Writing a Resume for a Government Position that Will Get You Noticed
Writing a resume for a government position requires presentation in briefing format. Pertinent information is organized clearly in order of precedence. Government officials and executives want the bottom line relevant to their mission quickly. Your resume should be organized accordingly. After your current Point of Contact (POC) information write a short objective that includes the job title and agency reference number. The objective needs to be clear and showcases your qualifications. Highlight the accomplishments that are relevant to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) of the position requirement. Adapt your resume to fit the needs of the position by researching the organization's current operations and mission objectives, then customizing your accomplishments to meet the agency's need. Because of the great number of applicants for government positions human resource offices use computer aided key words searches to screen for qualified applicants. Continuity of experience and short resume bullets will aid this process and make your resume easy to read.

When writing a resume for a government position, it is important to present your pertinent information clearly, quickly, and relevantly. You need to take the time to make your resume powerful. If you want to make sure that your resume for a government position gets more than a toss in the trash, here are some tips that can help you get noticed.

The first thing that you need to do when you are writing a resume that is going to get you noticed for a government position is to make sure that you include a job objective. The objective needs to be clear, show your goals, and showcase your most important qualifications. Without an objective, it may seem like you don't have goals or guidance for your career, which will most definitely impact your potential employer’s impression of you negatively.

Highlight the accomplishments that you feel are most important and relevant to the position for which you are applying. Your potential employer probably goes through many resumes in a short amount of time, so you want him to find your best qualities right away.

It's also very important that you work to adapt your resume for the government position you are applying for. Every position is different and your resume should reflect that you know that. Your resume should be customized in a way that will showcase your main accomplishments and qualifications for the job at hand.

Keeping the resume short is also very important. More than likely no one is going to look twice at a resume that is 3-4 pages long. You should keep the resume to only one page if you can. Although you don't want it to be too short, making it about a page is going to be a great length for you.

You will also want to make sure that you keep your resume easy to read. You want people to be able to look at it and quickly see your selling points. This can be accomplished by using good headings, bullet points, and some space in between each section of your resume. Make sure that it doesn't look cluttered. The way it looks may make the difference between whether or not someone actually takes a look at it, so make sure it looks great and that the important points jump out.

Action words and keywords should always be used within your resume when you are working to get a government job. Keywords are important because they are related to the job you want and show your proficiency in the field. Also, action words should be used throughout the entire resume to make your points effective. Some great action words to use include conduct, create, develop, produce, sell, plan, supervise, and perform.

Using spell check is a necessity. In fact, you'd probably be amazed at all the misspellings that end up in resumes for positions with the government. You should proofread your resume over and over to make sure that it is absolutely perfect. Then have someone else take a look at it to make sure it looks great.

Your information should be kept up to date on your resume as well. Make sure that your current address, phone number, and email are updated. It's easy to forget to change this information if it has changed recently, but it is very important that you do so. The last thing you want to do is miss out on a great government position because you forgot to update our information and they were not able to get a hold of you.

Remember, your resume is the place to market yourself, which means that you'll want to emphasize all of your accomplishments from the past. Show that you really are the person for the job by showcasing the duties you have had in the past and how you have excelled. While just listing duties is not helpful, showing that you handled them successfully is. So, work on making your resume a piece of marketing material that focuses on marketing one thing - YOU!