5 Tips & Hints for Veterans to Get a Federal Job Faster

If you consider your life after the service, you should factor in special programs, significant pay, and benefits the government offers along with veteran hiring initiatives. One-third to one-half of the federal workforce at the largest agencies are veterans, as OPM reports. Those of them who already work are eager to place in a job more ex-servicemen. Military to civilian resume writing services may ease the quest for finding federal employment. And your patience greatly increases the possibility to get hired by federals. We have compiled five steps towards rewarding career opportunities in government for those who leave the military.

1. Bookmark Popular Federal Job Boards.

Register an account on LinkedIn and VA for Vets, and don’t forget the possibilities of USAJOBS. The latter is considered to be a convenient and reliable federal portal for veterans with options for an easy listing of many federal agencies’ openings and accepting the applications. Creating your profile will make demands on your time, so take several hours out to set up the account. These tricks will be helpful to keep your data in a single place:

1. Collect in advance all official documents to approve your military service, training, and discharge, including DD-214.
2. Create all networking profiles at the early stage of a job search. As you need to enter a lot of information, that can be a time-consuming process.
3. Adjust email alerts to let you know about new federal positions to cut down on your time and effort.
4. You may create or upload several resumes and keep them all up to date.

2. Put an Effort to Create a Federal-style Resume.

You can create or upload several kinds of resumes with certain skill sets. But don’t stop at a one-page document, containing a brief summary of your past jobs. A federal resume is deeper as it has more details, running 3-5 pages. There are no reasons to be modest, you should make your resume outstanding to get noticed by all means. The following hints will demonstrate your relevant qualification for a federal job:

1. Translate military speech into the language of civilians to get understood. Ask experts of the reputable military to civilian resume writing services for help in interpreting your knowledge, skills, and abilities.
2. Enumerate your service duties, relevant skills, accomplishments. Provide the resume with salary history and references. It will be great if you include the experiences you have had outside the workplace.
3. To underline you meet all criteria of the announcement the number of keywords and phrases should be relevant to those used in the job description. Pay attention you should include them in your answers while filling in the online application too.
4. Find out what specific requirements are outlined in the job announcement. Never submit the same document for different openings. Always craft new versions to match your experiences to the required skills.

3. Sort Out the Agencies that Prefer to Hire Vets.

Vets are desirable candidates for many federal agencies after their separation from the military. There they have great odds to meet and work alongside comrades-in-arms, doing similar jobs they did previously. Most working vets help others servicemen in finding jobs. Try to reach out to a battle buddy who works in a federal agency and get advice on how to make an application noticed. Be sure he can also put in a good word for your candidacy with the recruiter. Your odds to gravitate towards the following agencies are higher than anywhere else:

• Department of Defense;
• Veterans Affairs Department;
• Department of Homeland Security;
• Department of Justice;
• Department of Transportation.

4. Remember About Vet’s Preference.

Vet’s preference is your distinct advantage, which gives a head start over civilian candidates with the same qualification. A faster promotion while working for the government is another benefit. With a general or honorable discharge approved by documents, you’ll get a 5-point boost. Service-connected disability, as well as Purple Heart, boosts your rating by 10 points at once. When a Veterans Recruitment Appointment is involved, there is no competition at all for the following categories of ex-servicemen:

• Vets who took part in a war or served in a campaign/expedition;
• Disabled veterans;
• Vets with Armed Forces Service Medal who participated in a military operation;
• Vets who are recently separated (within 3 years of discharge);
• Vets, separated under honorable conditions.

5. Keep Calm, Getting Ready for a Challenge.

Though your vets’ preference allows landing a federal job faster, it never guarantees lightning-fast employment in terms of government. Right from the moment of your first applying for any federal opening, you should be patient. Remember about the competitive admissions framework of government employment, running to 100 competitive candidates per vacancy. The problem is pre-qualification among you and your military fellows with the same service-earned benefits, that may be equal to yours or even surpass them. The following hints can speed your landing the civilian job:

1. Things don’t work the first time, don’t get discouraged, you can check out all veteran employment particularities on the FedsHireVets page.
2. Details of training if relevant will give prominence to your application, figuring it from the competitors’ ones.
3. Remember that rules and procedures you used to on service differ from federal rules in terms of pay grades. The military system of pay and General Schedule shouldn’t be confused, as a misunderstanding in labeling GS-8 and GS-9 leads you to your overqualification.

Though the federal job application system is complex, the federals are hiring, providing limitless possibilities. Governmental pay and benefits are among the best in the U. S. Vets’ preference can be a good reason to explore your options in successfully landing a federal job. You should be prepared to have a battle plan and matching resume, created by professionals of the military to civilian resume writing services. If you put time and effort into each step of the application process you’ll be a winner in this turf battle.

About the Author

Gillian Grunewald

Gillian is a talented writer with a strong research approach in the career field. Has over 12 years of experience in resume, LinkedIn profile writing and editing. Education Master of Fine Arts, Writing Eastern Washington University.