What should I include in my resume?

Whether you're a current federal employee or new to the federal government, your resume is the primary way for you to communicate your education, skills and experience. The federal government does not have a standard job application. Your resume is your application.

A resume for a federal job is different than one for the private sector.

You must address each of the requirements and qualifications listed in the announcement—write clearly and without jargon. The hiring agency will not make assumptions about what's in your resume.
It requires more detailed descriptions of your work experiences, including experience level and complexity of work and may exceed the private sectors commonly recommended one to two pages.
You must include the start and end dates (month/year) and number of hours worked per week for each work experience.
You should tailor your resume for each federal job you apply for instead of using the same resume.

Before you write your resume

Read the entire job announcement. Focus on the following sections to understand whether you qualify for the position. This critical information is found under:

Duties
Requirements, which lists the Qualifications, and Specialized Experience and Education
How to Apply which will include a link to a preview of an assessment questionnaire, if that is required
How You Will be Evaluated

Make sure you have the required experience and education before you apply. Hiring agencies use the job announcement to describe the job and the required qualifications, including:

Level and amount of experience
Education
Training

What to include in your resume

Federal jobs often require that you have experience in a particular type of work for a certain amount of time. Your resume must show how your skills and experiences meet the qualifications and requirements listed in the job announcement to be considered for the job.

Include important contact information at the top

Include current contact information. Most job applications require this information:

Full name
Your address
Your email address
Your phone number

Read the job opportunity carefully to make sure you have included all required contact information.

Include dates, hours, level of experience and examples for each work experience

For each work experience, make sure you include:

Job title
Start and end dates (including the month and year).
The number of hours you worked per week.
The level of experience—describe the level of responsibility you had, for instance, whether you served as a project manager or a team member helps to illustrate your level of experience.
The amount of experience—use numbers to illustrate the number of people you managed, or the number of years you worked or managed.
Examples of relevant experience and accomplishments. Write your experience by matching your work experiences and accomplishments with language in the job announcement. Your experience needs to address every required qualification and prove that you can perform the tasks at the level required as stated in the job announcement.

Optional details to include:

Your salary – some agencies require you to list the salary for each work experience.

Example of work experience

Program Analyst GS-343-11
January 2009—Present
40 Hours/Week
$63,000/Year

Describe your experience.
List an accomplishment. For example: "Accomplished as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]."
Describe your experience.
List an accomplishment. For example: "Accomplished as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]."

Takeaways:

Provide greater detail for experience that is relevant to the job for which you are applying.
Show all experiences and accomplishments under the job in which you earned it. This helps agencies determine the amount of experience you have with that skill...

Use numbers to highlight your accomplishments

Use numbers, percentages or dollars to highlight your accomplishments—you can find this information in things like your performance reviews, previous job descriptions, awards and letters of recommendation.

When explaining your accomplishments:

Include examples of how you saved money, earned money or managed money.
Include examples of how you saved or managed time.

Examples

"Improved efficiency of document processing by 25 percent over the previous year".
"Wrote 25 news releases in a three-week period under daily deadlines".
"Managed a student organization budget of more than $7,000".
"Wrote prospect letter that has brought in more than $25,000 in donations to date".

These statements show in concrete terms what you accomplished.

Include volunteer work and roles in community organizations

Don't limit yourself to only including paid work experience. Include relevant volunteer work or community organizations roles that demonstrate your ability to do the job.

Use similar terms and address every required qualification

Your experience needs to address every required qualification in the job announcement. Hiring agencies will look for specific terms in your resume to make sure you have the experience they're seeking.

For example, if the qualifications section says you need experience with “MS Project” you need to use the words “MS Project” in your resume.

Organize and format your resume to make it easy to understand

You need to organize your resume to help agencies evaluate your experience.

Use reverse chronological order to list your experience—start with your most recent experience first and work your way back.
Use either bullet or paragraph format to describe your experiences and accomplishments.
Use plain language—avoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood.

Customize your resume for each job application

You should tailor your resume to the job announcement rather than sending out the same resume for every job. Customizing your resume helps you match your competencies, knowledge, skills, abilities and experience to the requirements for each job. Emphasize your strengths and include everything you've done that relates to the job you're seeking. Leave out experience that isn't relevant.

Review your resume before you apply

Hiring agencies often receive dozens or even hundreds of resumes for certain positions. Hiring managers quickly skim through submissions and eliminate candidates who clearly are not qualified. Look at your resume and ask:

Can a hiring manager see my main credentials within 10 to 15 seconds?
Does critical information jump off the page?
Do I effectively sell myself on the top quarter of the first page?
Are there any spelling or grammatical errors?

Finally, have someone else, with a good eye for detail, review your resume.

Important facts about the federal hiring process

Hiring agencies use the job announcement to describe the job and list the required qualifications and responsibilities.
After applying, the hiring agency uses the information in your resume to confirm if you have the required qualifications stated in the job announcement.
Once the hiring agency has determined who is qualified, they may use other assessments such as interviews or testing to determine the best qualified applications.

Learn more about the federal hiring process.

You can upload your resume into the documents section of your profile, or you can use our resume builder to create a resume.