Books:

The Book of U.S. Government Jobs: Where They Are, What's Available, and How to Get One (Book of Us Government Jobs, 7th Ed)
by Dennis V. Damp, Samuel Concialdi (Photographer)

Guide to America's Federal Jobs: A Complete Directory of Federal Career Opportunities (Guide to Americas Federal Jobs, 2nd Ed)

Ten Steps to a Federal Job: Navigating the Federal Job System, Writing Federal Resumes, Ksas and Cover Letters With a Mission ASIN: 0964702533 Customer's Rating: 5 Summary: Federal employment savvy at its best ... Comments: Controversial five-year-rule aside (for those of you that live overseas) -- what could be better than working for Uncle Sam? The trick for federal employment, though, is learning how to close the gap between -- wanting a job -- and being hired for that particular job. (And, yes, I sought out Troutman at a job fair in Heidelberg in April 2002, and subsequently wrote a review in Stripes newspaper. I went to the trouble to do that because before I revised my federal resume based on her words, I was receiving no (zero) phone calls from GS managers. Whereas, after the rewrite, I was offered and selected for a number of different GS jobs.) Troutman details a logical process that begins with: Steps 1-5: "Network," "Review the Federal Job Processes," "Research Vacancy Announcements for Jobs," and the vital "Analyze Core Competencies for Language" and "Analyze Vacancy Announcements for Keywords and Government-type Language." Using the word "vital" to describe core competencies and keywords should not be taken lightly: Troutman's book teaches you to organize your past employment experiences using word selections GS managers could use to search for potential employees. Put another way, the road map that allows you to circumnavigate the federal employment information gap could very well lie in the nouns and action words you select to place in your federal resume (try to think of the government's Resumix system as an "Internet search engine" looking for you). According to Troutman, "Private industry resumes are not written the same." Accordingly, if you follow her guidance, you can "adapt your private industry resume into a federal resume, de-militarize your military resume, or focus your current resume toward a particular federal job." The general idea is to transform your federal resume into a well written, very specific, zero-redundancy, easy-reading work-of-art -- subsequently causing it to rise to the top of competing resumes that may appear during job vacancy announcements. (If nothing else, her book could cause federal employee quality to elevate above the norm, especially if job-hunters-who-realize-they-are-over-qualified-for-certain-jobs buy the book.) Granted, resume writing is hard work. Nonetheless, Troutman states in Step 6 ("Write Your Federal and Electronic Resume") that the "three to ten hours" it will take you to write your new federal resume -- highlighting skills that support specific job announcements -- will be time well spent (once you've convinced yourself you REALLY DO [my emphasis] want that federal job). To assist with your writing efforts she created a special section within the book (in Step 6) called "Ten Federal Resume Writing Lessons," and then expands on the same by explaining the all-important Knowledge, Skill, and Ability statements (KSAs) in Step 7. Note that the book comes with a CD-ROM and digital (Word) resume samples, in addition to 58 pages of resume samples in the book (acquired from real-world job seekers that attained federal employment). Troutman points out interesting items you may want to add to your federal resume. For example, maybe you should expand your federal resume with a short section called "International Travel." (Perhaps you're an Army brat approaching your tenth year total living and/or stationed overseas. Being familiar with local culture is important for certain overseas federal jobs that require working with the locals). One of the sample resumes in the book has a Special Interest section that lists "Thai cooking, dancing, vegetable carving and flower arranging" (hobbies and work can't get much more interesting than that). Observe at this point that there is a big difference between "fluffing" a resume with false information, and creatively expanding a resume. Adding truthful sections such as International Travel or Special Interests is fine. Lying will get you nowhere. More creative thought process: Think about the special work projects you participated in over the years (in other jobs). What about grouping them into a Special Projects list? Here's the quote from the book that describes the procedure: "In addition to your duties and responsibilities, many people have worked on special projects in their jobs. Jobs such as engineers, architects, information technology professionals, construction management, leasing, finance, contracts and consulting are project-oriented. Employees work on one project or many projects at one time. These projects can be listed in addition to your duties. They will contain important keywords and skills for both human and automated recruiter reviews. In fact, sometimes the duties become less important after you have written your project list. "By creating a project list, you'll impress yourself, as well as your current and next supervisor. Your resume invariably builds upon what you have done, but effective resumes don't merely present duties -- they communicate results. Effective public service resumes should present the applicant's ability to achieve those results if she or he is going to stand out among the competition." Now there's a mouthful (and a means to summarize and detail accomplishments, which, in turn, could cause your federal resume to "STAND OUT" [Troutman's own words; she notes that capitalizing certain words within your federal resume is appropriate in certain instances]). Steps 8, 9 and 10 are the down-and-dirty on Applications, Application Tracking and Interviews, respectively. It's important to know who can actually apply for the various jobs, and all federal agencies have application procedures that vary slightly. The CD expands on the Applications section by supplying you with the separate-service Human Resource Web site addresses in clickable fashion. (Note that even official .gov Web site addresses often change. Search any .mil Web site to find your separate service federal employment Web site.) If you read Troutman's words, highlighting and tabbing the book for reference while conducting your personal experience with the Resumix system -- "Resumix" is the name of the software employed by the civilian company that operates the federal employment system -- you are taught the federal job hiring system from the inside out. Troutman's book is a comprehensive look at the federal job hunt, and is "dedicated to the workers who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001."