How to Write a Federal Resume With Examples

As we mentioned above, the federal resume is a unique combination of the most familiar resume format, the reverse-chronological, and the international CV. We compiled a list of the usual sections you can find in standard resumes, CVs, and federal resumes to give you an idea of what additional information you can include as you write a federal document.

Unlike civilian resumes, which open with your full name and personal information, a federal resume opens by specifying which job to which you’re applying:

For example, if you were applying for a Civil Engineer position with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, you might open your federal resume like this:

Unlike a standard resume, which typically states your full name, contact number, email, and general location, your federal resume will be more detailed. This may pertain to background checks and verifications that the government will want to run depending on the position and security clearance required for the job.

Your personal information section will need to contain the following information in this order, if applicable:

Although the skills section is a concise list that sits underneath the job information, personal information, objective statement, and work history, your skills make up the bulk of your resume. You may only feature six to eight skills under the dedicated skills section, but highlighting skills throughout your work history will help you bolster your resume and define your professional accomplishments and qualifications.

To successfully include relevant skills throughout your resume, you’ll need to compose a list of career-related skills. This can usually be broken down into soft, hard, and technical skills.

Create three lists that break all of your personal and professional skills into these three categories. If we double back to the open civil engineer position, we can safely infer that these skills would be important for the job.

Once you’re done, you can compare your professional accomplishments to the requirements of the open federal job and highlight all relevant skills. You can feature these skills in the following ways:

Your objective statement, or summary statement, is a two or three-sentence paragraph that acts as a professional elevator pitch. You have a few moments that quickly define how your professional accomplishments and qualifications make you a strong candidate for the position and demonstrate an innate understanding of the job’s responsibilities and requirements.

To successfully convince a hiring manager to finish reading your resume and consider your application, you need to focus on what the open job asks for. We’ll double back to our open Civil Engineer job.

If you’re applying for a position in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, look at the region or city they’ll be based. A civil engineer would highlight urban, coastal, or earthquake engineering in a city like Los Angeles or San Francisco, whereas a civil engineer in Houston wouldn’t benefit from these specialties and would highlight their knowledge of flooding, levees, and water resources.

A detailed federal resume follows the same structure as a reverse-chronological resume’s work history, as well as the same rules. Start with your current or most recent job and work your way back.

Focus on the relevant experience that ties in with the open job requirements. Use similar phrases and terms from the job post to summarize your previous responsibilities and accomplishments. Use the following layout to structure this information:

Your education section will follow the same format as a reverse-chronological resume. If you’re highlighting one or two degrees, start with the most recent degree and structure the information in the following format:

If you’re applying to a position that requires or recommends specialized training, such as a civil engineer, you can include this information underneath the degrees. Keep this information in your education section and follow this format:

This is an optional section that follows the same general structure as a work history section. If you volunteered once or twice and the information is relevant to the job, feel free to include this information under your work history section.

However, if you contributed years of relevant volunteer work, you may create this specialized section to showcase your commitment to your community alongside additional opportunities to learn and finesse your skills.

As we mentioned before, you’ll follow the same structure as a work history section. Start with the most recent volunteer experience and work backward using this layout.

Whether you’re currently enlisted or a veteran, transitioning from a military position can be difficult. Military terminology can be different from civilian terminology, which is why it is so important to adapt your explanation to mirror the language in an open job post.

However, military personnel are valuable members of the job industry and can feature their previous responsibilities on their standard and federal resumes. Depending on the length of your enlistment, you can either feature this information under the standard work history section we mentioned above or create this specialized section here.

Suppose you were enlisted for a two or three-year term and have none, or limited, experience in the civilian sector. In that case, we strongly recommend that you add this information to your work history section.

If you enlisted for three, four, five, or six-year terms and have limited experience in the civilian sector, we strongly recommend that you forgo the work history section in favor of this military section.

If you enlisted for three, four, five, or six-year terms and have more than three years of experience working in the civilian sector, keep the work history section but showcase your military section in this military section.

You’ll format your role and responsibilities in the following manner: