Why Is the Federal Resume Guidebook, 7th Edition,
the Top Resume Book in America?
Kathryn Troutman, the author and
an esteemed Federal employment expert, says
it’s because Uncle Sam offers so many, varied career opportunities

Baltimore, MD; February 27, 2024 | You might not expect a guide on writing a Federal resume to outsell the other resume books on the market. But that’s just what a new report from the data tracker BookScan shows. The Federal Resume Guidebook, 7th Edition, by Kathryn Troutman, leads the pack. To get this outcome, BookScan crunched sales numbers directly reported by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Target, independent bookstores and many others. The #1 ranking echoes a similar report from 2022.

“Why is it the top seller? The answer is that the Federal government is hiring extensively,” explains Troutman. “It’s the largest employer in America. And these positions are desirable with great pay, generous benefits, job security, plus terrific prospects for advancement.”

According to the magazine Federal Times, interest in Federal jobs is “beginning to outpace that in other sectors, showing that agencies are growing their presence in the marketplace.” The magazine notes that Federal employers increased their 2023 postings, for example, on Handskake   a job board for college students   by 22 percent over the previous year. Federal employers also registered for a total of 3,000 job fairs last year, an increase of 15 percent. Troutman adds that she has seen a boost in recent years in “direct hires” by the feds, outside their official jobs site, USAJOBS.gov.

Meanwhile, in the private sector, layoffs from tech firms have people scrambling for secure work. Along these lines, numbers from OPM for years 2020 through 2024 show the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to be an area of significant Federal hiring. Top jobs include Nursing (57,569 positions), Information Technology (38,448), Physicians/Medical Officers (16,837), General Engineering (9,289), Psychology (7,440), Intelligence (5,766) and Computer Science (3,831).

In general, OPM reports areas of Federal job growth for that same period to include Miscellaneous Clerks and Assistants (55,764), Forestry Technicians (38,833), Contact Representatives (33,823), Contracting (18,994), Human Resources (17,041), General Attorneys (16,968) and Social Workers (14,520).

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Despite the growing Direct Hire prospects, Troutman notes that the majority of jobseekers still apply for available Federal positions through USAJOBS.gov. The Federal news company FedScoop reports that competition for these open jobs is “fierce.” For example, in 2019, for 350,000 announced positions, there were a whopping 18 million applications. NEW for recruitment! Some agency HR recruiters are searching USAJOBS for candidate that fit their criteria: education, experience, keywords, hiring authorities. TIP: Mark one of your resumes in USAJOBS as SEARCHABLE.

In this highly competitive environment, Federal jobseekers can’t afford to make the mistakes that disqualify them. The author has seen it all over her 28+ years in the field since Troutman wrote the first edition of the Federal Resume Guidebook – when OPM changed formats from the paper SF-171 to the Federal Resume.

Top problems with applying for federal jobs: Candidates don’t load the right documents into USAJOBS so their application is dead on arrival. They don’t hit the submit button to actually apply. But the biggest errors are problems with the Federal Resume itself – from not matching the required specialized experience described in the vacancy announcement, to not including start and end dates or hours per week, and more.

That’s where Troutman’s Federal Resume Guidebook, 7th Ed comes in as an essential guide. It delivers 17 samples of Federal resumes, focusing on the hardest part to write – the work history sections. The Guidebook presents Troutman’s Outline Format which makes the specialized experience easy for the overworked eyes of hiring officials to see.

“The Federal resume is not a private sector resume,” Troutman warns. “That is surprising to a lot of people. These resumes are longer – three to five pages on average.” She says most of the draft Federal resumes that come into her firm Resume Place are in bad shape and in the wrong format.

Applicants will be relieved to see the many before and after resume samples in the Guidebook, picking up tips for improving their Federal resumes. There are also 20 inspiring accomplishment stories, a part of the resume that Troutman calls critical. All 17 people whose resumes appear in the Federal Resume Guidebook were selected by the Federal government.

For now, most Federal hires are made on USAJOBS. For ideas on getting taken on outside the website, see Troutman’s Jobseekers Guide, 9th Edition and the sections on “Direct Hiring.” The Feds’ growing presence at job fairs is an example of such opportunities.

The Book: The Federal Resume Guidebook, 7th Edition, was chosen in 2021 as the Best Reference Book by both the Ben Franklin Awards and the Independent Press Awards. Buy it as an ebook or paper book on the Resume Place website (where quantity discounts are available) or Amazon.

Federal Resume Guidebook, 7th Ed.
Federal Resume Writing Featuring the Outline Format Federal Resume

Purchase the Federal Resume Guidebook

The Author: In 2022, Kathryn Troutman received the National Resume Writers Association’s Industry Hero Award for her “significant contributions” to the specialized field of Federal resume writing. She is the author of many award-winning Federal career guides including the Student’s Federal Career Guide, 4th Edition, and The Stars Are Lined Up for Military Spouses, 2nd Edition. Her firm, the Resume Place, offers Federal resume writing and job coaching services in Potomac, MD.