Résumé and Job Search Help

1. Misspelled Words Use Spell Check! I cannot emphasize this enough! It’s not like you have to pay for it. It’s a free tool with your word processing program. When someone gives me their résumé and it has misspelled words, I get this sick feeling in my stomach as I control myself from telling them what I really think about it.

2.  Verb Tense Confusion If you performed the job in the past, you are going to add -ed to most of the verbs in your job description. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you need to do a little grammar refresher and study verb conjugation (remember middle school English class). If you are presently working at a particular job, it should be listed first and the verbs should all be in present tense.

3. Too Many Bullets People tell me all of the time, “but HR likes bullets”. That may be, but you can’t bullet everything on your résumé. Use it sparingly and if you do use it, decide if you are going to write complete sentences (using periods at the end) or not and then BE CONSISTENT.

4. Objective Statements See my article about objective statements. They are outdated. It’s better to write a professional summary or a qualifications summary. This makes it less self-centered and more concentrated on what you can do for the employer.

5.  One Page It’s OK if it’s one page naturally, but if you have a long work history give yourself permission to use more than one page. Of course, if it’s only a matter of a few lines too long, try to fit it onto one page. Use your judgement of whether it looks better on one or spread out onto two pages. We won’t even go into the topic of federal résumés.  If you’re writing a federal résumé, it’s a whole different story…

6. Acronyms Have your friend read through it and if they have no clue what your acronyms are, you should write them out. Remember that not every human resources manager is going to know specific acronyms and they are going to be your first audience.

7. “Responsible for…” This is a huge pet-peeve of mine. Take it out and start with the verb, every time. It will be more concise and it creates an active voice, instead of passive. Of course your were responsible for it, you’re putting it down in your job description.

8. Placement If there is something really fantastic you did, don’t wait until the end of the page or the second page of your résumé to talk about it. Put it on the first page, at the top.This is especially true for recent college graduates. I have seen them list all of their part time jobs and then at the very bottom of the page, they will put a tiny little section about education. If you are a recent grad, put your education above your employment section and don’t be afraid to list some of the individual courses you took or projects you worked on.

9. No Target Job It’s OK to have a generic résumé but as soon as you decide to submit it for a particular job, you’ve got to target it to that job. That means sitting down with the job announcement and making sure everything on the announcement is somewhere in the text of your résumé. So, if the employer is looking for someone with excellent customer service skills, you need to mention how and when you utilized excellent customer service skills.

10. Vague Job Descriptions If you aren’t sure what you did at your job other than answer the phones, go to http://www.bls.gov/oco/ and look up the kind of profession you held. Check out their description and see if it reminds you of other tasks you may have performed. This is an incredibly helpful tool!

      There are numerous websites to make special note of when looking for a federal job, but the most important place to start is www.usajobs.opm.gov. It’s a free site that allows you to create an account and apply for jobs using your online resume created block by block. This site lists most federal jobs across all of the departments. For example, it includes Department of Defense, Department of Interior, Department of Homeland Security, etc.  It’s a good place to check in with everyday but by no means the ONLY place to keep tabs on. You should also try to target the specific agency that has the kinds of positions you are interested in and qualify for.

     There are many options for searching on USAjobs and you should experiment with all of them. It’s best to really play around with the site so you understand how to best make use of it. You can learn about Job Series by looking here: http://federaljobs.net/occupations.htm. Searching by your preferred series allows for you to create an agent. The agent will email you every time a position in your interest range opens up. It saves you some work, but I still recommend checking on the site everyday for yourself.

     An important note I’d like to say here is to disregard what you hear other people say about applying for federal positions. Just because one person had a bad experience doesn’t mean you will have a bad experience. You just need to be smart about it and read the articles on this site that walk you through the process. I have successfully applied to and landed three federal jobs and have been interviewed for countless others. Obviously, the process does work, but some will try to discourage you from the start saying things like, “you have to know someone to get a job with the government these days” or “unless you’re a veteran, you won’t even get a second glance”. While using your network could indeed be helpful, it is not the ONLY way to get hired. And, veterans do get preference, but once you’re in the system, you also get preference after a year.

     Another thing people will complain about is the KSA’s. These are the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities. What they boil down to are short essays describing your experience in a certain area. It’s not a big deal at all, but it would be helpful, if you absolutely hate writing and know that you don’t do it well, to get help from someone who can. People agonize over this, but with a little guidance, it doesn’t have to be that painful.

     As with any job search, it’s always easier to look for a job when you already have a job. If you are unemployed and hoping to jump into federal service, you may want to get something to hold you over for a few months while you apply for as many government jobs as you think you even remotely qualify for. It is estimated to take up to 6 months to get hired. It took an entire year for me to start my second federal job. Don’t be discourgaed, but be aware and plan ahead with your finances. Keep watching for more posts as I walk you through the federal application process step by step.