Federal Resume Writing: The Deal Breaker

By federalresume

As with any resume or job application, there are certain elements and experiences that are required to be on a federal resume. However, with a federal resume, following the exact requirements is a necessity, and there is no room for almosts or sort of’s. When you are working at the federal government level, exactness and following the rules isn’t a suggestion; instead it is a requirement. For a standard federal resume, here are the minimum components that need to be included.

  • Job information including the announcement number, job title, and grade of the position that you’re applying for

  • Personal information: Name and mailing address, phone numbers, country of citizenship, and social security number

  • Veteran’s preference, if eligible. This is available to retired military members that were discharged for honorable reasons, including disability, a campaign badge, or an expeditionary medal. This isn’t available to Senior Executive Service level workers or to competitive positions.

  • Reinstatement eligibility, if you are a former federal employee. You must have a form SF-50 with your highest level of federal civilian grade held.

  • Education, including high school with complete address, college information including majors and degrees. If no degree acheived, you need to list credit hours and courses taken.

  • Work experience: Job titles, duties, achievements, address information, name of employers/agencies worked for, supervisor’s contact information, dates of employment, hours worked weekly, and salary history.

  • Job related training courses, skills, certificates and licenses, honors, awards, and any other special accomplishments. List this information, but do not provide documents unless it is requested. Also, for certificates and licenses, only include current information. With training courses, list the title of the course and the year attended.

This is the most basic information that will be required for a federal resume. If a Senior Executive Service position or high level management position is sought, there will be extra requirements and forms to include with your federal resume, including ECQ’s (executive core qualifications), KSA’s, and other relevant federal forms.

Writing a federal resume is a huge undertaking; you need to have a professional resume package, including your resume, cover letter, and any other required information or forms. You also need to ensure that these applications are 100% error free and well written. At this level of employment, the person in charge of hiring only spends a few seconds glancing at resumes, so yours needs to be perfect, as well as unique. If you can’t catch their attention in the first minute, your chances of getting hired are gone.

Federal resume writing isn’t like public sector resume writing. You need to ensure that everything is listed as the position requires, with no room for leniency. If you don’t give them EXACTLY what they need, you won’t even get a second glance. With public sector resumes, you generally have a little input as to what you want to include and exclude in your resume; when it comes to federal resume writing, you don’t have choices. You have to include all of the information that is requested, or your resume will be discarded. If you feel that federal resume writing is too intense for your abilities, you can always contact a professional resume service to write your resume for you. However, it doesn’t matter how you complete your federal resume, as long as it is unique and polished, and completely perfect.

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