Federal Resume Guidebook: Federal Resume Writing
The Federal Resume Guidebook, written by Kathryn Troutman, focuses resume writing on the federal level.
Weve previously discussed federal resumes and the nuances required when submitting your application to a federal position.
However, Kathryn does an amazing job of providing depth and clarity into thee federal hiring process.
In this book, Kathryn guides candidates through the steps needed to locate critical keywords within the job posting and how to integrate them into your own resume.
She provides a plethora of resume samples, which you can then adapt as your own.
If youre looking to get your foot in on the federal level, then this book is a must read.
Make Your Resum Look Professional
Make it easy for a potential employer to read your resumé and learn about you. These tips can help:
- Keep it simple and short1 to 2 pages at most.
- Format your resumé as requested in the job posting.
- Choose a font size and type that is easy to read, such as Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Courier.
- Use wide margins and put information in point form to create lots of white space.
- Use bold text to highlight specific information, such as special awards or achievements.
- For print resumés, use good-quality white or off-white paper that is a bit thicker than normal paper.
- Submit your resumé in a Word or file format. Some resumé tracking software cannot read PDF documents.
Review The Job Listing
You can review the job listing to identify keywords employers may be looking for in your resume. This can help you customize your resume to fit the job description. You can use the information from the listing to identify what skills and qualifications you need to be a good fit for the role. Compare your skills and qualifications to the job requirements and list the skills from the requirements that you possess on your resume.
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What To Include In Your Resume
Whether youre a freelancer or a full-time staffer, your resume should showcase the projects that best display your experience and abilities. Remember, you didnt just complete a series of writing jobs: you built a career path, and perhaps a business. Tell that story, and the prospective employer will hire you to tell theirs.
How Long Should Your Resume Actually Be
A study by Zety revealed that, in 2021, most recruiters prefer two-page resumes. For senior roles, a two-page resume is 2.9x more likely to score an interview than a single-pager. But that also holds true for entry-level jobs .
Plus, 77% of recruiters think candidates with 5+ years of experience should never submit a one-page resume.
Dont get me wrongtwo-column resumes are still the way to go. They make resumes easier to review quickly and find whatever is most important to the recruiter. Its just that you dont need to squeeze everything onto a single page.
One more thing
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Arrange Your Contact Information
Now that you know the format youre going to use, its time to start your resume. First things first, employers need to know who you are and how to contact you.
List the following contact details in your resume header at the top of the page:
- Name
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Link to online portfolio
- LinkedIn profile
Traditionally, you would also include your mailing address on your resume. However, this is no longer mandatory because most job applications are sent via email.
Here are two examples of how you can format your contact information section:
The Most Popular: A Reverse Chronological Resume
As previously mentioned, a reverse chronological resume is preferred by many coaches and HR experts, mainly because its super readable. When everythings in a clear order, its easy to skim and even easier to draw lines between experiences.
Who its good for: Just about everyonefrom students applying to internships all the way up to senior-level executives
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The Resume Writing Guide: Step
We love this book.
Written by Lisa McGrimmon, The Resume Writing Guide provides step-by-step advice on how to write a great resume.
But it also provides information for job seekers who may not have perfect resumes.
This can include people who are changing careers, people who are returning to work after extended leaves, recent graduates, older workers, and people who work in extremely competitive industries.
She will also guide you on being an expert on your own career, including on how to decide which information to include on your resume and how to write content that is visually and verbally compelling and enticing.
The Unorthodox Route: A Functional Or Skills
Rather than listing out your experience in reverse chronological order, a functional or skills-based resume has bullet points that reflect how each of your skills is demonstrated by the work youve done over the course of your career. At the bottom, youll include everything else, such as your education, job history, professional achievements, community involvement, and other technical skills. This is a good option if you have a somewhat all-over-the-place work history and want to tie everything together neatly.
Who its good for: Career changers whose work experiences may not appear to be relevant and people with an abundance of temporary jobs or gaps in their work histories.
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How To Structure Your Resume
No two resumes will look exactly alike , but generally, resumes should have the following sections.
Header & Contact Info: At the top of your resume, always include a header containing your name. Your contact info should be close by as well. After all, you dont want there to be any confusion over who the resume belongs to, or make it difficult for recruiters or hiring managers to reach out to you. However, you may want to avoid putting your contact info in the header or footer of the document itself the headers and footers can sometimes be overlooked by the software that scans your resume.
