Résumé and Job Search Help

If you’ve ever spent any time looking for a federal job, chances are you’ve also encountered the verbose and bewildering announcements. They seem to be written in a foreign language. Even the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board’s research shows that Federal vacancy announcements are often poorly written, difficult to understand, and filled with jargon and unnecessary information (July 2008). As a result, many are discouraged from even attempting to apply for Federal jobs.

This is unfortunate because the Federal government is hiring! A large percentage of the workforce is retiring and more and more positions will be coming open. Understanding these announcements and the application procedures IS worth your while. So here are some tips to help you unravel the mystery.

First, when you find a job you are interested in applying for, PRINT OUT the entire announcement. It’s a good idea to keep a file of all of the jobs you apply for. This will come in handy if you’re ever offered a job and need to check back about the benefits that were offered. Once you have the announcement printed out, grab a highlighter or a pen and get ready to do some analysis!

Let’s look at a typical announcement and review each section.
Who May Be Considered: Make sure this section includes you. If you are a veteran, military spouse or previous federal employee (for at least one year), you qualify as a “status candidate”. If you are NOT eligible to apply for the job, do not waste your time any longer. Move on to the next job announcement.
Open Period: Notice the closing date of the announcement. There is no negotiation here. If you do not have enough time to prepare the application, do not waste your time. Do not send your application in late! It will not be reviewed.
Also, there are two things I’d like to caution you about, the first is a short open period. If the announcement is only open for 3 days, chances are they have someone in mind for the job and did not want to receive a lot of applications to review or to compete with their preferred candidate. This is common in the government and it should not discourage you, just keep it in mind as a reason not to take it personally if you don’t get called for an interview.
The other caution I would like to throw out is announcements that are open for an entire year. These are called Open Continuous announcements. These are most common for the Department of Navy and Air Force. It’s OK to throw your application into the pot, but don’t count on getting a call. Your application will be placed in a file cabinet and IF a “fill request” is received, human resources will pull open the file cabinet to find applicants who match the request. If no request is received over the year that the announcement is open, all of the applications will be discarded and you will need to reapply next year.
Position Information and Duty Locations: These can also alert you to Open Continuous announcements. If it says, “Multiple Positions” and “Multiple Locations”, be cautious.
Major Duties: This is one of the crucial areas of the announcement! This is where you will find the KEY WORDS to use in your résumé. Take out your highlighter and mark this section. Look for important vocabulary, terminology, or phrases that you can use in your own experience descriptions. You will want your résumé to mirror this section specifically. Not only will this section help you focus your own professional experience descriptions, but it may help you remember skills you have or tasks you performed that you hadn’t already listed. Remember: Federal résumés are not limited in length as civilian résumés are.
Qualifications: In this section, you will find a detailed explanation of the education and/or experience required to be considered for this job. Most positions will value experience over education however some positions will require a degree.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: While I will go into detail about this in another post, you should know you will need to address these. Usually you will need to address each KSA separately. DO NOT simply repeat the KSA in your résumé and think it will be enough. For example, if the KSA is, “Able to communicate orally.” Do not cut and paste that phrase into your résumé. Believe it or not, I have seen several people do this. It is WRONG!
How To Apply: Usually when I am applying to a Federal job, I will compile all of my application materials and then use check marks as I read through this section to be sure I am following all directions and details carefully. Each announcement is unique so you will need to carefully read this section. When you’ve come this far, there is no excuse to skip the most important part. Make sure you fax, mail, submit or hit “send” EXACTLY the way the announcement tells you to.
Contact Information: Sometimes there is an email address or telephone number for a point of contact. If you have questions, you can try to contact this person. Sometimes you will get lucky. It is good to keep this information on hand if you have any follow up questions or if you are curious as to the status of the announcement after it closes. There is nothing wrong with following up and they will not penalize you for doing so. At worst they simply will not reply to your inquiry.
Hopefully, this information will help you understand some of the typical sections of a Federal job announcement. Check out my other posts for more details on applying or preparing a Federal résumé.

      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.