Resume Trends For Civilian Jobs
For civilian jobs in most sectors and industries, your military experience can translate well to the job market. As you can see from the military resume samples below, jobs in the private sector focus on specific skills. If, for example, you worked with computers or led teams as part of your military experience, you can list this on your resume for a job in the private sector. You should stress how transferable your skills are and show that you have performed similar work to what the employer needs.
Military resumes also tend to have descriptions for acronyms that are used in the private and federal sector, and use quantitative and qualitative results to set them apart from other applicants. Folks transitioning from the military to the private sector are competing with folks in this sector. However, veterans have so much training and hands-on experience than most and are normally very humble. Now is not the time to be humble, but to show how you can perform a job better than your competition. Using Headlines in your military transition resume can alert HR folks right to your specific experience related to the job you seek. All of the aforementioned information in addition to making your military resume ATS friendly is quite daunting. Organizing, researching and crafting your military resume is CPGs expertise and has earned thousands and thousands of veterans interviews leading to jobs.
Government Resume Header: Tips Red Flags And Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Government Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title youre applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
For instance, reverse-chronological resumes are great for people with over 10 years of experience and no employment gaps. Here, you need to list all your relevant experience in a reverse-chronological format, starting from the most recent and going back to less recent positions.
Functional skills-based resumes, on the other hand, are great for entry-level applicants, graduate students, or people who have different kinds of experience. It focuses on skills, education, and character traits, rather than experience.
If none of these work for you, and you dream of adopting a more creative approach that makes a difference, the combination resume format is exactly what youre looking for. It allows you to focus on both your experience and your skills, making it a best of both worlds format. Its also suitable for those who want to spice things up by adding different creative sections .
Here are some additional tips on perfecting your resume layout and style:
Want to take it a step further? Learn how to make your resume stand out without relying too much on creativity.
Federal Job Market: Employment Galore
To a job seeker, these numbers add up to big opportunities. Not only are there lotsof jobs, but federal workers generally enjoy exceptional pay and benefits, good hours and extraordinary job security.
You might think that job projections for federal workers would depend on the administration in power, with more liberal governments fattening the payrolls and more conservative governments cutting them back. But over the long haul, government payrolls are relatively immune to political changes at the top. Taking the long view, federal jobs in the U.S. rose by an annualized 1.5% per year between 1939 and 2015. On the state and local level, government jobs increased by 2.3% from 1955 to 2015. In February 2020, employment by all levels of the U.S. government increased by 45,000, including 16,000 new jobs in state government education. Federal employment rose by 8,000, mostly because 7,000 temporary workers were hired to conduct the 2020 Census.
The following chart shows steadily rising federal, state and local government employment levels in the U.S. from 1939 through 2015. Note that recessions tend to have a modest impact, if any.
Get inspired by other resume examples from the same government occupation category:
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Federal Resume Summary Example: Make Your Best Case
You may not be running for office, but like any candidate for a government job, you need to make a clear, strong opening pitch on why youre the right person to fill it. The resume summary, sometimes called a profile of personal statement, is the first thing employers will see on your resume after your contact info.
And you can turn it into a gold mine or a minefield. Profesional, experienced statistician seeking. Oops! You lose. No true professional would misspell this word on a resume. Spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes, in fact, are the top reasons cited by hiring managers for deleting resumes without a second look.
The summary demonstrates your ability to write in powerful, clear language. And the ability to write is among the simplest barometers of any candidates fitness for a white-collar job. Thats not to say there arent lots of blue-collar jobs in government, but even if youre a groundskeeper, your resume is your ticket to a job, and it needs to be exceptionally well-written.
This is the kind of strong, concisely descriptive language that belongs in a Federal job summary:: Professional statistician with 10 years of experience in expert-level research and data mining, as well as writing and information design skills to present results to the public.
Want To Include Something More To Your Government Resume
So youve already listed details about your education, experience, and skills. Youve also crafted an amazing summary.
But now you feel a creative urge to showcase your personality and not just your expertise.
Weve got you! Thanks to our modern templates, you can now include a chart of what your typical day looks like or even a word or two about your life philosophy. All this without sacrificing your Government resumes professional feel.
