Government Resume Makeover: Glen Forrester Edition

Last year, GovLoop and Young Government Leaders (YGL) launched the “Rock Your Resume” project, which has already grown to over 1200 members. What began as peer reviews has evolved to leverage the experience of two top-notch expert reviewers – Camille Roberts & Andrea Boulanger Lowe – who are reviewing 8 resumes each month. To date, almost 150 people have received resume reviews and hundreds more have been in a position to benefit from our experts’ tips, resume resources, and examples of transformed resumes. This is a free service we’re offering exclusively to GovLoop members…a service that would otherwise cost hundreds of dollars. If you’re not already a member of the “Rock Your Resume” Group on GovLoop, come check it out and submit your resume for the chance to win a free, professional review.

Welcome to the newest installment of Rock Your Resume’s Government Resume
Makeover series! This time around, we’re putting the spotlight on Glen Forrester, who recently worked with Camille Roberts, one of our expert reviewers, to dramatically transform his resume.

Having recently completed his master’s degree in history, Glenn sought to highlight his education and skills qualification. After updating his resume based on our expert reviewers’ most common resume feedback, Glen was already well on his way to a resume makeover.

Camille was then able to help Glenn make some of his information “pop” even more. She showed how a resume can be tailored to a specific position, through highlighting the right keywords and developing a unique summary section for each application. After helping draw language from Glen’s resume into a new summary section, Camille stressed the need to tailor a resume to each job announcement:

“Does this help demonstrate how to address the needs of the employer instead of telling them what skill set should be obtained? I realize it is very specific, but it has to be in order to be effective.

“Your core competencies are very good, but be sure to include keywords that fit you, from the job announcement. I would also put them in a column format just to break up the format of ‘paragraphs’ a bit. I see many keywords that you should be using…”

You can see a comparison of the resumes below, with Glen’s first draft on the left and his most recent draft on the right. Some of the major changes include:

• Formatting, including the use of color
• Inclusion of keywords directly under contact information
• A summary written for the specific job announcement being applied for
• A bulleted core qualification section that can be tailored to each application

Rock Your Resume group members can check out Glen’s entire resume transformation, including the evolution of drafts and all of Camille’s advice, here.