Resume Format For Government Job

Want To Include Something More To Your Government Resume

How to Create a Federal Resume | American Military University (AMU)

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:

Cv Skills Example: Attributes At A Glance

The skills section of your government worker CV is a great place to optimize for the ATS. Here you will choose your top 4-7 attributes. Make sure your CV contains the exact language from the job listing. That means reviewing the listing and matching your skills to those necessary for the job.

The purpose of this section is twofold:

Allow hiring managers to quickly scan to make sure you have the skills they are looking for in a candidate

Give those hiring managers an idea of the skills you believe are most important for the job.

Dont neglect soft skills

Your technical and learned job skills are important, but so too are the soft skills that make you a good employee. Consider adding one of these six that Randstad looks for in candidates:

What Is A Federal Resume

A federal resume is a detailed account of previous work experience and is required if youre applying to a . It appears similar to a private sector resume with sections for work experience and education. However, a federal resume template differs in its structure, length and content. It must also include all information required for the job youre applying for.

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.

Key Information For Each Position

Top Resume Tips for Writing a Federal Resume

This is the information that you should include for each position on your resume.

Company/organization name
Brief description of the organization
Brief description of the product/project/team you worked on or supported

List of relevant skills, tools, technologies used
Specific duties, responsibilities, accomplishments of the position

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Resume Layout And Design: Stay Professional

First impressions count! Keep your layout professional-looking even if you are tempted to stand out with a unique design. To make sure you make a positive, lasting impression with your resume layout and design, follow the guidelines below:

Big blocks of type are difficult to read, so create white space by varying line lengths and break it up with bold headings
Stay away from gimmicks and flash you want hiring managers to read the content, not be distracted by the layout.

Proofread, or use an online resume-builder that includes spellcheck.

A great resume should have a header that makes your name and contact information stand out. To create this in a few steps, try using a professionally-designed resume template. These layouts allow you to focus on the writing and customize the formatting options to your liking.

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.

Key Takeaways For A Federal Employee Resume

There are millions of Federal jobs with excellent pay, benefits and job security, and the job outlook for this sector is secure.

The U.S. government itself tells job seekers: Your resume is the primary way for you to communicate your education, skills and experience. For anyone seeking federal employment, building an outstanding resume is the crucial first step.

The federal government and resume.io will both tell you that each resume you send out must be custom-built to specifically address the requirements of the job youre seeking.

Go to resume.io, choose one of our professional templates and start crafting a bulletproof resume today. The jobs are there all theyre waiting for is you.

Get started!

Choosing The Best Resume Format For A Government Worker

Decoding Federal Resumes

Given the structure of government job applications, we highly recommend using the reverse chronological order resume format. This format is favored by recruiters and the ATS your resume will have to get past in order to reach the hands of a person.

Although other formats exist, you should use them only in special circumstances. If it is your first job, you are a career-charger or have many years of experience under your belt, check out the resume formats we suggest as chronological alternatives or hybrids.

Unless you have highly specialized production skills or work in a highly technical field, the functional resume format should not be your first choice. It offers a means to emphasize niche or highly complex skills by expanding the skills section and reducing the employment history section in exchange.

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Resume Summary Example: Public Persona

Although we have mentioned the rigidity of public sector applications, you dont have to be overly starched throughout your government resume. You may want to be a bit more buttoned-up than if you were applying at a start-up, but you should show some personality here.

The summary section of your CV is the place to do this. Maintain a professional tone, but introduce yourself and your career with complimentary descriptors. Then, focus on the greatest achievement that illustrates your value to the position you desire. You have 3-4 lines here, so if you have space, add a more personal sentence that explains why you want a civil service job or what attracted you to your career.

You can find a resume example for your summary section below.

Experienced Customs and Border Protection Officer seeking to utilize my skills and experience for the betterment of the greater good. Committed to implementing best practices and procedures to detect and prevent terrorists and harmful objects from entering or exiting the United States. Bringing forth an excellent work ethic and a dedication to honesty, good will, and integrity.

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!

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Outline Your Professional Profile

The next part of your resume is your professional profile. This can be several well-constructed sentences that highlight who you are and why you’re the best individual for the position. Alternatively, you can also use bullet points to outline your professional achievements. Then, focusing on the job description details, summarize your most important abilities, accomplishments, and characteristics that present you as a highly qualified applicant.

Describe Your Educational Background

Best Resume Templates For Government Jobs

Education is another important facet of your resume. Be sure to only list schools and programs that are accredited through the Office of Personnel Managements standards. If youre an entry-level candidate, consider including more information, like relevant coursework from your education.

Be sure to include these educational details for government recruiters to review:

Awards, scholarships or special recognitions

Making Your Government Resume Stand Out

You want to make a strong first impression to all recruiters that get a hold of your resume. Sure you do! But how?

