When talking about your prior experience and accomplishments, it is important to be as specific as possible. Mention dates whenever possible so that the hiring manager gets a clear picture of how your job responsibilities have grown and changed over time.

Instead of saying “I worked as an administrative assistant for the agency, then as a front line manager” say “From 1/1999 to 6/2000 I worked as an administrative assistant and in 6/2000 I was promoted to assistant manager.” Showing direction and advancement in your career is a great way to communicate your capable and qualified to move up.

It’s important to strike a delicate balance when using industry specific terms and acronyms. The initial review of your resume will likely be performed by someone in human resources who might not be an expert in your field. You should ensure that they are able to determine you have the necessary skills for a position when comparing your resume with the vacancy announcement. For example, if the vacancy announcement specified the need for database knowledge and your resume included experience with Microsoft SQL, the reviewer might be unaware Microsoft SQL is a database and discards your application. At the same time it’s extremely important that you still include the details necessary to convey the extent of your knowledge to technical reviewers.

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Resist the urge to send a thick packet filled with commendations, awards, training certificates and the like. Sending too much information simply makes the hiring manager’s job harder, and will not work to your advantage. What’s worse, the addition of documents not requested might give the impression you cannot follow directions.

Each posting on USAJobs.gov is subject to an open period during which you can apply for the position.  The minute the open period ends, the position is automatically removed from the website and you will no longer be able to apply for the opening.  If the open period passes before you are able to apply, you can check back as positions which don’t receive a qualified applicant may be reposted.

Printing out an announcement allows you to reference the document while completing the application. Additionally, since the posting will be removed when the open period ends, a printed copy is a valuable reference should you be contacted for an interview.  Finally, the announcement contains the information necessary to monitor your application’s status after submission.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reviews millions of openings and applications each year. To help reduce their immense workload they have created computerized systems to conduct the first step of the screening process. These systems look for keywords from the announcement in your resume and will remove applications lacking several keywords from consideration. The keywords the system is looking for are usually skills such as PowerPoint or qualifications such as a computer engineering degree.