Ten Steps to a Federal Job: Navigating the Federal Job System, Writing Federal Resumes, KSAs and Cover Letters with a Mission (Paperback)

~ (Author), Laura Sachs (Author), Mike Ottenseyer (Contributor), Mark Reichenbacher (Contributor), Jessica Coffey (Contributor) "Is it worth your while to invest your time and effort in searching for and applying for a Federal job?..." (more)
Key Phrases: supp sheet, government international trade programs, cover letter builder, Air Force, Office of Personnel Management, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Troutman covers aspects of the federal job search in [a] format that I haven't seen pulled together elsewhere..." -- Joyce Lain-Kennedy, The Dallas Morning News, August 4, 2002

"If someone is serious about working in the Government, he/she would only need this book...Well done!" -- Writers Digest, April 5, 2004

Product Description

The government is hiring, for homeland security jobs and more! But if you want to be successful in landing a federal job, you need to understand the government's unique and complex application process. In this complete guide, Troutman shares the expertise that has enabled her to help many others just like you go on to new and rewarding jobs in federal service.

Applying for federal employment is different than in private industry. This new guide shows you how to succeed by breaking the government's intricate process down into 10 simple steps. Both first-time applicants and those already within government will find something new here, as application processes change over time. Ten Steps is simply the most up-to-date book on federal employment available today!

Written for all job levels and categories, with salaries ranging to $140,000.

Ten Steps to a Federal Job is a "must have" for any job seeker looking for federal employment. Let Troutman's latest guidebook walk you through every step of the application process and into a rewarding job in federal service.

Includes a CD-ROM with samples and examples, and our Federal Resume and KSA Builders, normally sold for $35 each.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: The Resume Place, Inc. (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964702533
• ISBN-13: 978-0964702530
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,267 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Resource, February 15, 2005

By	A Resume Writer (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

As a former federal personnelist and now a professional job searcher and writer/editor of federal style resumes and KSAs, I can tell you that this book is an excellent resource for the federal job seeker. The chapter on writing KSAs alone is worth the price of the book, since this seems to be a major hang-up for those seeking federal employment. The section, "Writing the Unwritable KSA" is invaluable. There are numerous sample resumes, KSAs, and templates in the book and on the accompanying CD-ROM and links to a "document builder" web site. If fact, your resume and KSAs are practically already written for you. All you have to do is fill in information about your own experience.

There are however a few shortcomings: There is scant information on grammar and proper usage. Also, there is no information on writing the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) for Senior Executive Service (SES) positions. I find this to be inexplicable since this is a book on federal employment. SES aspirants will have to look elsewhere for help or pay Troutman's company to write their SES packages. Finally, there are only a few examples of resumes or KSAs for GS-13/14/15 level positions. Most of the examples provided are for entry, mid-level, and Wage Grade positions.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Federal employment savvy at its best ..., November 10, 2002

By	Sean Kinn "Gunny" (traveling, hopefully) - See all my reviews

Controversial five-year-rule aside (for those of you that live overseas) -- what could be better than working for Uncle Sam?

The trick for federal employment, though, is learning how to close the gap between -- wanting a job -- and being hired for that particular job.

(And, yes, I sought out Troutman at a job fair in Heidelberg in April 2002, and subsequently wrote a review in Stripes newspaper. I went to the trouble to do that because before I revised my federal resume based on her words, I was receiving no (zero) phone calls from GS managers. Whereas, after the rewrite, I was offered and selected for a number of different GS jobs.)

Troutman details a logical process that begins with:

Steps 1-5: "Network," "Review the Federal Job Processes," "Research Vacancy Announcements for Jobs," and the vital "Analyze Core Competencies for Language" and "Analyze Vacancy Announcements for Keywords and Government-type Language."

Using the word "vital" to describe core competencies and keywords should not be taken lightly: Troutman's book teaches you to organize your past employment experiences using word selections GS managers could use to search for potential employees. Put another way, the road map that allows you to circumnavigate the federal employment information gap could very well lie in the nouns and action words you select to place in your federal resume (try to think of the government's Resumix system as an "Internet search engine" looking for you).

According to Troutman, "Private industry resumes are not written the same." Accordingly, if you follow her guidance, you can "adapt your private industry resume into a federal resume, de-militarize your military resume, or focus your current resume toward a particular federal job."

The general idea is to transform your federal resume into a well written, very specific, zero-redundancy, easy-reading work-of-art -- subsequently causing it to rise to the top of competing resumes that may appear during job vacancy announcements.

(If nothing else, her book could cause federal employee quality to elevate above the norm, especially if job-hunters-who-realize-they-are-over-qualified-for-certain-jobs buy the book.)

