Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Expert

If you're like many federal employees, you've probably seen your Thrift Savings Plan shrinking  in the last few weeks due to the downward trend in the market.  And you might be reconsidering when you should retire (or, more specifically, when you can afford to retire).

If your retirement plans are being delayed, and you are considering to keep your federal job for a couple of more years, you might want to apply for a promotion to maximize your pay and benefits.  

How can you do it?   The method for updating and writing your resume below will help you to target your resume toward announcements with the specialized experience you have, and to make sure the keywords are analyzed and added into your application documents.

The Troutman Method for Updating and Writing Your Federal Resume:  6 Easy Steps

1.  Systematically Analyze a Target Announcement

First, go to www.USAJOBS.gov and find a vacancy announcement that sounds good for your background and would be interesting for possibly your last job in government.

Next, open a Word file and copy and paste the duties and specialized experience sections out of the announcement. Then, look to see if the announcement has any KSAs or a Questionnaire. If so, copy those into your Word file.

The Word file will become your analysis file to find keywords for your resume.

Now, make the type in your new announcement data file larger so you can see the words closer. Then underline one or two keywords or phrases in every sentence. Create an announcement list of keywords. You might have 20 to 30 of these words.

2.  Systematically, Line-By-Line, Analyze Your Resume

Your next step is to copy and paste the duties section of your current job into the Word file. Underline one or two keywords or phases from each sentence in your description. Make your resume list of keywords.

3.  Match the Lists

Compare the two lists (your announcement list of keywords and your resume list of keywords). This comparison is a very effective way to see how on target your current resume is with an announcement.

How many words are missing from your current description? How many words can you add to your current description or your second position?

4.  Create an Outline with Headlines for Your Work Experiences Using Some of the Keywords

For your current work experience create an outline of five to seven keywords and nouns that represent the top five things you do at work. Try to use some of the keywords from your announcement list.

For instance: SUPERVISOR, ADVISOR / LIAISON, PROJECT MANAGER, DATA MANAGER AND ANALYST. These five nouns would probably be in your target list of keywords. And these five words will become headlines in your resume so that it is easy for the supervisor to see that you have the qualifications for the job.

5.  Copy and Paste Your Resume Content into Your New Outline

Now you can take your current resume and copy and paste the text into the new outline with headlines that reflect the give most critical things that you do.

6.  Add Accomplishments

The last thing you need to write in your current work experience (and also in the second job block, too) is two accomplishments: two projects, problems or team efforts you performed that were outstanding. This is critical for the supervisor.

Samples of the Troutman Method and Outline Format with Headlines

Samples of the Outline Format and the Troutman Method are found in the Federal Resume Guide Book and CD-ROM.  The book is the first book on federal resume writing -- since 1996, now in the 4th Edition. It contains more than 30 samples of federal resumes, KSAs and ECQs.

About the Author

Kathryn Troutman, of The Resume Place, Inc. teaches federal resume writing for more than 40 agencies per year, and the Outline Format and the total Troutman Method are acclaimed as easy to read, easy to write and impressive.  Troutman is the nation's leading expert in federal job search and career training. the designer of the Federal Resume, and is the author of nine federal career books that have helped many thousands of federal job seekers -- at all levels --land federal jobs and advance their careers  The Resume Place also provides development editing services and professional writing services for federal applications.

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