Well, the easiest way to stand out is by adding a bit of creativity to your Government resume. You could do this by going for a colorful layout or adding a creative section or two. It all depends on the industry and the position youre applying for!

For instance, a position in design would allow for a more colorful resume, while a position in finance would probably not.

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Detailed Description Of Sections

Brief description of the organization and brief description of the product/project/team you worked on or supported

This should provide a context for your work and accomplishments which helps us understand how theyre applicable to our work and the role for which youre applying. Include the following information:

Clients/customers type: public facing, end-users, internal, B2B, civic tech, etc.

Impact/performance metrics and scope: users, clients, datasets, uptime, cycle time, etc.
Team size/composition

Relevant skills, tools, technologies used

Describing the skills, methodologies, techniques, and tools you used in a position is important, but they cant simply be a list. If the skills, tools and technologies is just a list, it will not be able to be used to help you meet the minimum qualifications required for the role. You need to provide the context of how and why those skills were used in that position.

Here is an example of the WRONG way to do it:

Technical Skills Used: Ruby on Rails, Postgres, PostGIS SQL, JSON, Redis, Heroku, Amazon Web Services , Relational Database Services , Elastic Search environments

Here is an example of the CORRECT way to do it:

Developed new features and provided technical support solutions utilizing the Ruby on Rails framework, Postgres/PostGIS SQL, JSON and Redis while maintaining and deploying to Heroku, Amazon Web Services cloud technologies including Relational Database Services and Elastic Search environments

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Important Facts About The Federal Hiring Process

The federal government does have a standard job application. Your resume is your application.
Hiring agencies use the job announcement to describe the job and list the required qualifications and responsibilities.
After applying, the hiring agency uses the information in your resume to verify if you have the required qualifications stated in the job announcement.

Once the hiring agency has determined who is qualified, they may use other assessments such as interviews or testing to determine the best qualified applications.

Scale Up Your Career In Government With Monsters Help

Developing your Federal Resume, Michael Kawczynski

Government jobs come in many different shapes and sizes, with fields ranging from education and HR to social work, healthcare, and engineering. To succeed in your search and stand out from other candidates once you apply, use our government resume template to assemble the framework for the kind of government work youre seeking. Then, contact us to have our certified resume writers cement and fortify your resume so that you get the job you truly want. Monster has experts in every industry, so we can ensure that your current version is boosted with the appropriate keywords and customized to the requirements listed in the job ad.

Get great content like this and the hottest jobs delivered to your inbox.

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Government Resumes: An Overview

Your resume is a vital document in your government job application. But, a resume for a government job is a little different to a resume you would submit for a job in the private sector, and it has a slightly different purpose.

The aim of a resume is is to provide a reference for your claims against the selection criteria. This is your resume’s primary purpose.

For example, if you talk about your employment with Company X in your statements against the selection criteria, the selection panel will use your resume to find out when you were employed at Company X, for how long, and what your actual role was. These two documents combined will win you an interview so that you have the opportunity to impress the employer in person.

Because this document is used in conjunction with your statements addressing the selection criteria, it needs to compliment your selection criteria so that these two documents together can build up a strong case for why you should get an interview. It doesn’t need to contain lengthy descriptions of positions or tasks, or outline achievements in the same detail that a non-government resume would.

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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.

General Things To Keep In Mind:

40 Usajobs Gov Resume Builder Gm1e in 2020

This resumes job is to connect the requirements of the job posting to your experience using the straightest possible line. I printed out the job posting and highlighted every key phrase of the requirements, qualifications, and what kind of work this job would do. I then made that into a checklist to make sure each one of those things could clearly be mapped to my resume.

Throw out your formatting. I used CAPS for headers, italics for mission statements, and bullet points. Expect that the bulk of your formatting will be stripped out. No columns, no fanciness. Just write. Hard.

Speaking of writing: get your words going, and then get more words. I had to submit two writing samples, and that was where I could show off my content strategy particulars. Remember the job of the resume content: clear, straight lines between the requirements and your experience.

Explicit disclaimer: This resume format is what I chose to use in applying to 18F in the US Federal Governments General Services Administration. It is not the only acceptable format, but is what worked well for me. I currently work as a content designer at 18F, but put this together on my own time, using no government resources to do so. Using this formatting is not a guarantee of consideration. You still gotta do the work.

Want to chat more about this? Im on Twitter: @amandaesque

My comments below will all be in code demo backticks.

Identify Licenses Or Certifications

This section is optional and only required if applicable to the position. If the job posting identifies a license or certificate explicitly to be considered for candidacy, detail the information in this section. You can list professional designations, such as being a CPA or chartered professional accountant, or professional licenses, such as a P. Eng. or professional engineer license.

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 languageavoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood.

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