How to Write a Federal Resume
How to Write a Federal Resume to Land a Federal or Government Job
A little known fact is that federal resumes are vastly different from standard resumes. Many times people hear the term federal resume or government resume and do a few quick google searches, then based on some questionable examples, write a resume that will sadly not get them a government job. This article, though lengthy, is based on research and current federal resume practice and is designed to help you get started writing your federal resume, one that will help you in your federal job search and get you started down the path of applying to a job on the USA Jobs website.
What is a Federal Resume?
Federal resumes, in some form or another, have been around for decades. These are, simply put, the way you apply to a government job. Prior to the creation of usajobs.com, federal resumes for government jobs were done in a binder format that was usually 5 inches thick and contained everything from one’s career history. These binders would hold a number of items, including a long form resume, which was in long paragraph form with one page dedicated for each job held. Additionally, applicants were required to provide copies of all evaluation reports for previous jobs, copies of all certificates for any training, certification or skill set acquired during one’s career and pages of references. Thankfully, current federal resumes are much shorter.
How Long Should a Federal Resume Be?
Current federal resumes are much shorter than that, but still quite lengthy in comparison to standard resumes. Government resumes still require much more information than your standard resume, so the minimum length for a federal resume is 3 pages and the maximum length for a federal resume is 5 pages.
In order to write a federal resume, one needs to collect much of their employment information ahead of time. You will need the standard employment information, such as name of employer, dates employed, location to include city and state and job title. It will also require one to have the federal elements for previous employers, which are expected to be on a government resume. These federal elements include the following:
Name of supervisor
Salary information
Exact dates worked
Number of hours per week worked
Contact information for previous supervisor
“Permission to contact” previous supervisor
Without this information, it is unlikely that a federal resume will make it through the computer screener and then past the human screener who certifies the resumes. Though it may be difficult to see why all of this information is relevant, it all is very applicable to the government sector. One of the main qualifiers of a government job is to have at least one year of specialized experience. Specialized experience simply means that you have at least 1 year of full time experience doing the main features of this position. This specialized experience is counted down to the hour in some cases, which is why exact dates and number of hours worked per week are required. If one’s resume is close to having the correct number of hours, a HR representative will actually hand calculate the number of hours you have to ensure it equals the number of hours needed.
Salary information is sometimes required on standard resumes, but that is rare. However, it is always required on federal resumes for government jobs. This is so that the HR representative can ensure that you are applying for and being interviewed for an appropriate Government Scale Level position.
The information regarding previous supervisors is required in lieu of providing references. This does provide a convenient format to list reference information, rather than providing a separate document. All government job postings are required to contact at least one previous supervisor, rather than personal references (though personal references may also be asked for down the road). Additionally, it allows the federal hiring organization to contact your previous supervisors at any point in the process, without delaying because they need to get the information from you. It does create more work upfront, but makes for a smoother process down the road.
What is the best format for federal resumes?
The format of the federal resume is one of the biggest features that sets it apart from standard industry resumes. In standard resumes, concise bullet points that focus on specific aspects of one’s job are always the best format. Additionally, standard resumes focus on your skills and experiences. Federal resumes do focus on your experiences, but specifically as it relates to the position to which you are applying and through the lens of public service. Also, federal resumes do not allow for virtually any graphics. The only graphics that are accepted are capitalizations and bolding. The use of bullet points in federal resumes is becoming be more accepted. However, the bulk of your content is still written in short paragraph format even if you use bullet points to delineate your paragraphs.
Writing paragraphs in a resume feels foreign to many people, especially the way that the USAJobs system wants them done. The phrase key words gets thrown around a lot when referring to federal resumes. It is true that in order to have a successful federal resume, get referred for an interview, and get hired in a government job, you do need key words in your resume and you need the right key words.
Key Words
One of the biggest questions or concerns I hear when working with someone on their federal resume is that they thought they were doing the key words correctly but still are not hearing back or getting referred for the government job they wanted. This is common. Most people do not know how to format their federal resume to include key words in the best way.
The basics behind key words are here and the full explanation of where to find them and how to write them are below. Key words should always be in all capital letters and be in the first sentence, preferably at the beginning of the first sentence, of the paragraph. There should only be one key word per paragraph and about five to seven paragraphs in total. The remainder of that paragraph should focus on how you achieved or supported that skill or project. Essentially, you are using the rest of the paragraph to explain how you did that key word or key phrase. They can actually be one word or a short phrase. The key words should come directly from the job posting or the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) website.
Key words are most often and most easily derived from the job posting itself. They can be found in the duties and qualifications section of the job posting. When reviewing these sections to determine if you are eligible and qualify for the position, you will also need to review it for possible key words. Depending on the job posting, sometimes key words are very obvious and other times they are not. One way to think about what the key words might be as you review the job posting is to think of the major hats you would wear in this role that you have worn in other roles.
