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Looking to change jobs. I am currently a GS 7 and want to rewrite my resume for other positions. Is there anyone willing to review my resume and provide feedback.

Veteran

Corey Powell Newport News, VA

Looking for someone to give some advice and feedback on my current federal resume.

8 January 2018 11 replies Resumes & Cover Letters

Answers

Advisor

William (Liam) Hickey Chicago, IL

Corey, without having seen your résumé, I'd like to offer this advice. . . .

1) Are you applying for federal jobs or private sector jobs? These applications are written, organized, and evaluated in MUCH different ways.

- If you are applying for federal positions, pick up the Federal Résumé Guidebook by Kathryn Troutman. The first half of the book is what you will need.

2) For federal government résumés, only the top three point totals get interviews. (keywords + preference points) The most qualified people are often left out if they don't write their résumés to score points. Once, our government customer wanted to hire one of my colleagues from contractor into government employee. His résumé didn't get enough points. (This is the guy who was *already doing the job* . . . and REALLY WELL.)

Here is a winning strategy that one of my clients came up with.

Position: Project Manager
Agency: Veterans Administration
What he did:
In front of every relevant bullet on his résumé, he wrote, "As a project manager, . . . ." By repeating "project manager" over and over throughout his résumé, he racked up so many points that he beat out hundreds of government people, despite having had *no prior government experience.*

3) On Julie's point about length, the national professional résumé writers guidelines state one page per 10 to 15 years of experience. That said, remember that federal government résumés are different.

4) Let me clarify a common point of confusion. When people tell you to write down your achievements, the word "achievement" usually means something different to the candidate than it does to the employer. Look at these two versions of a résumé bullet below. The top one tells the employer very little useful information, whereas the bottom one is effective.

* Repaired and maintained tanks for deployment to the battlefront

compared to

* Redeployed 30 battlefront tanks 25% faster by reducing the time to clean and repair <whatever> from 8 hours down to 2 hours.

This person saved time, money, and possibly lives. Someone who saves time, money, and energy or increases sales and reputation are the people who get hired. THOSE are what employers consider "achievements" and "accomplishments." Lots of people improve things at work, but the people who SHOW IT get interviewed.

HTH,
Liam

26 January 2018 Helpful answer

Advisor

Merry Vickers Richardson, TX

Thank you for your service. Give your resume a format change and lead with a summary that outlines your skills and qualifications. Share generalities from past positions to translate how it will be beneficial in new roles, like skills, duties, projects or management. Use clear civilian language to describe your career objectives, but highlight key wording from job descriptions and any accomplishments you have achieved. Keep the verbiage in present tense and have others read through it for feedback. If you can pursue any volunteer opportunities, contract jobs, certifications or even CEU (Continuing Education Units) courses will show how interested you are and make recruiters take notice.

Large companies have numerous professional development opportunities of all kinds, like Raytheon. Look at all the positions offered, not just specific jobs and you will be amazed at the possibilities. Once you find any position, take advantage of in-house professional development and training programs which always shows management that you are willing to do and learn more. Go to Raytheon.com to see all the open positions.

Kindest regards,
Merry Vickers

25 January 2018 Helpful answer

Advisor

Deb Yeagle Tampa, FL

Corey-
Thanks for your service!
I'm assuming you are planning on staying in federal civil service. In that case, you need to tailor your resume for each USAJOBS announcement that you are applying for. The key to getting a favorable screen in any USAJOBS resume is to carefully read the information in the “Requirements” section of the job announcement, and use / emphasize / highlight as many keywords as possible and as applicable from the various subsections within your work experience blocks so that the screener scores your resume high enough to be passed along to the next phase of the resume review. These subsections typically include:
Conditions of Employment
Qualifications
Experience Required
Specialized Experience
Education

If you are interested in a particular position, then feel free to send me the USAJOBS announcement and the latest version of your federal resume via private message, and I will take a look and provide you with some direct feedback on how to tailor your resume.
Thanks again-
Deb

10 January 2018 Helpful answer

Advisor

Gerald Mannikarote Houston, TX

Hi Corey,
It looks like you've received a lot of great information already. I could probably add 1 additonal point:
Tailor your resume for the job that you are applying to.
What I mean by that is you can have a general resume, but you will need to make a 'new' one or tailor the general one to match the requirements of the job description.
Each company will describe their jobs in a slightly different way. For that reason, you will need to add the words the job description uses in your resume when you apply for that specific job. This will help you match up with the job posting.
I hope this helps.
Warm regards,
Jerry

10 January 2018 Helpful answer

Advisor

Julia Scott Spring, TX

Hi, Corey,

The only things I can add to this conversation is that if you work with any version of the Robert Half organization (finance/ credit, admin, it etc.) you will gain access to their online training which is very broad in scope. It is also likely that there are also a myriad of eLearning opportunities through your public library. I have used those in the Houston and The Woodlands library.

