Federal Career Consultation
RP / ConsultationDo you want to consult with an expert on your Federal or Private Industry Resume?
Order a one-hour working session with a certified Resume Place consultant: we read your resume against a real job announcement; name the keywords it screens for; look for accomplishments; mark-up the resume; and leave you with a plan you can act on. Federal or private industry. Your next career move is worth a SECOND OPINION from an expert resume writer and consultant.
ORDER YOUR $210 CONSULTATION
Order your $210 consultation.
Tell us about your goals and your target job, share your current resume, and choose how to begin. A Certified Federal Resume Writer will begin the resume and announcement review and recommendations.
You’re on our list.
Thank you. A certified consultant will reach out within one business day to confirm your session and send your secure payment link. Watch your inbox.
Your reference number: . Keep it handy if you call us at 202-491-6498.
Talk to a consultant for an expert review of your resume before you submit.
Your career objective is important, whether it is a critical job in your same agency or program, an important promotion, or a new position you have your eye on. Get an expert opinion of how your resume looks. This can make the difference between Best Qualified and Not Eligible. Get a review for $210. Worth every penny.
First Hour
- A discussion by phone, Zoom, or in writing about your current resume and your target announcement: format, content, keywords, organization, length, and accomplishments. This is critical.
- One real or sample job announcement, to review the Specialized Experience and compare it to your resume
- We create a list of keywords from the announcement and check whether your resume includes at least half of them
- Critical recommendations on length, dates, titles, and how the categories are organized
- A marked-up resume with recommendations for new content, reorganized sections, and keyword mark-up for you to use
- This is our all-important one-hour consultation. From here we can quote writing and editing services to help you implement the recommendations.
Second Hour
- If you want a second review of your improvements and added content, we can review again for another hour
- We talk more about accomplishments, with specifics, and about keyword visibility
- How to use AI well on any part of the resume
- More comments and recommendations targeting your job announcement
- Another mark-up of your resume with additional comments targeting your next career move
- A quote for professional writing and editing to complete the resume rewrite
Professional Editing and Writing
- Want more help with writing and editing? A professional writer can write your two-page resume for you and get it done.
- Expert writers who know how to target a job announcement or an occupational series
- Either format: federal or private industry, or the move between them
- Extreme editing if you have a 5-page or longer federal resume right now
WHY THIS IS HARD
Federal hiring does not work like the rest of the job market.
Your career today is not last year’s. The job market is competitive, and none of what follows reflects your record. It reflects a system most people were never taught to read. We have read it since 1971.
The ATS screens first
Software ranks you on keywords before a person ever opens your file. Miss the terms the announcement uses and you are filtered out, qualified or not.
The reviewer reads fast
An HR specialist scans for experience that is relevant and clearly stated. Anything buried on the page might as well not be there.
The federal resume runs long
Five to ten pages of duties, often written for a different decade. The best of your record gets lost inside it.
We read a real posting the way the screen does.
Bring the job you actually want. We surface the keywords the announcement screens for, score your resume against them, and hand it back to you marked up. Pick a track to see it.
Program Analyst
- acquisitionmatched
- stakeholder engagementmatched
- risk managementmatched
- performance metricsadd this
- OMB Circular A-123add this
- FMP certificationmatched
WE WROTE THE BOOK
Federal Resume Guidebook, 8th Edition
Kathryn Troutman wrote the book on the two-page federal resume. Keyword sets, accomplishment stories, and real before-and-afters. The reference agencies still train on, now in its eighth edition.
WE WROTE THE BOOK · ORDER DIRECT
The shelf the field still trains on.
Jobseeker’s Guide, 10th Ed.
Ten Steps to a Federal Job®, the methodology agencies still train on, for military and spouses.
From$21.95
Federal Resume Guidebook, 8th Ed.
The book on the two-page federal resume. Keyword sets, accomplishment stories, real before-and-afters.
From$21.95
The Stars Are Lined Up for Military Spouses®
The federal job search for active-duty spouses: the four hiring paths and how to win on each.
From$15.95
Transitioning Your Federal Resume
Moving between federal and private industry: how to convert the record so the other market reads it.
From$29.95REAL SAMPLES
See a real federal resume, keywords and all.
These come straight from our published federal-career guidance. A real announcement, a two-page resume built to it, with the keywords the screen looks for highlighted in red. The same work we do with you in the consultation.
The announcement
The posting we target. Every keyword the screen scores comes from this.
Federal resume · p.1
The two-page OPM format, with the announcement’s language placed where a reviewer reads first.
Federal resume · p.2
Challenge, Context, Action, Result. The outcome lands early and quantified.
