Federal Jobs

10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Resume

by

Most of us are looking for quick and easy things to improve our resumes without a lot of work or time. Here are 10 things you can do; all totaled, these should take less than 30 minutes:

  1. Is your education listed first? If so, move it to the end unless you have no work experience. Most employers value your work experience more than your education. EXCEPTION: if you are an academic and presenting a formal CV.
  2. Are there tables embedded in your resume? If so, remove them.
  3. Does your resume go back more than 10 years or so? If so, eliminate your earlier work experience; employers want to know what you have done lately.
  4. Do the dates and jobs on your resume match the dates and jobs on your LinkedIn Profile? If not, make them match.
  5. Does your resume include a Hobbies section? A Personal section? Something similar? Delete them; everything on your resume should be focused on your target job.
  6. Does your resume include references? Or the statement, “references available upon request”? If so, delete this; all employers know that you will provide references if asked.
  7. Do you still have your college graduation date? And it was more than 10 years ago? Delete it.
  8. Is your private sector resume more than 2 pages? It shouldn’t be. Likewise, if your federal resume is ONLY 2 pages, more content is needed. A typical federal resume is 4-6 pages.
  9. Do you have an objective statement? If so, get rid of it; your objective is to get the job! Which is implied by applying for it.
  10. Does your resume have typos or grammatical errors? Not sure? Ask someone else to read it and fix them.

BONUS: Does your resume contain key words for the positions you’re targeting? If not, add them. It’s not about knowing that you can do the job but proving that you already have!

10 Mistakes You’re Making on LinkedIn

by

Mistake 1: You’re not on LinkedIn. If you’re not, you need to be—even if you’re working for the government! While LinkedIn is used more in the private sector than in the government, the US Army has the largest number of “employees” of any company in the world. And in some agencies I work with, if you’re not on LinkedIn, you won’t get an interview.

Read more

Looking to Transition from Your Military Career?

by

Transitioning from the military is doable but it takes a strategic approach. Follow these tips for a successful transition:

  • Give yourself enough time. Getting a federal job takes time under the best of circumstances. Most federal job postings receive as many as 400 to 1,000 or more applications—and many of those are from former military members. I was working with an agency that posted a grade 6 position; they received 1,200 applications and 900 of them were from 30% or more compensably rated vets. Give yourself at least 6 months (and more realistically, 12-18) to get a federal job; you should start applying at least 120 days before you leave the military.

Read more

Federal Benefits Update

by

If you haven’t yet heard of the threats to federal benefits contained in President Trump’s 2018 budget proposal, you haven’t been paying attention.  However, if you’re receiving the Solutions for the Workplace monthly newsletter, the odds are good that you’re aware of the danger on the horizon.

Most of the proposals are a re-hash of those that have been presented in the past and have gotten nowhere.  The Congressional Budget Office, the Simpson-Bowles Commission and budget proposals coming from the House of Representatives have made the same or similar proposals over the last several years.  The difference is that now the same party controls both houses of Congress and the Presidency, making the changes somewhat more likely to be enacted.  Note that I used the modifier “somewhat” in the previous sentence; it’s no slam dunk to enact such major changes to long-time benefits.

Read more