How To Write Resume For Federal Government Jobs

Resume Objective For Government Job Examples

A good resume objective for a government job makes a resume immediately appealing. It includes keywords associated with the specific job and communicates your value to the employer. Use your skills and traits to build the objective statement. Be sure to mention the position and employer specifically.

Resume Tips For Federal Resume Writing:

Good luck with the process and keep up the good work!

Avoid The Mistake Of Writing One Resume For Multiple Job Announcements

Treat each job announcement and application as a unique submission. Each announcement is different.

Modify your application for each announcement.

You can even do this the old-fashioned way. Print a hard copy of the announcement, mark each requirement with a highlighter, and check off each item when you have incorporated it into your resume.

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Get Federal Resume Help Talk To A Professional Resume Writer Today

If youre looking for professional federal resume writing services you can trust to get you the federal job you have always wanted, SES Resume Writers is exactly who you need. We have enjoyed more than 30 successful years in the business and our award-winning, world-class and multi-certified writers will ensure you lead the pack of other applicants in securing an interview.

The government is looking for strong leaders and achievers with great communications and people skills. Well make sure your best attributes are portrayed to maximum effect. Help us help you make your federal government job resume take you to the next level.

Our in-house web servers keep us up-to-date with current resources and career tools best suited to help you. Contact us for a free consultation if you want to know more or if you feel ready to start on your high-quality federal job resume.

When contacting us for your free consultation via our Quick Quote form, please attach your resume and the job vacancy or position of interest so we can best serve you. Any additional career documents will also be helpful for our career coaches to gauge the process, cost, and next steps in the federal government resume-writing process.

Make Sure You Fulfill The Minimum Qualifications

Even before you start writing your resume for a federal job, you have to make sure that you will be able to prove your qualifications adequately on your resume.

Read the entire job announcement carefully.

Check the This job is open to and Who may apply sections to check out the eligibility criteria or the hiring paths the job is specified for.

Once youre sure you meet the eligibility criteria, proceed to the Qualifications section to check whether you meet the minimum qualifications in the type of work experience, years of work experience, skills, knowledge, education, and any other requirements.

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Tips For Preparing An Electronic Federal Resume

As you have seen in the previous section in which we discuss the different types of online application systems , there is no such concept as one size fits all when preparing a federal résumé. However, below are a few tips to help you bridge the compatibility differences in most of the common application systems.

• Use white space and line breaks to separate topics and sections
• Use 10- or 12-point type size
• Use a margin of at least one inch on all sides
• Use CAPITAL LETTERS to highlight sections
• No graphics of any kind, including bullets
• Use date format mm-yyyy
• No bold, italic, or underlined text
• Keep each employment block to about 3,000 characters and spaces each.

Professionally Written Federal Resumes, KSAs, ECQs, and Cover Letters

Write Your Federal Resume Using Proper Guidance And Samples

When writing your resume you have to consider many things and include all required information. Format is also important especially with RESUMIX and online submissions. If you are good at putting your thoughts down on paper and have the time available you can complete your resume application as long as you fully understand the application process. I wrote many federal applications during my 35 + years of government service with great success. I was also a trained and certified federal rating official and reviewed and rated thousands of job applications.

A word of caution. Once you have your federal resume completed and posted on USAJOBS, its easy to submit that same resume to apply for other job vacancies. That can cost you a possible job. Before resubmitting that same federal resume for another job vacancy READ the job announcement thoroughly to insure that other duties and specialized experience are not required for the new position. If you find different requirements, and you possess the new duties or specialized experience, incorporate them into your resume. It is not unusual to apply for the same job series and find other requirements, or new or additional KSA statements.

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Demonstrate On Page 1 That You Meet The Qualifications And All The Requirements

When they first see your resume, hiring managers should see immediately that you meet the jobs requirements.

Use the information you just developed to create a marketing section on page one of your resume that demonstrates how you meet each requirement and evaluation factor included in the job announcement.

An ideal first page would include three critical sections:

• A short profile summary demonstrating your accomplishments and ability to carry out the job duties listed in the announcement.
• A Key Qualifications section that proves you meet the requirements and evaluation factors included in the job announcement.
• A Core Competencies section that lists key skills and expertise listed in the job announcement.

Page 1 is prime resume real estate. Throughout the page, incorporate key words and keyword phrases from the job announcement that match up with your expertise.

