Mastering federal or foreign resumes is a bit like basic training: It’s painful, but it must be accomplished if you want a career with Uncle Sam.
To avoid a losing battle with this lengthy and cumbersome CV, apply the following tips:
Be focused and specific.
Know what federal or foreign jobs you’re qualified for, their requirements and their availability, says Lillian Schoellhorn, chief of the defense mapping agency’s central examining branch in St. Louis. Start by visiting job sites to review job postings. Unlike civilian job postings that can be vague and misleading, federal job announcements include job requirements, location, where to apply, and who to contact for more information. Unlike the private sector, government recruitment is governed by the guidelines of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. By law, they have to disclose all information about their jobs.
If you’re still not sure what a federal or foreign position requires, call the agency and ask for more details, says Ms. Schoellhorn. Uncle Sam is more than willing to help you. “You have the support of the federal government to help you apply,” she says.
follow directions.
Please read the accompanying ad instructions, questions, and statements carefully. If you don’t, you will answer incorrectly and appear careless.
Answer all questions completely.
Be explicit, thorough and honest. In the same way, however, don’t call attention to a bad experience by amplifying it.
Be concise.
Long explanations are not necessary. Applications that look like phone books show that a candidate “probably has a lot of paper and little real experience,” says Joe Ruiz, chief of OPM’s Federal Job Information and Evaluation Division. “We don’t need to know that in eighth grade you won a prize for being punctual to class,” Ruiz explains.
Match your experience to the job requirements.
“The most common mistake people make is preparing a resume and submitting it in response to every available federal job opening,” says Ms. Schoellhorn. The result is a generic query without a professional approach, skill match, or sincerity.
For example, applicants for a staff training job abroad should only emphasize training experience on their resume for the position, not other staff history, says Ms. Schoellhorn. “You have to gear your application toward the job you’re applying for,” she explains.
Make your resume easy to read.
When describing specific duties, responsibilities, and accomplishments, use simple sentences, leave blank spaces between paragraphs, and bold sentences to highlight key points.
Improves the basic experience.
Use a descriptive technique recommended by the US Postal Service called STAR (Situation Task Action Result) to describe your experience. For example, instead of saying ‘data entry manager’, say ‘The data entry department was losing productivity. In response, I suggested that our staff take a three-week refresher course to improve keyboard speed and accuracy. After the course, productivity improved by 50 percent.’
Federal resumes are demanding and bureaucratic, but so is the US federal government. To show that you can do it as a federal employee, complete your application patiently, carefully, and above all, by the rules.