Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach®, from Ft. Carson, Colorado
May 2, 2022

Kathryn was invited by the Army Community Services to come to Ft. Carson to teach military spouses her new curriculum, The Stars are Lined Up for Military Spouses®. Nicole Mendoza, Employment Readiness Program Manager, Army Community Service coordinated the course and advised the spouses about the importance of the course content for their careers. This course was originally set up for 2019 right before the pandemic came. FINALLY, Kathryn taught a highly-successful LIVE class to 30 military spouses on March 24, 2022.

Here are the Top Ten Lessons that the
Spouses of Active Duty Military learned in the class:

1. Everyone received a copy of The Stars are Lined Up for Military Spouses, 2nd Edition for the samples and information to develop a federal resume.
2. Military spouses should apply for federal positions because they are available at every military installation in the world. They also learned that the job flexibilities, growth opportunities, training and quality of the positions are great for military spouses. But it takes a lot of effort and perseverance to apply for federal positions.
3. Kathryn introduced the new Military Spouse “job block”. Kathryn Troutman designed a new resume format for military spouses of active duty military. She recommends that the sposue add a “job block” about their military service history. This new Military Spouse Job Block would include this information and here is a sample of a military spouse Job Block:



4. Use the Outline Format for their federal resume. This 5-page format features ALL CAPS WHICH ARE KEYWORDS from the job announcement.
5. Federal Resume Keywords are found in the Qualifications and Specialized Experience paragraph in the job announcement. Every announcement has important keywords and phrases that should be included in the work history or education section of the resume.
6. Non-profit and volunteer experience should be written as a “job block” in the federal resume. The military spouse can get credit for this experience toward the target position. The volunteer job block should include title of the position, name of the organization, month and year to month and year, hours per week, duties and accomplishments.
7. What does the Military Spouse “Preference” Program, EO 13473 mean for federal jobs and applications for military spouses? It means that the military spouse can apply for positions that are listed as “competitive service” and for the military spouse jobs listed on USAJOBS! USAJOBS lists jobs for military spouses now. The spouses can see which of the “competitive service” jobs are available to spouses. This is a great help.



8. The military spouses learned that the jobs that are listed as Open to the Public are where the Veterans Preference is applied, and the veterans will rise to the top of the applicant list. Therefore, probably the veterans will “take the list” over a spouse or anyone else!



9. The military spouses wrote one accomplishment for the class in the Context-Challenge-Action-Results model for their accomplishment. Kathryn introduced the CCAR Builder from the resume-place.com website. The spouses broke into small groups and shared their accomplishments about their work, non-profit and volunteer experiences. These accomplishments should go into the federal resume to demonstrate specific skills and experiences.
10. Education should come before Work History, if the education is new or required for the position. The USAJOBS builder has education at the end of the builder. If you use an UPLOAD resume, you can add education to the top of the resume, so it will stand out.

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Summary: Kathryn’s goal for teaching this class was to teach the military spouses about a correct federal resume; to add their “military spouse job block” to the resume; to write non-profit experience as a “job block”; and learn that federal jobs ARE attainable with certain knowledge and skill in federal resume writing and selecting the right job announcements. It is complicated! But it is doable with some knowledge and the samples of the federal resumes in the book.

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RESUME PLACE, INC., FEDERAL CAREER TRAINERS AND PUBLISHERS

You can book The Stars Are Lined Up For Military Spouses with Kathryn Troutman, Author and Speaker by writing to request information.

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Information about Ten Steps to a Federal Job® curriculum. You can attend our Certified Federal Job Search Trainer / Certified Federal Career Coach program to be certified to teach four federal career curriculum and learn how to coach your clients to write a successful federal resume.

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The Stars are Lined Up for Military Spouses

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