Organize Your Resume To Make It Easy To Understand

You need to organize your resume to help agencies evaluate your experience. If you dont provide the information required for the hiring agency to determine your qualifications, you might not be considered for the job.

• Use reverse chronological order to list your experiencestart with your most recent experience first and work your way back.
• Provide greater detail for experience that is relevant to the job for which you are applying.
• Show all experiences and accomplishments under the job in which you earned it. This helps agencies determine the amount of experience you have with that particular skill.
• Use either bullet or paragraph format to describe your experiences and accomplishments.
• Use plain language avoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood.

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We Provide You With The Best Federal Resume Writing Service

From help with KSA human resource to writing a highly effective resume, our professionals are here to support you. Our federal resume writer has many years of experience in making applications. They know precisely how your resume should be tailored and written and can ensure that you will have the highest chance of gaining an interview. They will work directly with you to ensure that your resume will perfectly reflect the specific post that you are applying to.

All skills and other requirements will be covered within your resume and it will reflect the language that the recruiter themselves are using. Each resume is produced from scratch using your own personal information and never simply copied or adapted from another. Once written you will be able to review the draft resume with your resume writer and discuss any changes that you feel may be required. We want you to be able to submit your federal job application confidently and proudly. Our professional services also offer you all of the following benefits:

Federal Resume Tips That Produce Interviews And Jobs

Writing a great federal resume is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It involves both art and science. Art and creativity is needed to turn a dry document into something that hiring decision makers find appealing, interesting, and readable. The science is more practical. Its the specific information that indicates your qualification for the position to both machines and humans. Its the intentional and thoughtful combination of the components the way the puzzle pieces fit together that gets your resume read and produces interviews that lead to job offers.

Like a jigsaw, creating a standout federal job application can be complicated and time consuming. With corporate resumes, theres pressure to pack a careers worth of information into a cramped space two pages of 11 point type. Its still necessary to be concise when writing a federal resume, but the challenge involves precision more than compression. There are lots of pieces to a federal job application and they must fit together in a fashion thats coherent and makes your unique qualifications immediately evident.

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What Is A Federal Resume

A federal resume is a comprehensive document used when applying for a job within a federal government. You need to provide more specific information both about yourself and your work experience than you would in a regular resume. The federal resume is tailored for federal hiring managers and human resources personnel and, like traditional resumes, still includes your qualifications, background and personal details.

Describing Your Work Experience

As we’ve mentioned, your federal resume can be quite a few pages long. However, it is important to begin describing your work experience on the first page. â

Tip: Describing your previous work experience using multiple bullet points detailing what you did on the job shows hiring managers and recruiters the kind of experience you have and if it matches what they need for the job you are applying for.

When it comes to describing your work experience on a federal resume, you’re going to be including more details than normal. Here are some things to include when describing your work experience:

• The company or branch you worked for
• Job title
• Supervisor and method of contact, if contactable
• Key achievements

Tip: When listing your work experience, especially since your resume extends multiple pages, be sure to go in reverse-chronologicalorder, showcasing your most recent experience at the top of your work experience section.

Here’s an example of what your work experience section can look like for your federal resume:Network Administrator, U.S. Courts

Miami, FL ⢠January 2014 â May 2021

Salary: $54,547 Hours/Week: 40

Supervisor: Megan Cassanes, 305-291-4122, may contact

Key Achievements:

• Troubleshot network systems with a 50% faster resolution rate.
• Prevented 5/5 database hacks over a span of 6 years.
• Developed a network system to keep data communications private, organized, and easily accessible, which was implemented into other U.S. Courts Systems.

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Which Service Is Best For You

It depends on many factors. With the proper resources you can write your resume yourself, time permitting. If you hire a professional resume writing service you will have to work by phone and online with the resume writer. Only you know the details they need to write your resume. An entry level federal style resume is typically 3 to 5 pages long and you must tailor you application and work experience to the job announcements required qualifications. One advantage of hiring a professional service is that once they complete your resume for you can use that same resume, with minor modifications, for other government jobs within the same occupational group that you apply for. Just change the job title and announcement number and review the new job announcement to check for additional or different required duties and responsibilities. If these changed you will have to incorporate them into the new application.

Building A Federal Resume

Candidate InformationA federal resume will ask your citizenship status and most, but not all, positions require you to be a U.S. citizen. Youre also asked if youve worked for the federal government before and if you qualify for veterans preferencethat is, youve served on active duty in the Armed Forces.

