TAO Self-help

USAJOBS 3.1 screens applicants' responses to questionnaires found in most vacancy announcements in support of the level of experience you claim for specified questions. This step and your responses will determine if you qualify for the specific position. The responses to these questions and your experience, skills, education, training and accomplishments must be specified throughout your USAJobs resume. The USAJOBS online Resume Builder has its own limitations and requirements. That means your information must meet the required format, keyword criteria and characters permitted. USAJOBS hosts many thousands of job applications for a variety of federal job openings in the U.S. and around the world. Online formats tend to be restrictive and each has different format requirements. If not written correctly with the required USAJobs resume format, your application may end up being automatically rejected.

Encoding Specific Keywords for USAJOBS Resume Database Searches

Now that USAJobs is searchable throughout all federal agencies looking for qualified candidates, it is important to build your USAJobs resume in the builder instead of uploading your resume. This will not harm your chances if you just upload your resume as an attachment for the specific job you are applying for, but when you apply for a vacancy using the online builder it will display specific keywords in custom data base searches when other agencies are seeking job candidates with your experience.

It is very important that you know exactly how to code or write your USAJobs resume to generate a hiring authority's interest in you. There are a different set of keywords for every job. Sometimes building your USAJobs resume can be overwhelming because they are much more comprehensive than applying for private-sector jobs. Unfortunately there is no reference book on keywords, but if you look at the job duties and specialized skills on each vacancy announcement you will find the keywords populated within the wording.

The bottom line is that the federal government now can search resumes on the USAJobs system by job-specific keywords. If your USAJobs resume is not populated with those words, it does not have a chance of being flagged for consideration for other positions that may become available. So don't miss the chance to have your resume searched for other federal job opportunities.

Barbara Adams, President and CEO of CareerPro Global (CPG), the parent company of www.careerproplus.com and www.militaryresumewriters.com, has been a member of the careers community for the past 20 years. Ms. Adams holds four prestigious industry certifications. CareerPro Global is the only ISO 9001-2008 Certified Career Service in the industry, as well as one of the fastest-growing Military, Federal, and Civilian Resume-Writing and Careers-Coaching companies. The team of Certified Professional Federal and Military Resume Writers at CPG assist thousands of clients in applying for and gaining employment each year. We can help you land your military to civilian job.