Resume for Fed Gov Positions Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’m currently working at a large law firm, but I am considering applying to federal positions on USAjobs. I was told by a friend that resumes for these positions should not always follow the standard one page resume you would send for jobs in the private sector. Any advice on how to tailor a resume for a federal attorney position would be appreciated. If anyone doesn’t mind sharing a redacted copy of one they recently used, I can PM you. Thank you in advance.

[Anonymous User]

I think this varies by the kind of federal job. If you’re applying for an attorney position and your resume is going to be read by attorneys, a standard legal resume should be fine. That’s what I used for the federal job I have now (and what the vast majority of applicants for such positions have used, that I’ve seen).

I think if you’re looking at other kinds of federal positions then it could be a different story. There is a lot of info out there about such resumes if you google federal resume format (or try using the resume builder on USAjobs). And I think applying for an excepted position is different from applying for a competitive civil service position. But you should be fine with a standard resume for an excepted service position (which most attorney jobs are).

[Anonymous User]

Sounds good. Thanks for the response.

[Mobster1983]

Not sure I agree with the above poster. Relatively new federal attorney here but everything I have heard is a federal resume should be more like a CV. Typically longer than page and needs to show how you meet every single qualification they are looking for. This may not apply quite as much for attorney, but it was the advice I got and it worked out. I had a fair amount of pre-law school experience and my resume was about 4 pages. Got multiple offers.

Send me a PM and I will shoot you a copy.

[Anonymous User]

Not sure I agree with the above poster. Relatively new federal attorney here but everything I have heard is a federal resume should be more like a CV. Typically longer than page and needs to show how you meet every single qualification they are looking for. This may not apply quite as much for attorney, but it was the advice I got and it worked out. I had a fair amount of pre-law school experience and my resume was about 4 pages. Got multiple offers.

Send me a PM and I will shoot you a copy.

PM’d.

[Anonymous User]

Not sure I agree with the above poster. Relatively new federal attorney here but everything I have heard is a federal resume should be more like a CV. Typically longer than page and needs to show how you meet every single qualification they are looking for. This may not apply quite as much for attorney, but it was the advice I got and it worked out. I had a fair amount of pre-law school experience and my resume was about 4 pages. Got multiple offers.

Send me a PM and I will shoot you a copy.

Anon from above - I actually think it’s fine to take more space if you feel you need it, but I also don’t think you need to come up with a specifically federal resume for attorney positions. I also think a one-page resume can show how you meet every single qualification. But it could depend on the agency as well.

[Anonymous User]

Not sure if this thread is done already, but I would agree that it's more about proving your qualifications than sticking to any arbitrary page limit. I've been involved in hiring decisions (for attorneys) in my office at my agency, and I promise you I've never thought twice about how long a resume was. The most recent attorney we hired uploaded their resume through the USA Jobs portal where you manually input your experience, and I'm pretty sure it was about 10 pages when fully printed out.

Most of us agencies, especially in more niche fields, care about finding people who we don't have to teach everything there is to know about our weird programs/statutes/regs. That's the priority. And if it makes you feel any better, I know that some of the folks who interviewed uploaded more substantial resumes, but then brought hard copies that fit on 1-2 pages. So you can strike that balance as well.

TLDR, yeah: length isn't important. If it's shorter, that's great, cause it's more likely a reader will remember what it says. But if you need longer to really paint a full picture of your qualifications, do that instead and don't sweat it. That's my suggestion based on my sample set anyway.

[JOThompson]

Have always heard that federal resumes should be more inclusive, and that it's acceptable to be over one page. Six years out of law school, my resume is a solid two pages, without any fluff. I also have rotated through different units in my DA's office though. I've gotten far more interviews with the longer resume than with the one-pager, although I can't say that's the primary reason.

[howell]

Not sure if this thread is done already, but I would agree that it's more about proving your qualifications than sticking to any arbitrary page limit. I've been involved in hiring decisions (for attorneys) in my office at my agency, and I promise you I've never thought twice about how long a resume was. The most recent attorney we hired uploaded their resume through the USA Jobs portal where you manually input your experience, and I'm pretty sure it was about 10 pages when fully printed out.

Most of us agencies, especially in more niche fields, care about finding people who we don't have to teach everything there is to know about our weird programs/statutes/regs. That's the priority. And if it makes you feel any better, I know that some of the folks who interviewed uploaded more substantial resumes, but then brought hard copies that fit on 1-2 pages. So you can strike that balance as well.

TLDR, yeah: length isn't important. If it's shorter, that's great, cause it's more likely a reader will remember what it says. But if you need longer to really paint a full picture of your qualifications, do that instead and don't sweat it. That's my suggestion based on my sample set anyway.

This is my experience both from working on the military side (and reviewing resumes for civilian positions) and in applying to and being accepted by a wide variety of agencies and jobs.

Your USAJobs resume built through the site should include everything relevant, and you shouldn't worry about the length. Most federal agencies will have a non-attorney reviewing your resume to determine whether you are even referred to the hiring manager. So you need to carefully spell out how you're qualified. You can have up to 5 of these on USAJobs, and you can tailor them further to specific types of federal jobs.

For most jobs, I submitted the USAJobs version of my resume along with a 1-page resume as a separate attachment. I would also/alternatively bring a 1-2 page hard copy version with me to the interview.

For all jobs, adhere closely to the "required documents" section.

Not all agencies hire through USAJobs, and some have slightly different requirements. USAOs often have separate processes and/or requirements for the resume. But even for those, I would use a 2-page resume unless 1 page was requested.

[fedquestions]

I know this is an older thread, but I would love it if someone could please PM me a copy of the resume they used to apply to federal attorney positions. The advice seems to be evenly split between a standard resume and a much longer resume, and I'm driving myself crazy switching my resume back and forth.

I also have one additional (probably stupid) question. When a USAJobs posting says your resume should include your "full work history," do they truly mean every job you've ever had or just your relevant work history?

Thank you so much to anyone who is able to help!

[fedquestions]

Bump. Can anyone help me with this? Thank you.

[Anonymous User]

When I’ve reviewed resumes for my agency, most are standard lawyer style resumes (probably in part because we tend to hire lawyers who have either private sector or non-fedgov experience and they have standard resumes). We also get some people filling out the USAjobs resume builder. There hasn’t been any difference in how they’ve been treated. I personally kinda hate reading the USAjobs versions because they’re ugly (and long, but that’s due to formatting as much as actual content), but I don’t think it affects how I review them. In the last batch of resumes I saw one person had this gorgeous, clearly “designed by graphic designer” kinds of resumes, but the problem was that they were a terrible candidate. As long as a resume includes all the pertinent information and doesn’t have typos, I don’t think the format matters that much.

That said, it may depend a little on the agency. My agency is a little more “black box” in hiring than some agencies that follow the stricter “designate points for every qualification” kind of review systems, so the resume builder might make more sense for the latter.

I’m afraid I’m not sure what “full work history” means as most postings
I’ve seen ask for relevant experience. If it’s a non-entry level position I’d presume it means all legal positions but not literally every job ever.