Private industry
The federal expertise translates: one page, the result up top, for the private market.
Work from the same playbook yourself with the books, or schedule a consultation and we build it with you against your announcement.
Samples drawn from The Resume Place published guidance · details changed for privacy
ADD-ON · $210 / HOUR
Turn duties into accomplishments that get read.
A separate one-hour session, on your accomplishments alone. We pull the real wins out of your history and rebuild them as evidence a reviewer can score, in the CCAR format the agencies expect.
- Achievement extraction: the high-impact work you already did, named and surfaced
- CCAR stories: Challenge, Context, Action, Result, the structure federal reviewers score
- Numbers that hold up, even when the job never handed you obvious ones
- A before-and-after of your own bullets, edited with you on the call
- Accomplishments retargeted for federal or private industry
You leave with a marked-up before-and-after document and an extraction worksheet to keep using. It pairs with the resume consultation for a complete package. Turnaround is 3 to 5 business days.
One session, four clear moves.
Reserve your session
Tell us your objective and reserve the consultation by phone or video, before anything else happens.
Bring one real announcement
The federal or private job you actually want. We review your resume against that posting, not a generic template.
Get the keywords and plan
The exact terms the announcement screens for, how a reviewer reads you, and the changes that matter most. You leave with a plan.
Go further if you want
A second hour on your next draft, a done-for-you rewrite quoted to the work, or both. Only what you need.
In their words.
More than a half-dozen federal job offers.
Kathryn literally wrote the book on federal resume writing. Her personalized feedback and coaching helped me land more than a half-dozen federal job offers, and counting. Whenever I hit a wall, she knows exactly what to fix.
- 1971
- The original federal resume service
- Thousands
- Federal careers advised, and counting
- Worldwide
- Classes at agencies and on military bases
An offer the next day.
“I submitted my academic resume to Resume Place staff person Emily. We discussed and reworked it, also developing a suitable cover letter to accompany it. I sent it out to four potential employers, and I was amazed to receive an outstanding offer the next day. True story, and I am grateful to Resume Place for the exceptional result.”
A federal resume in under a week.
“I highly recommend Rita Chambers of The Resume Place for anyone interested in working for and earning promotions in the federal government. Rita dedicated herself to understanding my concerns with my old resume. She asked challenging questions which ensured my resume stood out from other applicants. In under a week, she took my federal employment history with its disparate collection of duties and accomplishments and helped me craft an easy-to-read professional resume.”
Ready for an SES interview.
“A close friend referenced me to The Resume Place before I was to attend a key agency Senior Executive Service (SES) interview. After a preliminary discussion Kathryn was able to efficiently design an interview simulation, application, and post-op review. Her no-nonsense observations, guidance and follow-up provided me with lifelong tips sharpening the “Last 5 Percent” interview elements crucial to placement success. I could tell the positive difference made during the extensive agency interview that followed.”
ALSO AVAILABLE
Interview preparation and practice.
We practice your accomplishments with you and give feedback on your stories: the details, the challenges, the results. We listen to your answers and recommend changes and improvements.
We coach you to write “Tell Me About Yourself” and to prepare your accomplishment stories for the open-ended interview questions that decide federal and executive panels.
Common questions.
What happens in the first hour?
A consultant reviews your objectives and target jobs, gives a verbal resume review against one real job announcement, pulls the keywords that announcement screens for, and gives you straight recommendations on length, dates, titles, and what to feature, plus how the ATS reads you before a human does.
Why $210, and is it worth it?
One hour buys a real review of your resume against a real announcement, with the exact keywords it screens for. A single GS step is worth thousands a year, and another cycle of auto-rejections costs far more than the hour. We keep the entry low on purpose: most people need only the first hour to know what to change.
Is the second hour required?
No. It is optional but highly recommended. After you apply the first hour’s notes, the second hour reviews your next draft, goes deeper on accomplishments, metrics, and keywords, and covers how to use AI well on any part of the resume.
Can’t I just use AI or a template?
Use AI. We will show you where it helps and where it hurts. What a template cannot do is tell you the keywords one specific announcement screens for, or what a federal reviewer is trained to look for. That is the hour.
Can you write the resume for me?
Yes. After the consultation, a professional writer can build your two-page resume. The hourly rate is $210; we quote the time the writing needs up front, so you know the cost before we start.
Is this only for federal resumes?
No. The same consultation works for a two-page federal resume or a private-industry resume. Federal is the hardest resume there is, and that expertise translates directly to the private market.
Do you help with interviews?
Yes. We practice your accomplishment stories, give feedback on the details, challenges, and results, and coach you to answer “Tell me about yourself” and the open-ended behavioral questions.