Important tips on writing a federal resume
Federal jobs provide security that many people yearn for. To apply for a job with the federal government, you need a federal resume. A resume meant for federal jobs is quite different than resumes meant for private jobs. Firstly, your resume must contain additional information which you do not have to generally include in normal resumes and you should follow a particular format also. If all these seems to be intimidating to you then go through this article which will guide you in preparing a resume for federal jobs.
Before proceeding further let me assure you that if you know how to build resume you will find the task quite easy. Following a chronological resume format is expected, so you may check out chronological resume to know more about this format. While applying for a federal job, you have to be careful about presenting certain information, which if left out will render your application useless. So, there is little scope for flexibility and you have to strictly follow the guidelines provided.
What to include
When applying for a federal job, the resume must contain the following sections.
Personal information
Your federal resume must begin with your personal information like name, contact phone numbers and address at the top of the first page. Along with this information you must provide your social security number. You must specify your country of citizenship and provide details like whether you have released from military service or not and your federal status.
Job information
After providing the personal information you must mention the job you are applying for, along with its title, grade, series and job announcement number.
Summary of qualification
Summarize your experience in a way so that your resume stands out from the others. Creatively select words so that your resume becomes an impressive one.
Employment history
In this section, you should chronologically present your entire employment history. You must furnish information like the posts held, the name of the supervisors along with their contact phone numbers, address, tenure of service, salary and average number of hours worked in each week.
You must have realized that the information you have to provide in your federal resume should be in more details than any normal resume.
Provide a brief summary of jobs along with the duties you performed in each position. You should mention four to eight points for each position. Use bulleted list here to make the resume more readable. You can check best resumes to pick up new ideas about how to present your information.
Educational details
The next section in your resume must be on your educational qualifications. Here also, list your qualifications chronologically with the name of school, the type of the degree, year of receiving the degree and the location of the school.
Trainings
A separate section must be provided on the trainings you received. You must include information like the program title, when you acquired the training and other additional information.
Other qualifications
You may provide a separate section for the awards you have won or the certifications you have received or if you have contributed in any presentation or publication.
Writing a federal resume is not difficult albeit time consuming. Since you have to put in a lot of information you must be very careful about their accuracy. Otherwise it is similar to writing any employment resume.
