5 Resume Mistakes Federal Workers Should Avoid: Start a new career sooner!

The DOGE rolls on, seeming to eliminate federal jobs more-or-less at random. Meanwhile, we have started looking at federal resumes to see how we can help federal workers transitioning into business and not-for-profit roles, often called private sector jobs.

Government workers may want to convert their federal resumes into documents that will be accepted outside of the government. Although business resumes are shorter and simpler than government documents, it’s easy to make errors that would eliminate you from being considered.

Here are some of the mistakes we have already seen that could eliminate you as a contender for a job outside the government:

1. Too long, didn’t read (TLDR),
2. Too much information (TMI),,
3. Not including a branded, accomplishment-based summary,
4. Sending a job description-based resume that won’t differentiate you from other applicants, and
5. Too much—or too little- information on education and training.

Avoiding these pitfalls will increase your chances of landing interviews and jobs outside of government.

Your resume is TLDR.

Federal resumes are long so corporate and not-for-profit employers won’t read them. They are, in social media parlance, “too long, didn’t read” documents. Traditional business resumes are one-page or two-page documents for most of us. (Some senior executive and senior tech specialist resumes may be slightly longer) When we find it difficult to tell a client’s story in two pages or less, we go back and usually find too much detail, such as long job descriptions that the employer already knows.

So start by thinking about writing a one-or-two-page summary of your massive federal resume.  

Contact information may disqualify you. (Too much information!)

Your contact information matters. Providing too much information could disqualify you.

Remove your street address: Federal resumes commonly include street addresses. We do not recommend including home addresses on business resumes anymore. A client pointed out that employers could find a photo of their home or apartment building online. This gives employers an idea about your salary needs, whether or not you have children, and other aspects of your lifestyle.

Show only your city, state, and zip code on a resume. Place your name, city, state, and zip code, along with your cellphone number on top of page one. Do not place it in a first page MS-Word header. ATS systems usually disregard headers.

Prospective private sector employers are not going to contact you via “snail-mail” today so they don’t need your street address right away.

Do not skip the summary section.

Our high school English teachers taught us to start writing assignments with a strong title and topic paragraph, yet we receive many resumes that jump directly to work history under contact information. The reader immediately gets lost in details. Include a strong title, accomplishment-based summary, and core competencies section before going into details.

Immediately inform your reader about your role. For example, you may be a “Customer Service Supervisor,” “Cost Accountant,” or “Executive Assistant.” Then, follow this with a short narrative that includes a few accomplishment highlights drawn from your work experience section. We usually write the work experience section first and then go back and write the summary.

Click here to see our resume examples.

Also, include a list or table of core competencies. Emphasize “hard” core competencies employers search on in your industry or function. Use terms such as “GAAP Financial Reporting” and avoid general terms such as “Verbal Communications.”

Your resume will now have keywords for the computer and a strong opening section for the hiring manager or recruiter. The hiring team is more likely to receive the resume from their ATS, and then see a reason to read it when you start with a job title, summary, and keyword skills.

Emphasize accomplishments instead of job descriptions.

Jobseekers leaving the Federal Government often send us resumes that read like OPM or agency job descriptions. Job descriptions are valuable because they contain keywords employers search for. They should be used sparingly in business resumes, though.

Employers know, or can look up, your job description. They do not know what you contributed to your agency. How much did you save the government as a contracting officer, contracting officer’s technical representative, or administrative officer, for example? What problems or opportunities did you address, by taking what actions, to get what quantifiable results? Tell the prospective employer what you did that differentiates you from other applicants. What results differentiated you from other government employees?

Include your education.

Federal resumes may include multiple pages detailing university coursework and internal training programs.  Government jobs often have specific requirements for the number of college credits required to qualify for a job title. And most agencies offer, and sometimes require, a myriad of internal training classes for advancement. So there are good reasons for all the detail on a government resume.

A one or two-page business resume simply lacks the space for all this information. And it isn’t needed in many cases because a common private-sector requirement is “a college degree.” When specific coursework, licenses, or industry certifications are required, they will be in the job posting.

You can provide detailed course and training listings as an addendum that you bring to the interview or send separately later in the process.

Occasionally, jobseekers go to the other extreme and leave their degree off the resume entirely. This could immediately disqualify an applicant from consideration when resumes without degrees are screened-out automatically.

Another blog post covered the role education plays in your career in more detail. For now, it’s sufficient for us to suggest you do not leave your education off the resume. Don’t include too much detail, either.

While we cannot promise you will be noticed when you follow our suggestions, your chances for results will improve when you convert your massive government resume to a format business people will read.