Work experienceYour resume should list all the relevant jobs youve held.

Required: Employer, location, title, start and end date, average hours worked per week, responsibilities and accomplishments for each job you list.

Optional:A supervisor as a reference and salary, although not listing salary doesnt exclude resumes from consideration.

EducationInclude information on the schools you attended and the relevant coursework you completed. Only list degrees from accredited schools, or programs that meet the Office of Personnel Managements standards. Provide as much information as possible to support your case that youre the best person for the job.

Required:Schools attended and degrees obtained.

Optional:Grade-point averages, relevant coursework, academic papers or projects, key presentations, honors received, other important accomplishments.

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Good And Bad Examples Of Federal Resumes

The following is an example of a good personal information section on a government resume:

154 Countryway Lane, Washington, DC 20009

FBI Agent

The following is an example of an incomplete personal information section on a government resume:

154 Countryway Lane, Washington, DC 20009

FBI Agent

The following is a good example of work history details on a government resume:

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington D.C. Division

Washington, DC

Hours worked per week: 40-50

Supervisor name: Fred Baker

The following is an example of an incomplete work history details section:

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington D.C. Division

Washington, DC

The following is a good example of educational information on a government resume:

The University of Iowa, Iowa, 48930

Bachelor of Science in Criminal Law

Graduation date: September 2010

Honor society membership: Phi Kappa Omega

GPA: 3.9/4.0, magna cum laude

Relevant coursework: Introduction to criminal law Crime prevention Criminal psychology Forensic psychology

The following is a bad example of an education section on a government resume:

The University of Iowa

Bachelor of Science in Criminal Law

Graduation date: September 2010

Include A Detailed Contact Information Section

Once youve picked your federal resume format, you should create a contact information section at the top of your resume.

That’s where you include the typical information youd put on a standard resume:

• Name

For a federal resume, also include the following essentials:

• Citizenship.

Heres how this would look like on a real-life federal resume:

John Smith

Desired Job Type: Security Specialist

Highest Federal Pay Grade: GS-10

Desired Location: US, Massachusetts

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Using The Usajobs Federal Resume Builder

Using the USAJobs resume builder is a great idea if youre new to the federal job application process. The resume builder requires all of the important information that could get you disqualified if omitted, so theres an extra level of safety in using it. There is, however, a lot of information to include in the builder, so it does require a good deal of attention to detail. Make sure you dont accidentally skip any fields.

The biggest drawback of using the resume builder is that the fields for prior job experience have a 5,000 word character limit. While that seems like a generous limit, its something you might hit given the length of federal resumes.

However, Segal keyed us in a great way to deal with that character limit: There is a section in USAJobs called additional information. This is a free form block of 20,000 characters.

The additional information section is where you should put further details you werent able to fit in throughout the rest of the process. Its also where you should put certifications or awards.

Use Numbers To Highlight Your Accomplishments

Use numbers, percentages or dollars to highlight your accomplishmentsyou can find this information in things like your performance reviews, previous job descriptions, awards and letters of recommendation.

When explaining your accomplishments:

• Include examples of how you saved money, earned money, or managed money.
• Include examples of how you saved or managed time.

Examples

• Improved efficiency of document processing by 25% over the previous year.
• Wrote 25 news releases in a three-week period under daily deadlines.
• Managed a student organization budget of more than $7,000.
• Wrote prospect letter that has brought in more than $25,000 in donations to date.

These statements show in concrete terms what you accomplished.

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Is There An Easier Way

You can see that even with these resume tips for government jobs, assembling a federal resume requires an exacting combination of art and science. This kind of writing exercise isnt for everyone. You might not feel comfortable with the detail required to craft an effective federal resume or your first tries may not be producing results. The Master Career Counselors and Resume Writers at Career Pro Global can provide the federal job application help you need to select the positions that meet your qualifications and to produce a resume that is more likely to land in the best qualified stack.

CareerPro Global has been practicing the art and science of federal resume writing since 1988. Weve learned a lot about the USAJobs application information and process over the years and weve had the benefit of feedback and data from literally thousands of clients in federal government careers. Our methodology is validated and documented through our ISO certification process. Its worked for our satisfied clients and it can work for you. We hope youll get in touch for a free personalized consultation if you need help with your first or your next federal government career move.

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