The resume is the most important part of the federal job application. Having a poorly written resume could be the difference between being referred or not. Also, the difference between being considered for an interview after referral or not.
If you aren’t familiar with what being referred means, this video will help.
One question I get a lot is whether it is best to free write your own resume or to use the resume builder on USAjobs. The answer is, it doesn’t really matter as long as your resume includes the absolute minimum required information in the structure.
If you have ever applied for a government job, or any job for that matter, then you know how important the resume is for your entire application. For government jobs the resume is extra important. There is required information that might be flexible in any other situation. This information causes many people to be found ineligible when they might actually be qualified for the position.
When building your resume for your next government job application, you need to start with the basics. These basics are the absolute minimum that helps you to structure your resume. There is a screen-out code just for missing the following information:
Must contain individual blocks of experience, and each block must contain month/year – month/year and whether the position was full or part time. If it was part time you must also include the number of hours you worked per week.
This format is important to meet the phrase listed in the job announcement. Must have one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade. The one year is measured based the start and end dates of your employment. The full/part time is also part of this calculation. One year equals 2080 hours.
Full time experience makes qualifying someone easier than part time because one year equals the 2080 hours needed. If it is part time the calculations become tricky. The number of hours per week must be added up over the length of employment to determine how many total hours of experience you possess. To meet the one year of experience it does not have to be in one continuous block of experience. It can be added up through multiple part time positions.
Once you have the proper outline in your resume, the next step is to include the proper experience. When listing your experience within the resume it is ok to have a basic template of the duties you have performed. The key to being qualified and referred is including duties that match the required experience from the job announcement.
To ensure your duties match the required experience from the job announcement you will have to tailor your resume to every announcement you apply to. I know this sounds like a lot of work, and it can be. The reason tailoring is important, is because the required experience from the announcement is different from job to job and must be found in your resume in order for you to be found eligible for the position.
A question I get is, “If I answered the questionnaire with my experience, why do I need to include it in my resume?” The answer is, because the resume is used to validate the answers of the questionnaire. Many people check that they are an expert to every question asked. This is fine, but you need to provide the proof in your resume. A good tip would be to use the questionnaire as a guide to update your resume just like the announcement. If you answer yes to experience in the questionnaire, then make sure you list it in your resume.
The specialized experience requirements within the job announcement come directly from the hiring manager. The hiring manager combs the position description for the experience they want in their desired candidate. By placing this information in the job announcement, it gives you the golden ticket to being found qualified and potentially referred.
To further drive home the need to mirror the required specialized experience in your resume I’ll explain how the qualifications determination is conducted.
When I am reviewing someone’s resume, I pull up the job announcement and look specifically for the required experience. Once I find the experience, my next step is to confirm the length of experience.
It is more than just copy and pasting the duties from the announcement in the resume. When the experience is reflected word for word it becomes a little suspicious. Instead, you need to explain how you meet that experience. For example, if one of the requirements is using Excel, you can’t just put “Used Excel” in your resume. It needs to be expanded to “Used Excel to enter, track, and manipulate data.”
One suggestion that helps to highlight your experience related to the position is to use the specialized experience examples as a header and then list personal examples below.
This would look something like:
Experience with Excel
1. Use to track specific data points
2. Use formulas to do calculations
3. Create tables to compare information
Regardless of how you structure your resume the key is to make the experience as easy to identify and interpret as possible. If you make it difficult to find the experience in your resume you increase your chances of being found ineligible. If your experience is difficult to identify and you are referred, chances are the hiring manager will choose not to interview you because they won’t be able to see what they are looking for.
When a certificate is issued to a hiring manager they have to review the candidates to determine who to interview. The screening process is called best qualified screening. The hiring manager does a resume review to look for specific experiences or length of experience in a certain area. The candidates that score above the cutoff get interviewed. This video explains the BQ and interview process.
Another point to make is the resume still matters if you are only using education to qualify for the position. People often think they don’t have to focus on their resume because they have a degree and that is all that is required to qualify. This isn’t true for the reasons just discussed.
If you have a degree and are using it to qualify, you will be meeting the minimum qualifications. The hiring manager is rarely looking for someone with minimum qualifications. They want someone that has the experience to go along with the education. Most people that meet the qualifications solely based on education and do not have any experience at all often do not make it through the best qualified process to receive an interview.
Even if you feel the experience, you have is not related to the position, be sure to explain it well in your resume. You’d be surprised how much of your experience could be related to some of the tasks of the position you are applying to. To do yourself the most justice in the application process, make sure to take the resume seriously.
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