Federal Resume: Example, Template & How to Write

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Below we explain everything you need to include on a resume for a federal job, and provide examples you can reference. Additionally, we provide you with a free federal resume template, and writing and formatting tips to help you get your resume ready for any government position.

Build My Resume

Our free-to-use resume builder can make you a resume in as little as 5 minutes. Just pick the template you want, and our software will format everything for you.

What’s the difference between a federal resume and a private sector resume?

Most private-sector jobs require you to submit a one-page resume that provides a brief overview of your qualifications.

By contrast, a federal resume ranges from two to five pages or more depending on your experience level, and requires an in-depth description of your previous jobs, skills, and achievements.

Also, apart from the basic things you should put on your resume — like your work experience, education, and contact information — your federal resume must include additional details such as your:

citizenship status
veterans’ status
highest GS grade
security clearance (if applicable)
salary and hours worked per week at each job

Just like when applying to a private sector job, you should also pair your resume with a cover letter for a federal job to highlight your strengths and explain why you’re the right person to fill the position.

Federal resume format example

This federal resume sample was written by an administrative assistant with more than four years of experience working in the federal government:

Federal Resume Sample

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Federal Resume Sample (Text Version)

RACHEL RODRIGUEZ

Address: 4397 Smithy Dr., Bremerton, WA 12101 | Email: rachel.rodriguez@gmail.com | Phone: 895-555-5555

Desired Job: Human Resources Specialist, GS 6, ST-11993479-12-LH

Citizenship: Yes

Veterans’ Preference: No

Highest GS (General Schedule) Grade: GS 5

Security Clearance: Confidential

Desired Location: US-VA-Arlington County

Availability: Permanent, Full-Time

Objective

Human resources professional with 5+ years of experience in the public and private sectors. Uniquely positioned to leverage hiring, training, and mediation expertise as a Human Resources Specialist at the US Department of Veteran Affairs. Excited to contribute to the agency’s goals and especially drawn to the opportunity for advancement mentioned in your USAJOBS posting.

Work Experience

US Department of the Navy

Bremerton, WA 98314

January 2019–Present

Salary: $41,208 per year

Hours per week: 40

Series: 0201 Pay Plan: GS Grade: 5

Human Resources Specialist

Duties and Related Skills:

Support 10 senior HR specialists in updating and organizing employee records, performing internal administrative investigations, and providing various information to employees and external agents, ensuring confidentiality procedures are followed at all times.

Help negotiate settlement agreements and perform mediation by researching relevant federal, state, and military laws and precedents
Update training curriculum annually, applying it to onboarding an average of 3 new HR specialists each year
Serve as primary point of contact for external Spanish-speaking inquiries, and for general employee harassment complaints
Conduct all first-round job interviews, determining which candidates proceed to the final steps in the hiring process

Accomplishments:

Named Employee of the Month in July 2019 and March 2020
Updated employee misconduct letter templates to remove unclear language, helping cut the average time to case resolution by 15%

Supervisor: Anna Peele (123-456-7890)

Okay to contact this supervisor: Yes

Tatre Technologies

Seattle, WA 12345

June 2017–January 2019

Salary: $32,000 per year

Hours per week: 40

Human Resources Associate

Duties and Related Skills:

Assisted HR managers with every aspect of the hiring process, including interviewing, performing background checks, and onboarding new employees. Took notes during various mediations and labor union negotiations, and then provided the information to employees in written and oral presentations.

Worked with managers to implement every aspect of the company’s hiring process, including recruiting, vetting, and contracting new talent
Led a team of 3 interns in digitizing the company’s entire backlog of hard-copy records
Served as translator for all interactions between management and Spanish-speaking employees
Led new-hire orientation in both Spanish and English

Accomplishments:

Implemented new applicant tracking system that reduced the average time to fill positions from 2 months to 5 weeks
Started a Spanish HR newsletter to inform Spanish-speaking employees of changes to company policies, directly leading to a 23% reduction in information requests

Supervisor: Jackson Jones (321-654-0987)

Okay to contact this supervisor: Yes

Mama’s Cookies

Seattle, WA 13245

October 2016–May 2017

Salary: Unpaid position

Hours per week: 16

HR Intern

Duties and Related Skills:

Worked with sole proprietor to recruit and hire part-time staff via social media, flyer distribution, and word-of-mouth. Collected and maintained employee information in physical and digital files.

