Federal Job Hunt

Take 5 min to Proofread Your Resume the Right Way

by

Did you know September is International Update Your Resume Month? Likely not, but it’s a perfect time to proofread your resume. Proofreading is hard—and it’s especially difficult to proofread your own work. Despite the challenges, it is critical that your resume be perfect and, if you’re including a cover letter, that needs to be perfect too.

Asking someone else to proofread your document is a good strategy but make sure the person you ask has strong grammar, spelling, and editing skills. And of course, you want to proof your own documents.

Some tested strategies for proofreading include:
• Read your document slowly from beginning to end to check for typos and other errors.
• Run spell check (recognizing that spell check is far from perfect and will not pick up errors in word usage; for example, using manger when you meant manager.
• Read your document backwards, starting at the end and then reading right to left
• Read your document out loud
• Run your document through Grammarly.com or other similar software

Here are some other ideas to address common mistakes:

Check for Punctuation Issues:
• Put periods at the end of all full sentences
• Keep your punctuation consistent when using bullets
• Periods and commas belong within quotation marks
• One space after a period is the current standard (not two spaces, which is appropriate for typewriters—and you’re not using a typewriter for your resume, are you?

Check for Spelling Errors:
• Don’t rely on spell check—it will not catch homophones or wrong words that are spelled correctly
• Use a dictionary
• Put your resume away for a couple of days and then read it; some times a few days away will help you see errors that were invisible before

Check Capitalization:
• Capitalize the first word of every sentence and bullet point
• Capitalize names and other proper nouns. The names of cities, countries, companies, religions, and political parties are proper nouns, as are days, months, and holidays. Other proper nouns including nationalities, institutions, and languages
• Governmental matters should be capitalized (as an example, Congress but not congressional, US Constitution but not constitutional)
• Government agencies are capitalized but the words federal and state and not generally capitalized unless those words are part of an official title (like Federal Trade Commission but not federal regulations)
• Titles are capitalized when they are followed by a name unless the title is followed by a comma
• Titles are not capitalized if it is used after a name or instead of a name

Tense Tips:
• Former jobs should always be in past tense
• Accomplishments should always be in past tense

Typos and other errors can be the “kiss of death.” The above tips, while not all-inclusive, will help ensure that your resume, cover letter, and other career documents are error-free.

Easy Resume Updates

by

In honor of International Update Your Resume Month, I am focusing this month on providing tips to update your resume. If you’re ready to spend an hour or two updating your resume, here are some things you can do:

• Remove positions that are more than 10 or so years old. Most resumes these days only go back 10 years since most employers want to know what you have done recently.

• Check the length; if you’re updating a private sector resume, make sure it does not exceed 2 pages; if you’re working on your federal resume, try to keep your resume to 4-7 pages.

• Make sure your resume is full of key words that reflect the kinds of positions you are targeting. And make sure your language is up-to-date. If you are in Information Technology, don’t call it Management Information Systems, as an example.

• Modernize your font. For federal resumes, think Times New Roman or Arial; for private sector resumes, think Calibri or another sans serif font. No one should be using Courier anymore—ever!

• Make sure you have white space to make your resume easy to read. And if your federal resume still uses only one long paragraph for every job, break it up into several smaller paragraphs. It will be more visually appealing, plus easier to read.

• Change all written numbers to numerals; use $ instead of dollars, % instead of percent, and M instead of million. This will make your resume more visually appealing, take up less room, and make those numbers stand out from all of your text.

• Update your training and technical skills. If you’re still showing Windows95, and training classes from the 1990’s and the early 2000’s, it’s time to move on. You do not need every single class ever taken or every single software or other technology you ever used.

• Remove your objective and references from your resume. These are both considered old fashioned. Employers are not interested in what you want; instead they want to know what you offer. And instead of including references on your resume, you should create a reference page and bring that with you to interviews (and leave it with your interviewers).

• Eliminate the term “responsible for” from your resume. Just because you’re responsible for something doesn’t mean you did it…it just means you should have done it! Start your sentences and bullet points with verbs. And don’t put “s” on the end of those verbs—keep your verbs strong and varied!

Five Things To Do Following an Interview

by

Your interview went well, now what? For one thing, it is not time to rest on your laurels. You need to keep the momentum moving forward.

Here are 5 things to do following your interview:

1. Send a thank you note. If your interview was with the government, email is appropriate since most “snail mail” goes through testing before it is actually delivered. If you are interviewing with a company or nonprofit organization, then a handwritten note is still best.

2. Keep applying for other positions, even while you wait. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Some jobs never get filled. For example, the budget for the new position might not be approved. Or the responsibilities of the job opening may be distributed to one or more existing employees. Or an internal candidate may have suddenly become available, and the position is offered to him or her. There are many reasons why the position may never be filled at all.

Sometimes you were the best candidate that they had interviewed so far, but then someone whose skills and experience were an even better fit came through the door. Even though the job interview went well, you might not be offered the job. That’s why it’s important to keep applying for other jobs.

3. Develop any specific skills or knowledge that were mentioned in the job interview but that you’re weak in. Specific software platforms might be one example; knowledge of a specific law or regulation is another. Not only will this give you something to do while you wait, but it’s also an opportunity for you to demonstrate your serious interest in the position, because you can mention what you’re doing to strengthen your skills in your follow up with the interviewer or during a second interview.

4. Reach out to your network. If someone you knew at the organization who put in a good word for you with the hiring manager, be sure to check in with him or her after the interview. Your contact may be able to provide you with insight about the number of candidates interviewed, how your candidacy was perceived, and other valuable information about the hiring process and the organization culture. You can also look for connections or possible connections on LinkedIn who could put in a good word…of course you should have done this before the interview but it’s never too late!

5. Touch base with your references. Let them know that you’ve interviewed for the position (give them the job title and organization) and that they may be contacted. Make sure they have an updated copy of your resume. Ask them to let you know if they hear from the hiring manager.
BONUS: start preparing for the second round of interviews! Do more research about the organization If you anticipate you’ll be asked about a specific project you worked on, put together a brag book or portfolio to use in the second interview. Google the organization and find out what they’re working on, and how this job might impact their future plans. Be prepared!!