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Posts Tagged ‘Keywords’

Are These Federal Jobs Worth the Money?

Posted in Federal Job Info, Federal Job Search, Federal Resume Writing
by Kathryn Troutman on January 19th, 2011 | 1 Comment - Make a comment »

Some federal jobs are amazing in terms of the challenging duties and responsibilities. Many government positions hardly seem real because of their complexity. Most private industry jobs do not have the same depth and scope of responsibility that impacts entire American public’s safety and security.

Real people do these jobs. Talk about a hard day at work. The federal jobs described below–and many more not listed here–deal with some of the most complex topics and problems in America!

What I want to know is this: are these jobs worth the money, or any amount of money, that the employee receives for the headaches, frustrations, difficult negotiations, etc., that will no doubt be part of these positions?

Take, for example, the State Department Analyst who is responsible for promoting communication and cooperation among the various government agencies and private sector organizations supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This employee is the ultimate negotiator and must demonstrate optimum patience, negotiation skills, flexibility and ability to navigate complex international and homeland security issues.

Is this job worth $51,630.00 – $81,204.00 a year?

Read the rest of this entry »

Wordle – A List of Keywords For Job Announcements

Posted in Federal Resume Writing
by Kathryn Troutman on December 12th, 2009 | 1 Comment - Make a comment »

I learned how to use Wordle this week and it’s so fun to use on various vacancy announcements. Here is a graphic of Keywords for the Administrative Specialist position, GS 11. Add these keywords to your resume, and maybe you will get Best Qualified and Referred to the supervisor! Wordle: Keywords - Administrative Specialist, Homeland Security, GS 11 Kathryn Troutman, Wordler for Federal Job Keywords!

No password is required, it’s free and easy to use!

Published with permission by http://www.wordle.net/.

Top 10 Resume Mistakes from YPIC, Yuma, AZ

Posted in Federal Resume Writing
by Kathryn Troutman on July 28th, 2009 | 1 Comment - Make a comment »

Top 10 Resume Mistakes by Stressed-out Jobseekers Discovered by Yuma, Arizona Resume Writers where it is 26% Unemployment

YPIC, Yuma, AZ Career Counselors and Resume Writers, June 2009
YPIC, Yuma, AZ Career Counselors, June 2009

By Kathryn Troutman, Certified Federal Job Search Trainer Program Director and President, The Resume Place, Inc.

At Yuma Private Industry Council, Reemployment Center, three very busy professional resume writers were telling me about their jobs in writing resumes. Their customers are the 26% unemployed “Yumans” who were not expecting to write a resume any time soon. In 2006 Yuma was written up as a Sizzing Hot Spot with NO unemployment.

This article is about some of the resume problems they see and fix at YPIC. Career professionals all over the US are working hard to help stressed-out jobseekers with resumes, so they can compete in a very tough job market.

Lori Heredia described how the jobseekers are so distraught about losing their positions that they don’t pay close attention to the details they need to write a good resume showcasing their experience and education. They have trouble remembering dates, duties and accomplishments. It’s hard to get them to concentrate.

Katie Fuchs noted that jobseekers often don’t even have a resume when they walk in the door. She interviews the jobseeker, creates the work chronology and writes draft descriptions while they wait. This is a lot of pressure to remember a career history on the spot and types it while the jobseeker tries to create and dictate job titles, companies, dates, duties.

Ralph Villa, Resume Writer and Community Outreach Coordinator / Trainer described his efficient method of writing resumes using O-Net Online to help write position descriptions because jobseekers are just not able to describe their jobs in much detail. He can find Occupations, skills and crosswalk search easily for building a better resume. This is a free program and can help a non-thinking jobseeker write about their past positions.

The YPIC has been providing professional resume writing, job search coaching, and interview preparation for the citizens of Yuma who are seeking new jobs since 1987. I was there to teach the career staff how to help the Yumans how to apply for federal jobs and write federal resumes. But we had to start with a good basic resume before we could convert that resume to a federal resume. So, we had a lot of discussion about a good resume – for private industry job searches or federal job searches.

Katie, Lori, and Ralph have discovered some major resume writing errors that are typical for a stressed-out job seeker:

Here are 10 of their Top Resume Problems that they see:

Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching the First-Time American Public Federal Jobseeker – Contract Specialist

Posted in Federal Job Search, Federal Resume Writing
by Kathryn Troutman on May 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment - Make a comment »

I hear the most amazing questions from the “first-timer”. But the most typical is this one: “I just don’t know if I am applying to the right job.” It is amazing to me that the federal jobs are so unique, and written in such a way that really smart people are not sure what the job really means. Even the Contract Specialist position, which from the name seems understandable, is an uncertain for the first-time applicant who has business, sales, account management, national accounts, federal sales, retail sales background.

Here’s the short version. The Contract Specialist manages contracts for federal agency program managers who need goods or services to complete their mission. Contract Specialists purchase millions of dollars of IT services, training programs, specialty services, or computers, office furniture or food.

This job involves researching the best vendors, writing a “statement of work” about the services needed, receiving bids from the vendors, negotiating terms, and helping to select the vendor. And then maybe monitoring the contractor to make sure they perform correctly.

SAMPLE LANGUAGE FROM USAJOBS: A Sample Contract Specialist Position, posted 5/16

These positions are in the Division of Contracting and General Services, Portland, Oregon.

These positions serve as contract specialists procuring supplies or services through formal advertising or negotiation procedures, intra/interagency agreements, cooperative agreements, and grants. The contract specialist plans, coordinates, negotiates and administers complex purchases, such as construction material, heavy equipment, construction of hatchery/refuge facilities, structural and living quarters, building rehabilitation, dam and bridge construction, architect-engineer services, janitorial services, IT and telecommunications hardware, software and programming services, contracts for installation of building equipment systems, and various supplies.

At the GS-9 and 11 grade levels, duties will be performed under closer supervision, and training will be provided to prepare the employee for eventual promotion to the full performance level.

THE KEYWORDS SHOULD BE IN ALL CAPS IN YOUR RESUME. OUTLINE FORMAT. The words in the Duties section of the announcement should be added to your resume. And preferably the resume should be in our Outline Format. Scroll down on this page to see the Outline Format. Click on the graphic to see the entire resume.

SEARCH FOR RECOVERY ACT JOBS. There are many Contract Specialist positions post now to help with Recovery Act contracts and jobs, as well as other federal positions. Kathryn Troutman, Author Ten Steps to a Federal Job