you waiting for? Buy this book today and get to work soldier! 

That’s an order!

I’ve also developed a way for military veterans, transitioning service members and their families to explain the military values and characteristics that make them great candidates in the civilian workforce. The book explains why military values are important to civilian employers.  In Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition I encourage veterans to tell civilian recruiters, “I am a P.A.T.R.I.O.T.”

Will you pledge $5 or more to send a copy of Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition to a P.A.T.R.I.O.T.?  All books are printed in the United States so you’re supporting American jobs too! 

I'm working with veterans service organizations, government agencies and family readiness and support groups across the country to get Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition into the hands of our military veterans and their family members.  These organizations are already doing great work to support veterans and military families. The problem is there's not a consistent, proven and effective resource available to help veterans and family members find great civilian jobs.  Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition is the solution to that problem.  Using this book as a valuable tool, these outstanding organizations will be able to help thousands of veterans write an effective résumé and get to work. Will you help them?  With your support, we plan to send free copies of the book to the following groups and others like these to help the veterans and military families they serve:

Boots on Deck: Taking positive measures regarding successful transitions among military affiliated students in institutions of higher education by maximizing all efforts to establish a military friendly environment on and off campus, providing peer support, and encouraging private support and volunteer leadership, in support of the organization’s objectives.

National Military Family Association: To fight for benefits and programs that strengthen and protect Uniformed Services families and reflect the Nation’s respect for their service.

Veterans Academic Resource Center (VARC) at the University of Central Florida: Recognizes and supports student veterans as they transition from military to student life. The VARC, a unit of the Registrar's Office, is a collaboration among the offices of Career Services, the Counseling Center, Student Academic Resource Center, Student Disabilities Services, and Transfer and Transition Services, and provides the home for Veteran Services.

Orlando Vet Center:   The Vet Center Program are the people in VA who welcome home war veterans with honor by providing quality readjustment counseling in a caring manner. Vet Centers understand and appreciate Veterans' war experiences while assisting them and their family members toward a successful post-war adjustment in or near their community.

Clermont Vet Center:   The Vet Center Program are the people in VA who welcome home war veterans with honor by providing quality readjustment counseling in a caring manner. Vet Centers understand and appreciate Veterans' war experiences while assisting them and their family members toward a successful post-war adjustment in or near their community.

Marine Corps League (Orlando Detachment):  To preserve the traditions and to promote the interests of the United States Marine Corps.  To band those who are now serving in the United States Marine Corps and those who have been honorably discharged from that service together in fellowship that they may effectively promote the ideals of American freedom and democracy.  To fit its members for the duties of citizenship and to encourage them to serve as ably as citizens as they have served the Nation under arms.

Berkeley College, Veterans Resource Centers: Berkeley College has been empowering students for successful careers since 1931, and is dedicated to helping veterans, service members, and their families achieve their career goals. The Veterans Resource Center provides a location for veterans to receive information about their VA benefits; meet with the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs; socialize with other veterans; and obtain booklets, pamphlets, and other materials about a wide range of veterans benefits and issues.

I’ll keep adding new groups to the list as this campaign grows.  Do you lead a veteran service organization that's not listed here?  Email Scott today to learn how you can be added to the list and receive copies as part of this campaign!

The publisher has agreed to send 2,000 copies of the book to qualified veterans organizations at manufacturing cost.  For every $10,000 we raise, another 2,000 books will go out to veterans across the country. Each $5 you contribute will cover printing, shipping from the publisher and distribution of Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition to veteran service organizations and bases across the country.  The book regularly retails for $12.95 plus shipping and tax, but through this campaign we can take advantage of the publisher’s special pricing to help veterans and military family members.

Our nation’s veterans face a serious problem.  The unemployment rate for veterans is often higher than the national average and that's not fair.  Veterans have trouble finding great jobs because it's not clear to them how to explain and quantify military experience on a résumé.

Unemployment is also a serious problem for military spouses and family members.  An ABC news report indicates "A whopping 90 percent of female military spouses –- more than 600,000 people –- are either unemployed or underemployed, according to a recent study." Military spouses feel they’re underemployed at jobs below their experience level, education or both.  That's in part because many military spouses have trouble finding a job after being deployed from base to base all over the world.

Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition is the resource they need to solve these problems.

I was inspired to embark on this mission, in part because of my family’s own proud military service.  My grandfather Jack was an army medic in the Philippines during the height of WWII and my father Warren served in the Army National Guard.

Both men were leaders and staff sergeants.  But when their service careers ended, they didn’t have a great resource to help them explain their military background on a résumé.  Because of this, they didn’t end up in careers that used the great skills and experience they learned during their time in the military.

Veterans today tell me that problem is still very real...and that's wrong!  Our veterans deserve better and they need your help.

After meeting First Lady Michelle Obama at the Veterans Institute in Orlando, I received personal invitations to meet with senior officials at the White House and in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.  There, I provided expert insight about how veterans can explain and quantify their experience so their résumé speaks for itself.  In the East Wing of the White House and the winding halls of the Pentagon I learned more about the challenges our nation's veterans and their family members face when it comes to pursuing a civilian career.

You can help solve the employment challenges facing our nation’s veterans, transitioning service members and their families.  Will you join me on this important mission?  Show your support and make a pledge today!

Take a look at this video about my trip to Washington to learn more:

Thanks for watching.  Now it’s time to act.  Share this campaign with your friends, family, colleagues and battle buddies.  For as little as $5 you can give a veteran his or her own field manual to the civilian job hunt.

To learn more, visit www.ScottVedder.com.  Show a veteran you appreciate their service.  Pledge $5 or more today and help veterans and their family members get the jobs they deserve.  Help them write a résumé that speaks for itself. 

Remember, we can send 2,000 books for every $10,000 we raise in this campaign!  Your contribution can even help a job seeker in your own life with perks including signed copies of my original book or veterans edition and one-on-one résumé and interview coaching for you or someone in your life. 

Thank you for supporting and sharing this campaign, for making a contribution and for showing your gratitude to those who have served our country.

If you're an employer, hire veterans. To learn more about how you can support veterans in your own community, visit www.JoiningForces.com.