You know that your resume often serves as your first impression, and resumes for government jobs require a bit more attention to detail than a standard professional resume.

In this article, you’ll learn how to tailor your document to your target roles and present your experience in the best possible light, increasing your chances of landing interviews.

You’ll also ensure that you aren’t committing any of the common resume writing mistakes that often lead to rejection.

Leverage these 7 strategies to craft an impressive resume that drives results:

Make It Accomplishment-Driven

To differentiate yourself from similar applicants, it’s not enough to simply write up a laundry list of bullet points that describe what you were responsible for on a day-to-day basis.

You need to provide specific examples of how you added value to each organization you were a part of.

Why? Because recruiters have plenty of applicants who can do the day-to-day job. They want to see evidence of the results you achieved, how you improved existing processes, and how you took initiative.

Compare the following two bullet points:

• “Responsible for creating and updating Excel dashboards and reports”
• “Created new Excel dashboards and reports used by city officials to analyze spending, resulting in policies that reduced costs by 12%”

In the second bullet point, we added specific details that turn a general statement into a much more impactful accomplishment.

These types of achievement-based bullet points never start with the words “responsible for,” which can give off the impression that you are someone who simply gets their assigned work done and calls it a day.

Instead, they start with targeted action verbs that show how you took action, explain what you were able to deliver, and demonstrate results.

By restructuring your resume’s bullet points to focus on achievements, you’ll stand out from other applicants who have similar backgrounds.

Incorporate Metrics

While you should leave out classified or government-sensitive information from your resume, you should try to quantify your achievements as much as possible.

By using numbers to back up the statements you are making, you’ll not only demonstrate that you pay attention to such details but also significantly build your credibility.

Elements that you might consider quantifying include:

• How many people you managed
• How many projects you worked on
• How much you were able to reduce spending or increase income
• How many partnerships you created
• How much time you saved

Remember to also contextualize the numbers you mention:

• How long did it take you to achieve the metric?
• How did this increase/decrease benefit the organization?

A bullet point that explains you “met KPIs within 6 months” will sound more impressive saying “met KPIs” alone.

Review your resume and see where you can elevate generic statements such as “increased efficiency” with specific numbers, and you’ll make them that much more powerful (and believable)!

Keyword Optimize for Applicant Tracking Systems

Many organizations – including the government –  use applicant tracking systems to automatically narrow down an overwhelming number of applications into a manageable pool of top candidates.

Simply put, HR departments don’t have enough resources to manually review every single resume that is submitted.

Applicant tracking systems allow HR teams to make the process much more efficient by “filtering” applicants using keywords (among other attributes).

However, don’t get intimidated by the prospect of automated screenings!

USAJOBS states that your resume should provide “examples of relevant experiences and accomplishments that prove you can perform the tasks at the level required for the job as stated in the job announcement.”

Most importantly, “your experience needs to address every required qualification.”

If you follow these guidelines and incorporate language from the job announcement into your resume, you’ll naturally optimize your resume for applicant tracking systems.

You can also run your resume and the job description through a resume scanning tool, which will point out any missing language you could consider including.

Adhere to Federal Resume Requirements

Federal resumes require much more detailed information than would typically be included on a civilian resume.

If you are transitioning into the government sector, you’ll need to adjust your resume accordingly.

USAJOBS clearly outlines the information required and provides tips for ensuring your application is successful.

For example, for each entry under the work experience section, you’ll need to include:

• Your position title
• The month and year you started and finished each role
• The number of hours you worked per week
• Your salary

Because you are required to include more information on a federal resume, you can exceed the two-page guideline for professional resumes used in the private sector.

Be sure each bullet to add to your resume is actually adding value, though.

Never “beef up” your content just to make the resume longer.