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Posts Tagged ‘CCAR’

The 5-Page SES Federal Resume

Posted in ECQs, Federal Job Search, Federal Resume Writing
by Kathryn Troutman on June 9th, 2011 | No Comments - Make a comment »

SES Application Writing Workshop, June 22-23 and Sep 8-9

Developing and writing a Senior Executive Service (SES) application package with Executive Core Qualification statements (ECQs) is a challenging process that requires dedication and hours of preparation. The process is also very rewarding – a journey that reaps high rewards, when seeking employment among the ranks of some of our government’s top officials (.04% of the total federal workforce).

Since 2008, the Office of Personnel Management has introduced a new method of applying for SES – the five-page resume-based application with the ECQs integrated into the position descriptions. Agencies may use either the traditional SES application method (a senior-level federal resume and set of Executive Core Qualification statements (ECQs) – a 15- to 25-page resume and essay package) or the five-page resume-based SES application.

The five-page resume-based SES/ECQ application requires evidence of the ECQs in the text of the resume. (The ECQs are Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, and Building Coalitions. Each ECQ is an umbrella header for the 28 leadership competencies that OPM has identified for the SES. The 28 leadership competencies must be evident throughout the five-page resume combined with a structured/behavior-based interview).

Developing and writing this five-page resume that persuasively demonstrates decision-making and leadership abilities may require summarizing some 15 to 20 pages of ECQ essays written for the traditional SES/ECQ essay application package, into a coherent five-page document, which tells a story of senior leadership by covering all 28 leadership competencies, but not actually identifying the ECQ categories. (The 2010 Guide to SES Qualifications by OPM states: Candidates should keep the ECQs in mind as they write their resumes, but it is not necessary or even advisable to annotate the resume with “Leading Change”, “Leading People”, “Results Driven”, “Business Acumen”, or “Leading Change”).

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Counting Characters in your USAJOBS Federal Resume Work Experience

Posted in Federal Resume Writing, KSA Writing, www.USAJOBS.gov
by Kathryn Troutman on May 16th, 2011 | No Comments - Make a comment »

Federal Hiring Reform, which is to be implemented by Nov. 8, 2011, includes a directive that human capital officers should “eliminate all requirements of separate narratives from initial applications.” Most federal vacancy announcements are compliant and do not require separate written narratives for Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) in initial applications. However, most vacancy announcements are still including KSAs for open positions and advising that you include accomplishments in your resume that demonstrate your KSAs. These mini-KSA narratives, or “KSA accomplishments,” demonstrate that you are best qualified for a certain position.

The big challenge of adding KSA accomplishments into your USAJOBS federal resume is space. Each work experience section in the USAJOBS Resume Builder allows 3,000 characters, including spaces. You have to decide how much space will be dedicated to your keywords, duties and responsibilities, and how much will be dedicated to your KSA accomplishments. How do you describe an impressive KSA accomplishment when you may have been in your position for 5 to 10 years? Last week, during a federal resume writing class I recommended that applicants write 1,500 characters about their job responsibilities and 1,500 characters on their KSA accomplishments, or any combination that will add up to 3,000 characters. But, both duties and KSA accomplishments are critical to get best qualified for a position.

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KSAs in the Federal Resume

Posted in Federal Resume Writing, KSA Writing
by Kathryn Troutman on June 17th, 2010 | 4 Comments - Make a comment »

John Berry, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, is planning to eliminate the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) essays during his term in order to make federal applications less cumbersome. (http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0310/031610p1.htm)

Even so, it is still important to demonstrate in your federal job application that you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform a job. How do I recommend that you do that? Include the KSAs in your federal resume! In fact, vacancy announcements are already listing KSAs in the qualifications section with the note that the KSAs should be included in the text of the resume.

The best way to make your KSAs stand out in the federal resume is to use our recommended Outline Format Resume for USAJOBS and other online builders. The sample federal resume in this article, which is in USAJOBS format, includes the KSAs found in the vacancy announcement.

Recommend Format for KSAs in the Federal Resume

The Outline Format for your federal resume was first developed in 2000 when Department of Defense agencies introduced the Resumix system. The Resumix system is a keyword system and is still the resume format used today by Army, Navy, and Department of Defense agencies. The Outline Format features keywords that could be the search terms used by the human resources specialists and supervisors.

The KSAs can also be highlighted in the Outline Format by carefully selecting KSA keywords as the paragraph headers, then formatting these headers in ALL CAPS so that the information is very clear to the human resources specialist. The sample federal resume below clearly features the KSAs from Duties; Qualifications; and Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities statements listed in the announcement.

Readability is Key to Success for KSAs in the Federal Resume

Federal resumes posted in USAJOBS are read by federal human resources specialists, not a machine or artificial intelligence system. Being able to easily find the KSAs in the federal resume will make it easier to determine that you are Best Qualified for a certain position. Using a limited amount of ALL CAPS in your USAJOBS or builder resume can help HR and the supervisor see your KSAs and specialized experience.

