Why a Standard Résumé Won’t have a Chance with the Federal Government
By David Jensen, CPRW, CARW, CEIP
Government jobs are plentiful even in a down economy. They are also good career-oriented positions with advancement opportunities. Landing a government job is a complex process, but it is well worth the effort if you desire to work in the public sector. Many private-industry job applicants use a standard resume thinking it is the same or just as effective as a Federal resume when applying for a government job. This is not the case. There is certain information that needs to appear on a Federal resume that you would not include on a private-sector resume. The human resource professionals need to see certain information in your application materials in order for you to be considered for further review as an applicant.
Federal Résumés Require More Personal Information
The information you need to provide for a government application (often called a vacancy announcement) includes your full name, complete mailing address, social security number, and your country of citizenship. Vacancy announcements contain a list of what to include in your résumé. If you leave any information out such as your social security number, you might not be considered for the job.
Federal Résumés Need to Align with the Job Announcement
With a standard resume, you might use a qualifications summary to outline your skills and experience that relate to the job you are applying for. With a federal résumé, you use an objective statement that needs to include the job title and department, the position’s grade level (the job’s level of difficulty), and the job announcement reference number. Following the objective statement you include a list of your qualifications that apply to the requirements listed in the job description.
Adhere to all Application Guidelines
Each vacancy announcement includes a “How to Apply” section that tells exactly what application process you need to follow and what information you need to include. It is critical that you provide information for every category in this section because most résumés are electronically scanned before a hiring manager reviews them. The required information often includes your past supervisor’s name and phone number and if that person can be contacted. This section often asks for your highest employment grade level whether you are a veteran or a civilian employee. You won’t be able to provide this information if you are transitioning from the private sector so you could enter N/A. Do not leave any categories blank.
Standard resumes are commonly one-to-two pages. Federal résumés can range from two-to-six pages and must comply with the guidelines required by the government personnel offices. Federal employment can be a good career opportunity if you are prepared and willing to produce a Federal résumé package that promotes you as the “best qualified” candidate for your selected government position.
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The Importance of Including Quantified Accomplishments
With so many individuals competing for jobs these days, the only thing that will differentiate you from the rest of the equally-qualified crowd is what you achieved while on the job. But be warned – an accomplishment must be quantified in order to hold any weight with the hiring manager or recruiter.
Too many times I see resumes where the individual writes: “Reorganized an entire department per management instructions.” That’s not an accomplishment, that is a daily duty. An accomplishment would read like this: “Generated savings in excess of $25,000 annually by reorganizing the marketing department and employing temp workers, rather than full-time staff.”
The above speaks to what a hiring manager and/or recruiter wants to see – how you can make them money and how you can save them money.
To further strengthen your resume, make certain to put at least one, preferably two, quantified and relevant accomplishments in the opening summary. This is especially true if you use the word ‘proven’ to describe yourself. For example, you write:
Accounting professional with comprehensive experience and proven results in negotiations with the IRS.
Proven by whom? You? That’s not enough proof for a hiring manager or recruiter. They want more. It’s better to write:
Accounting professional with comprehensive experience and proven results in negotiations with the IRS as evidenced by the $.5 million in savings, resulting from the 2009 audit.
The above clearly states that you saved your company a half million dollars through your expertise. That speaks volumes to hiring managers and puts you well above the others competing for the same position.
Effective Letters of Recommendation
When searching for a new job, especially in this economy, it helps to have letters of recommendation from previous employers and industry professionals.
However, the letter must go beyond the general and mundane. We’ve all read letters that tell the prospective employer how much the former boss enjoyed working with the candidate. What a great guy/gal the employee happened to be. How fortunate a new company will be to have them.
As a hiring manager, that’s not telling me what I need to know. To make an informed decision, I need data that will tell me:
- How the employee excelled in their old position – not that they simply showed up for work.
- The employee’s progression through the company. Additional responsibilities. Promotions.
- How they did on performance reviews, especially in relation to others in their department.
- Their accomplishments quantified with dollar figures of money saved/earned, time periods in which this took place, and the methods they used.
These four points make for an effective letter of recommendation. They add credence to the often-used verbiage – “It was a pleasure to work with XYZ.”
No employer has the time to write the perfect letter of recommendation. So, it’s up to you, the employee, to give your boss or manager a draft detailing what you’ve done for the company and to make it as complete as possible so the new hiring manager or recruiter knows just what they will have in you.
The three things to bring to the negotiating table
by Jeri Hurd Dutcher, ResumeEdge.com Editor, CPRW, CEIP, CPCC
My client has been invited to interview for a network technician job. He’s not quite done with his CCNA, so that’s a wonderful thing. The catch is it’s about 70 minutes from his home where his wife owns a business. He lives in a place where winters mean blizzards and bad roads. Can he afford to commute or rent a studio apartment to reduce driving time and in case of storms?
He needs to find three pieces of information to be prepared to negotiate:
1. His personal wants and requirements.
2. The range the company will pay.
3. The average salary paid in the geographical area where he plans to work.
First, he gets out the household budget and figures out the minimum he will accept. This process should also define and prioritize the benefits he needs and wants and what he is willing to negotiate away.
Second, if there is no salary range listed on the job posting, he calls the company’s HR Department and asks what the salary range is for the job. If they say there is none, or it depends on experience, he asks what the current employee in that position earns. If that is not forthcoming, as well, he networks his way to someone else in the company who may know or can find out.
Third, he determines what the average salary is in the company’s geographic area. The best place to look for that is www.Indeed.com. On the main page, he clicks the salaries link in the upper left corner of the screen. He fills in the search fields and scrolls down to see the average salary, national salary trend, and average salaries of jobs with related titles (with links back to those jobs).
Other places to search include:
• http://online.onetcenter.org/
• Compensation.BLR.com (offers free trial)
• Salary.com
• www.payscale.com
• Library Resources
Research companies and job search specialists are also available to complete research. They often require completion of a form or a phone interview to define the desired position.