Recruited, screened, and helped hire 14 members for 2 new locations
Responded to all HR-related queries on company’s official Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts
Translated orientation documents into Spanish to speed up onboarding process

Accomplishments:

Proposed a successful solution to a dispute between employees and management, avoiding a potential $50,000 lawsuit
Reduced training materials from 20 pages to 9, enabling new employees to start contributing on their first day

Supervisor: Jenny Martek (312-645-9780)

Okay to contact this supervisor: Yes

Education

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Minor in Human Resource Management)

Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164 | August 2014–May 2017

Awards

Employee of the Month

Tatre Technologies

January 2018

Associations

Society for Human Resource Management

August 2018–Present

Additional Skills

HR software: ADP Workforce, Oracle Taleo
Microsoft Office: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook
Remote collaboration: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Google Docs/Sheets
Fluent in Spanish

Federal resume template

Here’s a resume template with everything you need to build a resume for uploading to USAJOBS:

1. Resume Heading

FIRST AND LAST NAME

Address: your street, city, state, zip code | Email: your.email@gmail.com | Phone: xxx xxx xxxx

Desired job: Title, grade (GS #), announcement number
Citizenship:
Veterans’ Preference:
Highest GS (General Schedule) Grade:
Security Clearance:
Desired Location:
Availability:

2. Resume Objective

[Industry] professional with [# of years] years of experience in the public sector. Seeking to leverage my competence in [relevant skills] to fill the [position name] position at [Agency Name]. A fast-learning worker aiming to contribute to [Agency Name]’s goals and take on more responsibility as quickly as possible.

3. Work or Relevant Experience

Company/Organization Name (Most Recent Employer)
Employer Address

Start Date–End Date
(Optional) Salary: $ per year
Hours per week: # of hours
Series: #### Pay Plan: GS Grade: #
Position and Job Title

Duties and Related Skills:

In this section, provide a comprehensive summary of your duties and responsibilities. Mention any skills associated with the work you performed, and provide descriptions of what you were responsible for. Write as if the person reading your resume has no prior knowledge of the job you performed.

List some of your primary responsibilities.
Include resume keywords in your descriptions to demonstrate relevant skills.

Accomplishments:

Include a bulleted list of your key work-related accomplishments while at this job — especially any area where you exceeded expectations.
This section should be separate from your general duties section.
Be sure to quantify (add numbers to) your examples.

Here is where you can include contact information for your supervisor if you’d like.

Company/Organization Name (2nd Most Recent Employer)

Simply repeat the above sections for every relevant position you’ve held.

4. Education

Degree Name / Major
University, Location | Start Date–End Date

5. Additional Resume Section

Here’s where you can add any other information relevant to your professional background.
This section could include any of the following: publications, languages, volunteer experience, community service, professional associations you belong to, or any training or certifications.
Put your security clearance on your resume by adding a separate section instead of listing it at the top, assuming the job you’re applying to doesn’t require standard federal resume format

How to write a federal resume

According to USAJOBS, “Some agencies accept uploaded resumes and resumes created using the USAJOBS resume builder, while some may only accept one or the other.”

So depending on the job you want, you need to know how to use a federal resume builder and how to create your own from scratch:

Using a federal resume builder

To make your resume with the USAJOBS resume builder:

create a USAJOBS account
find the “resume” section
choose the “Build resume” option
follow the on-screen instructions to build your federal resume

Creating your own federal resume

Are you applying to a government job that requires you to upload your federal resume to USAJOBS or a specific agency website? To make a resume with proper federal resume formatting, include these sections:

Applicant information
Resume objective
Work experience
Education
Additional optional sections

What information to include on your federal resume

Here’s how to write and format each section of your federal resume:

1. Applicant information

Start your resume by listing your name and contact information in the header.