Professional Summary: The professional summary is a brief, one- to three-sentence section featured prominently on your resume that succinctly describes who you are, what you do and why youre perfect for the job. In contrast with the largely out-of-date objective statement a line that describes the type of career opportunity youre looking for professional summaries arent about what you want. Instead, theyre focused on the value you could bring to a potential employer. Its worth noting that a professional summary isnt an absolute must-have if your resume is missing one, it probably wont be a dealbreaker but it can be a nice way to give time-pressed recruiters and hiring managers a quick, high-level overview of why youre the right person for the job.
Choose The Resume Type That Highlights Your Experience
You may want to use a summary section to describe your career or day-to-day work. You can also use this section to display qualifications that make you a good for the role. Its a good idea to familiarize yourself with the different resume formats, so that you can choose the one that makes the most sense for the situation:
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How To Write A Book In 15 Amazingly Simple Steps
For many people, writing a book has been a lifelong dream, yet one thats always seemed just out of reach. Indeed, as we reveal in our publishing podcast Bestseller, roughly 80% of Americans have wanted to write and publish a book at some point but fewer than 0.1% have actually done it.
So whats the secret formula that will unlock your creativity and show you how to write a book that will make your dreams come true? Some authors would tell you that there is no single path to authorship, as every writers journey is unique.
Wed counter with this: almost every bestselling author will have highly effective writing patterns and habits that help them reach their goals. If you want to write a book of your very own, all you have to do is emulate them!
To help you achieve just that, we’ve put together this 15-step guide to how to write a book, chock full of information and advice from the most prolific, successful writers in the business. Whether youve been an aspiring author since childhood or since five minutes ago, this article will give you all the knowledge you need to write a book and do it well.
Highlight Your Relevant Work Experience
Your work experience section is the most essential part of your resume because its the best representation of your qualifications.
If you lack formal work experience, however, dont worry. Simply title this section Relevant Experience and use it to highlight details about your volunteer work, extracurriculars, or relevant school coursework.
To create a logical and informative work experience section, list your relevant experience from most recent to least recent . For each job, list the following information:
- Your title
- Company location
- Dates of employment
If youre still currently working at a company, you can simply write , present for the employment dates.
A general rule is that each job title includes about 35 bullet points of your main duties and achievements working in that role.
3 parts of a strong bullet point:
- 1st: Action verb
- 2nd: Quantifiable point
- 3rd: Specific and relevant job duty
Example 1:
Trained5+ cashiers, managing their cash limits and guaranteeing quality customer service at all times.
Example 2:
Spearheadedthe development of the first media kit amalgamation for all company projects, increasing national sales by 8%.
One reason the above bullet points are effective is that they use action verbs to grab the attention of hiring managers. Describing your experience using strong action verbs helps illustrate to employers what youve accomplished and what kind of skills you have.
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Highlight Your Relevant Job Skills
Hiring managers are on the lookout for candidates who have relevant, job-specific skills. While listing a heap of skills on your resume doesnt actually prove youre skilled, incorporating your various skills into different sections will catch the eye of whoever is vetting your application.
For instance, you can showcase your hard and soft skills in your introduction and work experience section. And of course, you should also list your most valuable abilities in your resumes skills section.
Getting Published: The Writer’s Cv
As a writer applying for jobs or opportunities, there are times you may be asked for a writers CV. Heres a short guide to help you make sure youve got what you need.
A writers CV is very like a traditional CV, except it is only about your writing or literary achievements. Some awards or opportunities may ask you for a writing CV alongside the rest of your application. Its a quick and easy way for a panel or organisation to get an overview of your writing achievements to date. As with traditional CVs, theres no hard and fast rule, but there are a few things worth bearing in mind.
- Use a clear font in 12 point
- Break the information into sections and include headings
- Dont go over two pages and avoid waffling
Weve listed some things to include below but do remember to tailor your CV to suit the opportunity, making sure you keep information short and sweet while including everything relevant to the application.
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Design & Formatting Tips
The subject matter of your resume is ultimately what recruiters care about most. However, that doesnt mean you should slack off when it comes to design and formatting. A cluttered, visually confusing resume makes it more difficult to read, and therefore more likely that recruiters and hiring managers will cast it aside. On the other hand, a sleek, polished resume will have the opposite effect. Use these rules of thumb to ensure that your resume looks its best.
- Use an easy-to-read font of no less than 11 pt.
- Add margins of at least .7 inches.
- Make sure theres sufficient white space between sections.
- Dont go overboard with intricate design or decoration touches of color are fine, but avoid any clashing or visually busy details.
- If youre going to print out copies of your resume, invest in good paper and use a high-quality printer.
- Dont save your resume as a PDF unless the application specifically says it accepts PDF files. Some applicant tracking systems scan PDFs as if they were one big image, which fails to capture your information.
- Keep your resume to 1-2 pages max, unless youre in a field like academia or medicine and must cite papers and publications.
Want some specific examples? You can find attractive and effective resume templates here and here.
The Creative Angle: An Infographic Resume Or Resume Website
This resume type is characterized by how its formatted visually. You may choose a reverse chronological order or skills-based style to organize your information, but also use graphics, colors, unique fonts, and even multimedia elements to help that information pop. Keep in mind that any creative resume is still likely subject to an ATSand certain elements may be unreadable by a robot. So consider going this route only if you know a human will be reading your resume .
Who its good for: People applying to creative roles , startups, or fun companies, or to jobs where a creative resume is encouraged, if not required.
Not a designer but want your resume to look just as pretty as this example? Check out these articles:
Your resume is a living, breathing document. So while you wont go through this whole process every time you apply for a job, you should be thinking about all these things as you go to update your resume for your next career step. You might decide later on to switch up the order, or remove or add things, or even get creative and try out a whole new format. If youre not getting the calls back you expect, you may decide to scrap it and start overand thats totally OK.
Fast Company
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How To Write The Perfect Resume: Stand Out Land Interviews And Get The Job You Want
Dan Clay, in his book, How to Write the Perfect Resume discusses not how to make a great resume, but an outstanding one.
With increased competition for open jobs, Dan argues we should ditch our old methodologies when it comes to writing our resume.
Rather, Dan opts for resumes tell a powerful, compelling story that will make your resume irresistible to recruiters.
In addition to resume advice, Dan offers advice on tricky, precarious situations that many job seekers find themselves in.
This includes questions regarding extended time off, how to make your accomplishments stand out, and ways to avoid common resume mistakes which wont pass the muster of the applicant tracking system.
First Create A Separate Section
Just as most resumes have a section for experience and education, include a separate section with the heading Publications. If you are writing an academic resume, consider listing the publications near the top of your resume. For professional resumes where your publications are not the focus of your work, include this section near the bottom of the page.
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List Your Contact Information
Provide your contact information at the beginning of your resume, including your full name, professional email address, primary phone number and current city and state. Your contact information may also include links to your social media profiles if a hiring manager requests them. Employers can use this information to verify your identity and ask you for an interview or request further information.
Independent Press Awards Gold Winner
Kathryn Troutman, Author
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Popular text utilized in Federal agencies for Federal Resume Writing and Getting Promoted in Government
Part 1: 9 Strategies for Writing Your Federal ResumePart 2: 10 Steps to Getting Promoted in GovernmentPart 3: 4 Federal Career Change StoriesPart 4: Writing and IT Specialist Federal Resume
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Choose The Right Words To Attract Attention
As you start to pull your resumé together remember to identify how you are a good fit for the job by highlighting your strengths and choosing your words with care. Here are some tips to help you organize and target your skill and strengths for the job you want:
New technology has made word choice more important than ever. Some employers use resumé tracking software that will evaluate resumés based on the words and phrases the employer wants and uses. If your resumé doesnt use the same words as in the job posting, the software may not choose your resumé for the employer to read. For example, the tracking software may recognize manager, but not your change to management.
Add Job Experiences Relevant To Bookselling
Your job history can give a hiring manager insight into your professionalism and relevant experience for a bookseller position. For each job, include your job title, place of employment, dates of employment and job duties. You can also list volunteer experiences or internships relevant to a bookseller role in this section. For example, if you previously volunteered as a children’s book storyteller for preschoolers at your local library, you can include this information to show your relevant experiences for a bookseller position.
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