Granted, resume writing is hard work. Nonetheless, Troutman states in Step 6 ("Write Your Federal and Electronic Resume") that the "three to ten hours" it will take you to write your new federal resume -- highlighting skills that support specific job announcements -- will be time well spent (once you've convinced yourself you REALLY DO [my emphasis] want that federal job).

To assist with your writing efforts she created a special section within the book (in Step 6) called "Ten Federal Resume Writing Lessons," and then expands on the same by explaining the all-important Knowledge, Skill, and Ability statements (KSAs) in Step 7.

Note that the book comes with a CD-ROM and digital (Word) resume samples, in addition to 58 pages of resume samples in the book (acquired from real-world job seekers that attained federal employment).

Troutman points out interesting items you may want to add to your federal resume. For example, maybe you should expand your federal resume with a short section called "International Travel." (Perhaps you're an Army brat approaching your tenth year total living and/or stationed overseas. Being familiar with local culture is important for certain overseas federal jobs that require working with the locals).

One of the sample resumes in the book has a Special Interest section that lists "Thai cooking, dancing, vegetable carving and flower arranging" (hobbies and work can't get much more interesting than that).

Observe at this point that there is a big difference between "fluffing" a resume with false information, and creatively expanding a resume. Adding truthful sections such as International Travel or Special Interests is fine. Lying will get you nowhere.

More creative thought process: Think about the special work projects you participated in over the years (in other jobs). What about grouping them into a Special Projects list? Here's the quote from the book that describes the procedure:

"In addition to your duties and responsibilities, many people have worked on special projects in their jobs. Jobs such as engineers, architects, information technology professionals, construction management, leasing, finance, contracts and consulting are project-oriented. Employees work on one project or many projects at one time. These projects can be listed in addition to your duties. They will contain important keywords and skills for both human and automated recruiter reviews. In fact, sometimes the duties become less important after you have written your project list.

"By creating a project list, you'll impress yourself, as well as your current and next supervisor. Your resume invariably builds upon what you have done, but effective resumes don't merely present duties -- they communicate results. Effective public service resumes should present the applicant's ability to achieve those results if she or he is going to stand out among the competition."

Now there's a mouthful (and a means to summarize and detail accomplishments, which, in turn, could cause your federal resume to "STAND OUT" [Troutman's own words; she notes that capitalizing certain words within your federal resume is appropriate in certain instances]).

Steps 8, 9 and 10 are the down-and-dirty on Applications, Application Tracking and Interviews, respectively. It's important to know who can actually apply for the various jobs, and all federal agencies have application procedures that vary slightly. The CD expands on the Applications section by supplying you with the separate-service Human Resource Web site addresses in clickable fashion.

(Note that even official .gov Web site addresses often change. Search any .mil Web site to find your separate service federal employment Web site.)

If you read Troutman's words, highlighting and tabbing the book for reference while conducting your personal experience with the Resumix system -- "Resumix" is the name of the software employed by the civilian company that operates the federal employment system -- you are taught the federal job hiring system from the inside out.

Troutman's book is a comprehensive look at the federal job hunt, and is "dedicated to the workers who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001."

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This books make bureacratic job search processes easy!, January 17, 2005

By	A. Hanson (Seattle WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a resume coach at North Seattle Community College in Seattle, WA. I want to tell you how helpful this book is in teaching my two-year students to write resumes for hard-to-find jobs. Many of our students are technical and electonics students, jobs that took a very deep dive in the 2001 - 2003 downturn.

Yet, no one thought about applying to the federal government -- Ten Steps to a Federal Job makes the process a real option! By using this book, an IT/Electronics student wrote a federal resume that got him a database development job -- after being out of work and looking diligently for 18 months! I also worked with a deaf student who received special status toward a job as a biologist, categorizing plants for the US Forest Service in Wenatchee. The diversity of jobs available through the government is broad indeed.

As Kathryn's book points out, you don't have to live in Washington D.C. to be a successful candidate! Seattle - like many cities - has many local agencies that are hiring - like the IRS, the EPA, Social Security, NOAH and Immigration. People don't think of the federal government as an employer-- but they hire tons of people. They hire technical people, and even ones with gray hair! And I personnally have seen people win, using the principles laid out in Kathryn Troutman's book.

By using the simple processes and writing tips -- and the great examples on the CD -- you can find appropriate jobs and write a winning application packet. Kathryn Troutman is the absolute authority on this subject--she teaches classes to federal employees at federal agencies all the time--And by working with her book, I can now write a resume that gets jobs for students, disabled workers, boomers and techies.

The government is hiring, here and abroad. And in ten steps, you can be a contender for a federal job.