Some non-traditional sections for your resume include:
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Government Resume Example Advice And Tips
The resume will go on to document all other positions and provides a section where this individual lists their masters degree in National Resource Strategy as well as an MBA. Also, the job seeker lists additional training as a pilot and related affiliations.
Unlike most civilian resumes, this resume includes a 4 page letter of competencies that describes their entire career. It serves as an addendum to the resume. This section is not always necessary but can be requested for a high level government position. Please see the PDF download to review the rest of the document and the cover letter that goes with the resume.
What Does A Government Worker Do
What does a government worker do? Good question! The answer is pretty much anything. Federal, state and local government workers may do all types of jobs from forest management to budget analysis.
Within the levels of government, agencies hire full-time employees as well as contractors for administrative, professional, technical, trades and clerical work. Government workers, also known as civil servants, include police and firefighters, teachers, postal service workers, motor vehicle department employees, judges and military workers.
The U.S. federal government contains 15 departments, all with hundreds of employees. In total, government agencies across the U.S. employ 23.7 million full- and part-time workers. Here is the breakdown of the level of government in which they work, according to USA Facts.
- 4 million federal
- 5.5 million state
- 14.2 million local
Of those workers, 47% are in education 6% are active duty military 6% work in hospitals and 5% are police officers.
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Federal Resume Header: Tips Red Flags And Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Federal Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title youre applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
Choosing between them is easy when youre aware of your applicant profile it depends on your years of experience, the position youre applying for, and whether youre looking for an industry change or not.
The reverse-chronological resume format is just that all your relevant jobs in reverse-chronological order. Its great for applicants with lots of experience, no career gaps, and little desire for creativity.
When working with less experienced applicants, we suggest the functional skills-based resume format. Its great for recent graduates or people with large career gaps. Functional skills-based resumes focus on your personality, the skills you have, your interests, and your education. Ultimately, the idea is to show youre the perfect fit without putting too much emphasis on your work experience .
Federal Resume Formatting Checklist
- Choose the resume format based on your level of experience and the company youre applying for
- Match the length of your resume to your experience, but dont go for more than two pages!
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
What To Write In Your Government Experience Section
Perfecting Your Government Resume Experience Section:
- Focus on results, not responsibilities
- Use 4-6 bullet points per position
- List only positions that are relevant to what youre applying for
- Include at least some form of quantitative data it can be linked to the number of people youve managed or the – percentage decrease in costs thats followed from your work – you decide
- Choose action verbs over buzzwords.
Weve collected some of the top resume experience sections from real Enhancv users. Check them out when drafting your own Government resume!
- Monitored EU activities to identify possible alliances & potential risks
- Managed the design of an industry infographic to be presented in the EU Parliament and EU Commission
- Coordinated the information exchange between 28 national associations
PRO TIP
The person reading your Government resume will be busy, make sure you never waste their time with fluff.
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Next Createa Government Contractor Skills Section On Your Resume
Your resume’s skills section should include the most important keywords from the job description, as long as you actually have those skills. If you haven’t started your job search yet, you can look over resumes to get an idea of what skills are the most important.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing your resume’s skills section:
- Include 6-12 skills, in bullet point form
- List mostly hard skills soft skills are hard to test
- Emphasize the skills that are most important for the job
Soft skills are also valuable, as they’re highly transferable and make you a great person to work alongside, but they’re impossible to prove on a resume.
Example Of Government Contractor Skills For Resume
Use Similar Terms And Address Every Required Qualification
Your experience needs to address every required qualification in the job announcement. Hiring agencies will look for specific terms in your resume to make sure you have the experience theyre seeking.
For example, if the qualifications section says you need experience with MS Project you need to use the words MS Project in your resume.
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What Is The Difference Between A Federal Resume And A Regular Resume
The main difference between a federal resume and a regular resume is the amount of detail required. This allows a fair and uniform rating for applicants. Such detailed information and formatting are not seen in private sector resumes. As such, they will not be accepted for federal positions.
An ideal federal resume should feature the last ten years of employment history, which puts them around three to five pages in length. Federal resumes sometimes require a knowledge, skills and abilities statement as a separate document, but this information can appear within the resume itself.
