As Veterans, we often feel compelled to continue our noble pursuit of serving the public by seeking Federal government jobs after discharge or retirement. The reasons are many: comradery, relatively high pay, job security, great benefits and even a sense of renewed purpose. Simply, federal jobs are a natural continuation of military service!

In the 9 years I spent as a Human Resources Staffing Specialist, I staffed hundreds of federal positions and examined thousands of resumes. One major mistake Veterans should avoid is creating a ‘master resume’ and using that one resume to apply for all the jobs in which they have an interest.

Instead, a better way is to create a brand new, highly customized resume for every job to which they apply. You can do this based on the information given in job announcements.

What are keywords good for?

Luckily, federal job announcements (mostly found at USAjobs.gov) are very detailed and this is terrific for you, the Veteran job seeker. Why? You can extract plenty of relevant keywords from these announcements and place them into your resume. Not having the proper keywords in your resume could hamper your efforts to secure an interview.

There are many, many reasons why you need these keywords in your resume. Here are just a couple:

  • They are actually telling you exactly what knowledge, skills and abilities the HR department is looking for. It’s your job to hand them back a well-rounded resume that ‘speaks’ to the job announcement!
  • They are given to you on a silver platter – use them! Keywords are easily copied and pasted into your resume directly from the announcement. Remember: DON’T copy and paste entire sentences, only individual keywords.
  • Using keywords from the announcement in your resume lets the HR Specialist (who initially screens your resume) know that you are not only qualified for the job, but that you are HIGHLY qualified.
  • Keywords allow you to customize your resume to every single job you apply for.
  • Keyword scanners will be on the lookout. While it’s a myth that USAjobs uses electronic keyword scanners (human eyes initially screen resumes), some Agencies have their own application systems that DO have keyword scanners.

Without the proper keywords in your resume, it can be eliminated the second you apply!

Where can you find useful keywords?

Good news!  On each USAjobs announcement, there are several places from which you can extract these valuable keywords.

Let’s look at a sample USAJOBS announcement for demonstrative purposes.

Go here to see the announcement. This was an announcement (now closed) for a Secretary (OA) position with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

As you scroll through it, pay special attention to these sections:

  • The Duties Section;
  • The competencies section;
  • The specialized experience section;
  • The USAjobs Occupational Questionnaire.

Let’s head back to the sample Secretary announcement above and take a look at the duties section.

Highlighted for your convenience (and BOLD) are some sample keywords that would be powerful when placed into your resume if you were applying to this specific Secretary job.

  • The incumbent receives, scheduled, refers, and contacts members of the staff, agency and persons outside the agency ranging from the general public to vendors.
  • The incumbent provides public contact support services via telephone, email, or in person providing information about the office, its functions, and standard operating procedures.
  • The incumbent greets Service visitors to include Pharmaceutical Vendors and Medical Center Service Chief’s, scheduling meetings and conferences with the Chief of the Service and Senior Staff of the four subordinate Service sections.
  • The incumbent satisfies the customer and public needs by providing information and/or referring to appropriate resources.
  • The incumbent is the liaison officer to all levels of administrative services within the Healthcare System (HCS), as well as the outside organizations with whom the Service has contact.
  • The incumbent serves as principal timekeeper for a Service Level organization of 120 or more personnel.
  • The incumbent directs the training and activities of subordinate part-time timekeepers to ensure proper allocation of compensatory time, overtime as well as all other types of leave.
  • The incumbent acts as PIV Sponsor identifying that the Applicant has a need for a facility identity badge (PIV, VA Badge or One Day Pass).

Look at that! Now you have a rock-solid list of powerful keywords which will help the HR Specialist quickly determine that you are a qualified applicant, thereby increasing your chances of getting called for an interview.

  • Receives
  • Schedules
  • Refers
  • Use of telephone, email, or in person
  • Provided information
  • Standard operating procedures
  • Greets
  • Schedules meetings
  • Provides information
  • Liaison
  • Timekeeper
  • Ensure proper allocation of compensatory time, overtime
  • PIV Sponsor

You would then extract these keywords and pepper them throughout your resume, customizing it into what I call a “high-probability” federal resume.

All applicants are encouraged to customize their resumes when applying for every job to which they apply. Yes, it is time-consuming, but in the end, it is worth it when your high-probability resume begins landing you job interviews.

I’m going to talk more about keywords in future blog posts, so please subscribe to this blog to get notified about future articles.

Good luck!