The short version:
Someone you know knows someone who needs to know me. So, please take just five minutes to get to know me better. Then remember the concept of six-degrees-of-separation and mention my background when and where appropriate.
The longer version:
To my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances:
I'm sharing my resume with you and asking you to do just two very simple things.
First, take a few minutes to read it. Hopefully, my description of myself will reasonably match your knowledge of me. However, it's also quite likely you will discover some aspect of my background and personality you were never aware of.
Second, when you think there may be a possible match between someone's needs and my abilities, let him or her know how to find my resume -- and let me know how to make contact.
Don't presume that I wouldn't be interested in a particular opportunity just because it isn't in line with my lifetime of military and defense-related experience. Quite the contrary, I prefer to escape from the "bombs & bullets" jobs I've held for so many years. Recently, I declined to return to a job I have jokingly referred to as "Dr. Doom and His Dandy Death Ray" and would like instead to bring my many talents to the private, commercial sector.
I have purposely avoided the typical approaches to writing a resume. None of the "I supervised such-and-such" or "I saved X millions of dollars" or "I worked on umpteen gazillion projects, such as blah-blah-blah". Why? It's certainly not that I haven't done enough of those things. In fact, it's precisely because I have "been there, done that!" As I hinted in my resume, I've done far too many things to squeeze those kinds of details into just two pages, while still doing justice to my many under-utilized talents. The "old" kind of resume is too likely to garner me the "old" line of work -- when I'm really focused instead on pursuing the many diverse, new, and exciting challenges for our communities, nation, and world.
So, let your imagination run free, once you've become acquainted with my resume. At this point in life, I'm opening my options, in the hope that somewhere there is a special endeavor I can enhance through the strengths I bring "to the table".
We know that serendipity is a phenomenon not to be discounted: somewhere, some time, somehow you will connect with someone who needs to know me -- and vice versa.
Many thanks, muchas gracias, muito obrigado, und so weiter...
Mike