While you are looking for your new and perfect home, you can increase the skills that will be needed by the organization to be successful.
Lastly, you might want to consider reducing your resume to no more than 1 – 2 pages max. Recruiters and hiring managers will want to see Position name & company, followed by 3-4 bullet points about how your performance of assigned tasks resulted in either revenue generated or savings captured, and how you achieved each result.

Brevity has always been an issue for me, however the pay offs of creating the very best advertisement of you will generate more interest. Consider the amount of white space in your resume, as anything crowded looking doesn’t make a quick read, and can overwhelm the current bunch of managers who relate to twitter and FB type of communication. Write your resume in such a way that a quick glance provides the “sizzle” that will lead to “the steak” for an actual interview.

I wish you the very best,

Julia

9 January 2018 Helpful answer

Advisor

Piers Dickinson Kennett Square, PA

Hi, I think this is you on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-powell-a4379242 - a few suggestions for you:
- Lots of great content on your profile > as well as the summary, I would trim each job profile down and break it up into bite size chunks. As you do this you can include the good advice from Merry (above) who says "Use clear civilian language to describe your career objectives, but highlight key wording from job descriptions and any accomplishments you have achieved". Don't forget that a lot of keyword matching goes on automatically so this will help. Also remember that a recruiter's time on your profile is very, very short so you've really got to be very clear with your pitch about who you are and what you can contribute.
- Common mistake > make sure your resume document and LinkedIn profile match up in terms of dates and other information.
- I would maybe go for another photo for your profile > be careful with what's in the background - looks like a light fitting right behind you; have the photo shot straight rather than angled up to avoid you looking down; smile!
- I would make more of the 2008 Thailand post > it currently reads as though you could have been doing that in the US but there are probably all sorts of interesting cultural learnings you could introduce.
- Ditto 1989 Germany > most large companies are international and you are likely to need to work with colleagues abroad so showing your experience with that is a strong advantage.
- Something that most of us are guilty of is just listing what we did in a given job rather than saying how well we did it and what impact we had > harder than you think but more impactful.
- Hope that helps > Good luck!

8 January 2018 Helpful answer

Advisor

Merry Vickers Richardson, TX

Thank you for your service. Give your resume a format change and lead with a summary that outlines your skills and qualifications. Share generalities from past positions to translate how it will be beneficial in new roles, like skills, duties, projects or management. Use clear civilian language to describe your career objectives, but highlight key wording from job descriptions and any accomplishments you have achieved. Keep the verbiage in present tense and have others read through it for feedback. If you can pursue any volunteer opportunities, contract jobs, certifications or even CEU (Continuing Education Units) courses will show how interested you are and make recruiters take notice.

Large companies have numerous professional development opportunities of all kinds, like Raytheon. Look at all the positions offered, not just specific jobs and you will be amazed at the possibilities. Once you find any position, take advantage of in-house professional development and training programs which always shows management that you are willing to do and learn more.

Kindest regards,
Merry Vickers

8 January 2018 Helpful answer

Advisor

Gail Baccetti Lake Geneva, WI

Hi, Corey. Looks like you have received some very good general comments. I would be happy to critique your particular resume for format, content, grammar, etc. if that would be helpful, you can forward it to me at gbaccetti@hotmail.com. I will return it with comments.

26 January 2018 Helpful answer

Advisor

Bob Molluro Wilmington, DE

Corey, did you know that as veteran the company that employees you is entitled to a tax credit up to $9,600. Most employers don't this either. I can show you what to add to your resume that will point this out plus how the employer can take advantage of the credit. Just send me an email to ramco1@verizon.net if you want to learn how. Anyone else reading this feel free to contact me for some guidance.
Warmly,
Bob

Advisor

John (Casey) Roach Greenwich, CT

I would be happy to try and help- send me your papers
Casey Roach
Merrill Lynch
john.h.roach@ml.com

Advisor

Duke Khadan Sawh Keyport, NJ

Hi Corey,

All good preceding comments. If you are interested in a Federal position or civilian position, need to focus on the job requirements you are looking for and tailor your resume accordingly. I will be glad to review your resume with this in mind. You may send your resume for review to me at duke4446@gmail.com.. Good Luck

Duke Khadan Sawh
B.S., M.A. (Hon)
Actg Command Sergeant Major
U.S. Army (Ret)

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