Additional Sections For Your Federal Resume
In some cases, especially when it comes to entry-level positions, adding more sections beyond the usual experience, skills, and education works well in your favor. Such additional sections will help you paint a fuller picture of who you are in the recruiters head.
Heres a list of fun yet informative additional sections for your resume:
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Whats A Federal Resume
A federal resume, as the name implies, is the type of resume you need to make in order to apply for US federal positions.
It is similar to the conventional resume in the way you describe your experiences. You include all the must-have sections in your resume, and describe your skills and past experiences.
There are, however, some differences from a conventional resume that make creating a federal one a bit trickier.
Tips For Writing Your Federal Resume
When youre writing your federal resume, be sure to:
- Use more detail than you think you should
- Include specific numbers wherever you can to show how your work improved outcomes by a specific number or percent
- Spell out all acronyms
- Provide detailed information about each task and skill without assuming the person reviewing your resume will understand technical or professional details
- Double-check the accuracy of dates, names and numbers
- Be honest about what you have achieved, but include every achievement
- Use keywords linked to the position you want
- Use action words, such as develop or achieve instead of passive language
- Use short paragraphs with headlines or bullet points and work backwards, with your most recent professional experience first
Since federal resumes are often multiple pages, it can be tempting to go on at length and include every detail. Instead, you should include the most relevant information and still stay concise. Use plenty of detail, but reduce wordiness to create a polished, professional impression.
When youre writing your resume, keep in mind that your federal resume is written for both computers and humans. Federal resumes are pre-screened for keywords. To make it past initial rounds, you must include keywords relevant to the job that youre applying for. Read the job ad to understand which keywords you must include. They may be the names of specific skills, computer programs, certifications or words such as organize or implement.
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Making Your Federal Resume Creative
We know too well that recruiters go through tons of resumes every day. The worse part is, they often need to hire people for different positions and teams. So how do you make yourself stand out in such cases?
By adding a dash of creativity to your Federal resume. It can be in the form of a colorful layout, a section describing your typical day, or even a picture of your favorite book you decide!
Just make sure that the levels of creativity match the industry, company, and position youre applying for.
Resume Layout And Design: Keep It Simple
If you dont want your job hunt plan to fail, hold your resume to one page. If you think thats just not feasible because you have to list so many skills, then learn a new one: brevity.
Keep your resume layout and design simple, straightforward and elegant. Avoid gimmicks, splashy colors or excessive decoration. Strive for a professional, eye-pleasing look that says, Read me. Make room for some white space by trimming your text. Some resumes are too sparse, but most are too dense. Strive for the Goldilocks zone thats just right.
Do not use any format except PDF unless requested to do so by the employer youre targeting . What looks fine in one application on your computer may open in a different application on another computer and look awful.
Also, remember those pesky ATS programs that can reject your resume without so much as a human reading? They dont like buggy document formats either, so beware.
You can take the guesswork out of all design questions by using the buildertool and templatesat resume.io, created by experts and proven effective in the field. Just one note: While some of these templates include room for your photo, the U.S. government specifically requests that you not include a photo in its advice on What should I leave out of my resume? So youll want to choose a template that doesnt include a photo.
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Start With A Trusted Format
There are 3 typical resumes formats you can pick from:
- Reverse-chronological: this ones the standard and it lists your experiences from most recent to the oldest one.
- Functional. This one doesnt include work experiences and focuses solely on your skills.
- Combination, a mix of the other 2 formats.
Since youre making a federal resume, though, you need to go with a reverse-chronological format.
Its the most common format in the US and is recognized by every single federal recruiter.
- How Long Should a Federal Resume Be?
While a traditional resume is 1-2 pages max, the federal resume provides you with a LOT more freedom.
As we highlighted above, a federal resume includes a lot more detail than the conventional one. So, if you aim for 1-2 pages, youll just come off as lazy .
- Which Format Should You Use ForYour Federal Resume?
Unless the job ad specifically asks for a specific format, we recommend you stick to PDF.
A PDF resume maintains its original formatting and will look just like you intended regardless of which computer you open it with.
The same, however, cant be said for a Word resume format.
- Should I Use a Federal Resume Template?
Yep – if you use a resume template, your resume is going to be a lot more noticeable and at the same time, easier to create.
You can pick one of our hand-crafted CV templates and get started with yours in minutes!
