Date Submitted:
New Government Position
--Hello Ms. Smart,
Thank you for taking the time to review my resume. I’m shocked you have no additional notes! I feel as if it’s too technical and long, so I was wondering of a way to incorporate more transferable skills and condense some areas. Also, would a different layout be more appealing? I found two on Canva that could work. I’ll attach them below. I liked them because they both featured a “quick skim” side column, if whomever reads it, doesn’t have the time to go through the whole thing. Let me know your thoughts.
So, I am looking to apply to positions that are away from the standard lab technician work and more into office-based work. There is an entry-level position that I am kind of qualified for, but I know I could learn it if I was offered it. It has way more responsibilities than what I have now (and much more pay…). My main question is how do you, not fudge, but for lack of a better term, “white man” your way into a job that you know you’re capable of doing, but don’t quite have the exact skill set for now? The position is for an industrial hygienist in the EPA if that helps.
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Yes, your resume was very science-y. Both of the samples are very pretty. Those aesthetics will appeal to the younger eye. Depending on the job, the first person who physically sees your resume (after it gets past the automated applicant tracking system), may be young and female. Most HR folks are women and they appreciate pretty colors in a way most men do not. Sexist? Maybe. But it’s true. Choose based on which one fits your personality. Second, run it through some applicant tracking systems to make sure the systems can parse it (pull data from it an insert it into the electronic job application. You can do tests without hitting their ‘Apply’ button. Make sense?
With regard to moving into office work, in your resume, play up how you documented your research. Who did you report your findings to? Did you do any presentations? Facilitate any talks?
Carmen,
I’ll look at your resume options in detail over the weekend. I love how you describing fitting your self to the job as “white man” -ing your way into the job. With regard to the EPA job, here are a couple of things you can do:
1. Copy all of the text from the job description into http://www.wordle.net/ to see which words appear the most in the description. Make sure all of those words are prominently in your resume. Yes, this means even if you have to forget words mean things and stretch the specifics. Honestly, you can just study BEFORE the interview if it’s something you have no idea about.
2. Is this a job directly with the EPA and not going through a contractor? If it is directly with EPA, check the job descriptions in that career path. For instance, if you are applying for Env Hygienist 2, ask google to show you the description for Env Hygienist 1. The EPA job description may may reference to having experience in the previous level. I’m not exactly familiar with EPA job posting but in general, government jobs might be listed as a GS-10 but the job description asks if you have experience performing the functions of GS-9.
3. If there are things you haven’t done lately, in the cover letter, if you are using one, make reference to having experience in that area in academia or in some volunteer project.