About This Resume

To be considered for a government job, in many agencies you will need a resume that proves each qualification in the posting before anyone interviews you. And, as long as a human resources specialist is checking your resume against that list, a missing date or an unanswered requirement can take you out of the running. The sample follows federal rules, and the tips cover state, county and city jobs as well as veterans and private-sector workers making the move.

Read the posting first. Federal postings describe the "specialized experience" you need for the grade, and the HR specialist looks for that experience in your job entries, in similar words. Each federal job entry should also give the month and year you started and ended and your hours per week, since those decide whether you meet the time requirement. State and local agencies often score the online application and its supplemental questions as well as the resume, so treat every field as part of the test.

What to Include

  • For each job, the month and year you started and ended, and your hours per week
  • Job titles with the series and grade (such as GS-0343-11) for any federal job you have held
  • Specialized experience from the posting, described in your job entries in similar words
  • Citizenship, veterans' preference and any security clearance, if the posting asks for them
  • Your supervisor's name and phone number for recent jobs, with a note on whether they may be contacted
  • Accomplishments with numbers, such as cases closed, budgets managed or processing times cut
  • Training, certifications and licenses the posting names, with dates

Government Resume Sample

Sample resume. The person, employers and contact details are fictional.

Marguerite Thibodeaux

Management and Program Analyst
Baton Rouge, LA | marguerite.thibodeaux@example.com | (555) 016-0412

Summary

Program analyst with eight years in state and parish government, managing federal grant budgets up to $12 million and writing the reports that keep them funded. US citizen applying for GS-0343-11 and GS-0343-12 positions.

Experience

Program Analyst 3, Bayou State Recovery Office, Baton Rouge, LA March 2021 to present

  • Full time, 40 hours per week. Supervisor: Denise Arceneaux, (555) 016-7721; may be contacted.
  • Manage budgets and quarterly reports for 4 federal disaster recovery grants worth $12 million; every report filed on time since 2021.
  • Analyzed processing times for housing repair applications and redesigned the review steps; average approval time fell from 94 days to 51.
  • Built the office's first program performance dashboard, which the director uses in monthly briefings for the governor's staff.

Budget Analyst, Tchefuncte Parish Finance Department, Hammond, LA June 2018 to February 2021

  • Full time, 40 hours per week. Supervisor: Luc Fontenot, (555) 016-3390; may be contacted.
  • Prepared and tracked yearly budgets for 6 parish departments totaling $38 million.
  • Compared spending with budget each month and flagged overruns to department heads before quarter end.
  • Built the parish's first grant tracking spreadsheet, which caught $240,000 in unclaimed reimbursements.

Education

Master of Public Administration, Atchafalaya State University, 2018

Bachelor of Arts, Economics, Atchafalaya State University, 2016

Skills

Federal grant rules (2 CFR 200), Budget formulation and execution, Program evaluation, Process mapping, Excel and Power BI, Briefings and reports for executives, Public records requests, Cost-benefit analysis

Training and Certifications

  • Certified Public Manager (CPM), 2023
  • Federal grants management course, 40 hours, 2022

Citizenship

  • US citizen

Tips for Your Government Resume

  • Make a checklist from the posting's qualifications and "Required documents" sections before you start writing. Every item the HR specialist looks for should be easy to find on your resume.
  • Use the posting's own wording for specialized experience. An HR specialist working through a list may not connect "handled grants" with "administered federal grant awards" unless you say it that way.
  • Check the posting for a page limit. USAJOBS now caps federal resumes at two pages, so cut older jobs to a line and spend the space on the last ten years and the specialized experience.
  • If you are coming from the private sector, translate your titles and put numbers on the work, since a manager in an agency may not know what "account lead" meant at your old company.
  • Claim veterans' preference in the application itself and have the documents it asks for, such as your DD-214, ready to upload.
  • For state and local jobs, fill in the online application completely even if you attach a resume. Many agencies score the form, and "see resume" in a field can cost you points.
  • Answer every supplemental question with an example that also appears on your resume, so the two documents back each other up.

Next steps: the resume writing guide covers every section in detail, and the template library has layouts for other fields and career stages.