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CCAR and OER NSPS Self-Assessment – Budget Officer, YA-560-2

Posted in Writing Your NSPS Self-Assessment
by Kathryn Troutman on September 9th, 2009 | 3 Comments - Make a comment »

TIPS FOR WRITING YOUR SELF-ASSESSMENTS WITH CCAR or OER

We have been asked to create a self-assessment sample in both the CCAR and OER formats. Many Army Civilian agencies are using the OER format for self-assessments. Both CCAR and OER are great because the structure recommends additional information in the self-assessment examples. Nancy Segal has written this JO and self-assessment sample for you to use as a template. The NSPS book has about 80 more sample JOs and at least 24 Self-Assessment Accomplishments for you to study while you are writing in our Job Objective and Self-Assessment Library.

ASSESSMENTS WITH MORE DETAILS: Some people write just one or two sentences for each accomplishment and that may not be enough for the raters to understand the scope of the accomplishment (context), what you did to achieve it (efforts or actions), what obstacles you overcame (challenge), and what happened (results). If you don’t give background information or detail, they may not understand the example. The more background on the value of your performance to your mission, the better you will be rated.

RECOMMENDED: WRITE YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS WITH ONE OF THE FORMATS: CCAR or OER

IT’S OKAY TO WRITE ONE EXAMPLE, IF IT IS A MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT!

This Sample Job Objective in this newsletter will have only ONE Accomplishment, because it is a MAJOR Accomplishment for the year and clearly demonstrate how she exceeded her job objective this year. This works for MAJOR accomplishments. Otherwise, you can write two accomplishments that will average 1,000 characters.

The CCAR format is the original format recommended: Context, Challenge, Action, Results. Most of the samples in the NSPS book are in the CCAR format. They can be changed to OER easily. If you would like to use our Free CCAR Self-Assessment Builder, it could help you focus on your writing – add more details and background on the accomplishment. Then, you can edit back to 1,000 or 1,500 characters.

Supervisors/ Raters, Pay Pool Staff might appreciate the acronyms for easier reading: CCAR or OER in the paragraphs. They will have a lot of assessments to read and understand about your performance this year.

Count your characters: You can write one, two, or three accomplishments in the 2,000 character space in the PAA 3.0.Make sure you check your self-assessments against the Expected and Enhanced Benchmarks. You can see the benchmarks and keywords from the descriptions at our very popular and free NSPS Keyword Tree. 30,000 DOD employees have accessed the Keyword Tree for writing self-assessments.

Good luck with your writing. If you want to see more JOs and self-assessments, the new book, Writing Your NSPS Self-Assessment, 2nd edition has many more examples.

You can see the Job Objective Library Table of Contents here. You can also practice your self-assessment writing by using the PAA 3.0 Fillable form. Then copy and paste the entire document into My Biz when it is all completed. The PAA fillable form is available here.

You can order the 2nd Edition of the book here – both print book (shipping end of this week), or eBook, available immediately!

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Example Provides Valuable Pointers for Self-Assessment

Posted in Writing Your NSPS Self-Assessment
by Kathryn Troutman on August 10th, 2009 | 2 Comments - Make a comment »

It is time again for National Security Personnel System (NSPS) and Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS) self-assessments. In what may be the last round for NSPS – at least in its current form – employees in the system should think about the biggest projects, changes, supervisory challenges, and mission accomplishments that have occurred over the past year. Writing these accomplishments down on paper takes concentration and time.

To see how this is done, let’s look at a sample self-assessment, filed by Jeremy Jenkins. Jeremy will write up his last year’s accomplishments with the aim of winning his property accountability and supply management Job Objective.

The entire 2,000 characters he will use will focus on writing about the property book and how he improved the inventory control system despite having no budgeted financial resources for the task. Jeremy overcame obstacles, took initiative and designed an automated system. The new system resulted in a 40 percent reduction in property losses.

Jeremy’s hard work offers a great example of improvement in quality logistics support for the Army Soldier School – an accomplishment that not only makes him look good, but which over time will greatly improve supply readiness and customer services for soldiers.

Strategy – Your strategy for writing accomplishments for each Job Objective is to tell a story. Give one or two examples of the best work you have performed in 2009. Make it easy for your supervisor and pay pool to read by using the “Context-Challenge-Action-Result” (CCAR) model for your accomplishments. Review your Job Objective against the benchmarks for the Contributing Factor – in the case below, Technical Proficiency.

The NSPS Writing Plan – Ask yourself: What have I done this year that helped me meet my mission? Overall, if you write up three to six accomplishments for your entire year, you will be finished with your self-assessment.

The following sample NSPS self-assessment for Performance Appraisal Application V. 3.0 illustrates an example of one Job Objective and one accomplishment that was a major achievement for the year in this objective. It is followed by a CCAR self-assessment.

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