Fema Employment
What is the best resume structure?
I am a seasoned job seeker looking for Federal employment. I wanted to know what is the best type of resume to use. Should I use the bullet or paragraph style for structuring my resume? What is the most popular style?
Public Comments
- Besides setting all margins to 1", the most important criteria for setting up a professional resume besides relevant text, is "scanability." Here are some helpful tips: 1. Place just below your identification header [your hame, address, phone, email address] any Conditional Warning Statement such as "Confidential Resume,"Do Not Contact Current Employer," etc. 2. Always fill-in an Objectives category [just below the Conditional Warning Statement] and make sure that he Objective will contribute to the profitability of your future employer; 3. Select a mono-type font such as Helvetica, Arial, Courier or Times Roman; do not select any cursive handwriting styles which cannot scanned; 4. Keep font sizes within a range of 10 to 12 pts.; 5. Avoid styling text with a justified alignment, keep it flushed left; 6. Instead of using tabs to set up blocked text entries, generate a table and use the column and row settings accordingly; 7. Do not place an i.d. picture anywhere on the resume, this is a major taboo due to discrimination issues; 8. Do not place any graphic text [saved as .gifs] onto the resume since it may be overlooked during the scanning phase; 9. List at the very end of the resume your interests which should include travel experiences, language skills, social interactions such as golf, team sports, tennis, etc. In conclusion, the above helpful hints were designed to allow ease of scanning of your resume into PDF which can then be text captured for seach purposes by your potential employer. If the original resume was created in Word, WordPerfect or Mac Appleworks, it can be Saved As a PDF file which then can be saved as an email attachment. Otherwise, you can simply use a scanner and scan a hard copy of the resume and then save as a PDF file. Failure to conform the resume to appropriate fonts and styles as outlined above will result in rejection of the resume simply due to the inability of the scanning device to properly index relevant resume entries. Good luck!
- Your answerer above did a GREAT job, but I'd like to add some specific guidance for the FEDERAL job seeker: I'm a straight-to-the-point gal. HOWEVER, contrary to every fiber of my being, I have learned that Federal resumes are often scanned using software called Resumix. It doesn't care how long/short your resume is. It only hunts for words and give you a score. Less words that match the criteria = lower score...and maybe no interview (which is your immediate goal). As such, my strong advice is to create at least 2 - 3 pages (single-spaced!) for your Federal-ONLY resume. Use lots of ACTION verbs! (guided, directed, lead, managed, designed) Make sure it is electronic, because you may have to set up an account and cut-n-paste it into the appropriate web-site format. Websites to check regularly (try every other day) include www.usajobs.opm.gov as well as www.cpol.army.mil (for Army civilian jobs---for some cryptic reason, they do not always use "usajobs"). Beware imitators! Be prepared: Loading your reume into one of these websites can take 2 - 3 hours. The good news is that you can reuse your resume for subsequent announcements. However---if the job description is appreciably diff from your existing resume...then go ahead and create a more tailored resume for the different job. (You can do this using the same account---just save to a diff name.) Get out there and do the right thing for you!! Good luck!!