Key words can also be found on the OPM website under the agency’s specific classification and qualifications standards site. This site provides hiring managers with a lengthy list of qualifications and duties they are able to choose from in their job posting. It may be easier to start writing your federal resume by looking at this site and at the particular agency or job type that you desire. This allows you to determine a number of key words and begin to write a resume, especially if you have not found a job posting in your area yet.
When thinking about how to write your key words and subsequent paragraphs, think about the various “hats” you have worn in your previous roles as they relate to the qualifications and duties in both the position and the agency specific standards. Once you have these decided, you will need to expand on them to create the full paragraph. You can expand on these words to create your full paragraph by thinking through several components of your positions- knowledge, supervisory controls, guidelines, scope and effect, complexity, and personal contacts and purpose of contacts.
Knowledge refers to any specific knowledge you had or had to acquire to be able to do your job accurately and correctly. Supervisory controls pertain to any supervisory roles or independent work that you had as they relate to the job to which you are applying. You want to be sure to acknowledge any time you were in a supervisory position or any time you were primarily independently responsible for a work product or project, even if you were the only person working on that project. When thinking of guidelines, these can be guidelines, laws, legislation, regulations or standard operating procedures that you had to follow while completing your work. If you were responsible for creating any of the above, be sure to include it in your paragraph as well. Complexity and scope and effect are all inter-related. Be sure to include the scope and depth of your position as well as the projects on which you worked. Specifically, how did you do your work and include an explanation of what all was involved in your work processes. Further, you want to be sure to add who you worked with or what collaborations you had to complete given tasks. Finally, the personal contacts and purpose of contacts means to consider who you worked with and in what manner you worked with them (purpose). The best way to think of this is to answer the questions “who were your customers or clients” and “what did you do for them”. All of this information can and should be included in your paragraphs to expand on your key words, provided that it is useful and relevant to the position to which you are currently applying.
Accomplishments
One of the other ways that federal resumes vastly differ from standard resumes are in the accomplishments sections. It is virtually expected that you will have accomplishments for several, if not all, of your positions. Accomplishments can most definitely be done as bullet points but should be in a short paragraph format as well. This is because hiring managers not only want to know what your accomplishment was, but how you did it and the personal impact it had on others. This is where you get to share the stories of your work. Make sure you capitalize on sharing the story part of what you did and how it was beneficial. Accomplishments help to set you apart from other candidates and they help to boost your rating and get you referred for an interview. It is vital that you have an accomplishment for at least one of your roles on your federal resume.
Other Sections of your Federal Resume
There are several other sections that should be included on your federal resume.
Education
Training
Certifications
Awards and Honors
Volunteerism
Skills
For obvious reasons, if you have a college degree, this needs to be included on your federal resume. There are times in which a government job requires a degree but it does not need to be in a certain area as long as you have the experience to back your application. If you do not have a college degree, you do need to list your high school education. Certifications and trainings are also important to include on your federal resume, but should only be included if they are relevant to the government position to which you are applying.
Awards and Honors are helpful to include, if you have them. This section is mostly applicable if you are a veteran and these are typically the types of awards to which they are referring. However, if you’ve received a prestigious award within your field, make sure you include it. These should be limited to well-known or reputable awards only.
Volunteerism is another great section to include on your resume. However, if your professional experiences are all recent and relevant, it is not necessary to include this section on your federal resume, especially if it takes you over the 5 page maximum. This is a section you should highlight if none of your experience is recent or relevant to the position to which you are applying. Volunteerism should be written in the same format as professional experiences, with supervisor information, number of hours, key words and accomplishments.
The final optional section is also an optional section. If you do not have room to list additional skills it should be removed from your resume so that you do not go over the 5 page maximum. However, if you need a way to showcase skills that you do have that are not easily shown in your employment or volunteer sections, it can be done here. This can be in bullet point or list format.
There are some very major differences between federal and standard resumes, all of which are highlighted in this article. However, there are also subtle nuances that require much more time to write out and likely need the help of a professional if you still find that your federal resume is not being referred for an interview when you apply to government jobs.
Resources used when writing this article in addition to professional experiences:
Troutman, K. (2012). Federal Resume Guidebook 7th Ed. Ten Steps to a Federal Job.
Troutman, K (2009). Veteran Federal Resume Samples 2nd Ed.
Troutman, K. (2010). Job Seekers Guide.
I hope you’ve found this helpful. If you are looking for more information, please visit my website- Higher & Hire. If I can be of assistance to you, please reach out to me here.
Many Thanks!
Valerie Palmer - Career and College Admissions Expert