Then list any of the following details that apply to you:

desired job details
citizenship status
veteran preference
disability
general schedule (GS) grade
security clearance
availability
desired locations

Here’s how to determine what you should list for each of those items:

Desired job details

Per the US Department of Labor, you need to list the title, grade, and announcement number of the job you’re applying for on your federal resume. Find the job details on the USAJOBS job posting, and list them like this:

Desired Job: Human Resources Specialist, GS 12, CARX-21-11007872-SHe-OCA

Citizenship status

Many positions in the federal government have specific requirements regarding citizenship, so include your citizenship and visa status to speed up the vetting process. List your citizenship status as either “yes” or “no,” or write your work visa status.

Veterans’ preference

The federal government gives hiring preferences to veterans under the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. So if you served in the US military, include your veterans’ preference on your resume.

You should either list your veterans’ preference status as “no” (if you were never a member of the military), or your point preference eligibility (for example: 5-Point, 10-Point, etc).

If you don’t already know your veterans’ preference eligibility, find it at FedsHireVets.gov.

Disability

If you have a Schedule A disability, you may be eligible for special hiring preferences. Here’s how to list your disability on your resume:

Disability: Schedule A

General schedule (GS) grade

The US civil service’s pay scale is called the General Schedule (or GS). All jobs in the federal government are graded using a GS that identifies the salary and level of responsibility associated with the position.

If you’re currently working for the federal government (or have worked for it in the past), include your highest GS grade and salary range on your resume. For example:

Highest GS Grade: GS 5

Security clearance

Some federal government jobs require you to have one of three security clearance levels:

Confidential
Secret
Top secret

If you don’t have security clearance, write “N/A.”

Availability

To list your availability, indicate whether you want to work permanently or temporarily, and if you can work full-time or part-time. Here’s an example:

Availability: Permanent, Full-Time

Desired locations

If the job you’re targeting has multiple locations available, you can list your preference, following the Country-State-County format, like this:

Desired Location: US-VA-Arlington County

If you want to be considered for any position, regardless of location, don’t list your location preferences.

2. Convincing resume objective

Example of a resume objective written for a federal job.

After you list your personal information, explain why you want the job in a short paragraph known as a resume objective. Your reason for applying should include your most relevant skills so the hiring manager sees you’re qualified as soon as they start reading your resume.

To find what skills the hiring manager is looking for, check the job ad and look at resume examples from your industry.

3. Work experience

Example demonstrating how to fill out the experience section of your resume for a job with the federal government.

Unlike a private-sector resume, a government resume includes a highly detailed experience section. Each position can run a full page or more depending on your responsibilities.

For every position you list on your resume, include the following information:

Employer’s name and location
Start and end dates
Annual salary
Occupational series number and GS grade (for federal jobs only)
Job title
Number of weekly hours worked
Summary of your responsibilities
Bulleted list of job duties
Exceptional resume accomplishments
Awards you received (if applicable)
Supervisor’s contact information (and whether they can be contacted)

Additionally, if you’re coming from a military background make sure to name all the systems you’re familiar with. This is what Mirella Armington Cortez, a recruitment manager at Fearless, has to suggest when writing a federal resume:

It’s important to state all the technical tools/systems/non-technical tools you used during your term in the military. Today there is a lot of crossover between systems the military uses and what the private sector works with. – Mirella Armington Cortez

4. Education section

Example of how to list your education on a resume for a federal government job.

What you put in the education section of your resume depends on what level of schooling you’ve completed.

If you graduated from college, include the following information:

College names and locations (city, state, and zip code)
Years attended
Degrees earned (minors included)
Awards or special recognition received
Membership of educational organizations or clubs

Haven’t graduated yet? List the number of college credits you’ve completed along with the degree you’re pursuing.

Additionally, if you’re a recent college graduate, you can include your GPA and relevant coursework on your resume.

If you didn’t attend college, include the following information for your high school and any technical schools you attended:

School name and location
Date you received your diploma, GED, certificate, or license

5. Additional sections

The following resume sections are optional, but adding them to your federal resume can help you stand out from the many applicants seeking federal employment: