Federal Resume Writing Blog

(Mostly) Useless Federal Resume Writing Tip #2

Avoid using acronyms. When you must use them, spell them out the first time used and separate with parentheses, commas, or dashes.

This is another (Mostly) Useless Federal Resume Writing Tip that you probably wasted a lot of time finding.

As with all the (Mostly) Useless Federal Resume Writing Tips, it is a legitimate tip. But in this case, how is that tip any different for writing a Federal resume than it is for writing a private sector resume? Presumably, if you are looking for tips that will help you write a winning Federal resume, you are looking for tips that are specific to Federal resumes. Right? There is nothing special about that tip as it is given that warrants labeling it as a “Federal Resume Writing Tip” – it is a standard, generic resume writing tip!

Because this tip doesn’t offer any new or especially useful information with regards to Federal resume writing, we have given this tip the label of (Mostly) Useless Resume Writing Tips. As with all the (Mostly) Useless Federal Resume Writing Tips, keep in mind who is offering them and why they are being offered…they are offered by professional resume writers that want you to spend $100s for their services; the tips are just to draw you in for the sale.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we don’t have a problem with professional resume writers trying to make a sale – after all, that’s exactly what we are trying to do with these posts. We just hate to see people in need of work wasting a lot of time relying on tips that won’t get them anywhere, or wasting a lot of money that has better use elsewhere. We believe that anyone can write a winning Federal resume on their own with the right kind of help.  If you still have problems after that, then consider a professional resume writer.

That’s where the Federal Resume Toolbox™ comes in. For less than $20 the Federal Resume Toolbox™ gives you the clear-cut, concise information you need to write a winning Federal resume. Unlike other Federal resume writing books on the market, the Federal Resume Toolbox™ is not 300+ pages in length and crammed with extra information that may have no relevance to you. The Federal Resume Toolbox™ is less than 50 pages and gets right down to the nitty-gritty of what you need to do to get a Federal resume submitted and accepted.

(Mostly) Useless Federal Resume Writing Tip #1

Include personal information such as your full name, mailing address with ZIP code, any phone numbers, Social Security Number, reinstatement eligibility and civilian grade, including the job series and dates that you held the previous position.

Well, that information is most certainly needed in order to successfully apply to a federal career position. But here’s the deal…the government doesn’t leave you guessing as to whether or not you should include that information!

With few exceptions, most of your job searching will take place on USAJOBS.gov. If you are using USAJOBS.gov to job search, chances are you have already created an account (if you haven’t, do so immediately). In this account you can create resumes. As you create your resume, you will be required to include all the information mentioned in this (Mostly) Useless Federal Resume Writing Tip.

In most cases, if you find a job worth applying to, you will be able to apply online and submit your resume on the spot. Voila! All the information is sent automatically.

Let’s just say, though, that the application process requires you to fill out another form – for instance an Optional Form (OF) 612. Guess what? The form will ask you for all that information!

Here is an actual useful tip:

If, for whatever reason, you are not using an online option to apply to a federal position, go ahead and build your resume in a USAJOBS.gov account anyway. There are a couple of reasons why…

1. At some point in time you may find a position on USAJOBS.gov that you do want to apply to. Why repeat the resume building process again later?
2. After you build your resume in your USAJOBS.gov account (which will ask you for all the mandatory information), you can print your hard copy resume for submission right from there. You don’t have to do anything but plug in the information.

Hopefully you didn’t waste too much time searching the internet for this “(Mostly) Useless Federal Resume Writing Tip.”

If you’d like to stop wasting anymore time, I invite you to consider FederalResumeTips.com’s Federal Resume Toolbox™. Developed under the guidance of a Federal Human Resources Professional with nearly two decades of government experience, the Federal Resume Toolbox™ gives you the clear-cut, concise information you need to CRACK THE CODE to writing an effective Federal resume that leads to government employment

A lot of times when someone starts the process of searching for a career with the Federal government on USAJOBS, they create a “Job Search Agent.”  The Job Search Agent periodically runs a job search based upon specified criteria and then notifies the person of matching jobs.

I’d offer the advice that rather than depend on the Job Search Agent, you go out to USAJOBS every other day or so and manually run a job search yourself.  I think this is important for a several reasons:

1. Most people set-and-forget the Agent.  In other words, they forget to go back and review it to see if there are changes that can be made that might give more hits, with the end result being that they miss out on opportunities to apply for more positions.
2. Depending on how often you set the agent to run, a position may open and close before you ever get notification – again missing opportunities to submit your Federal resume.
3. When doing manual searches, you tend to think of ways to tweak your searches in ways that might give you more or varied results.  That doesn’t happen with the Agent.
4. When you get in the system and do your searches regularly, you become more familiar with the Federal jobs that are being posted and how many.  For instance, if there were 90 Federal jobs fitting your search on one day, and 98 two days later, you’d more likely notice this if you were searching manually than if you were letting an automated system do it.
5. The more you work with the system, the more you learn about finding potential jobs that  you might have the credentials for.  For instance, if you have an engineering background you may initially only be searching for Federal positions in the 0801 series (Engineer); however, after becoming familiar with the system, you would learn that a 0340 (Program Manager) position often requires and engineering background.  Now you know how to expand your government job search.

In the end, visiting USAJOBS on a regular basis to search for your Federal career will most certainly pay off with more opportunities.

To get more helpful tips like this download, the Federal Resume Toolbox.