USAJOBS Federal Resume Format Guide for Veterans

The USAJOBS builder isn't optional decoration — every field maps to a qualification check.

Required sections

1. Contact info — full legal name, email, phone, citizenship, veterans' preference claim.
2. Work experience — for every job: employer, location, supervisor, start and end dates (mm/yyyy), hours per week, salary, and a detailed duties block.
3. Education — institution, location, dates, credit hours earned, degree, GPA if 3.0+.
4. Certifications and training — courses with hours.
5. References — 3 professional.

How long should the duties block be?

For each role, write 200–400 words of detailed narrative. Use phrasing pulled directly from the announcement's "Specialized Experience" section.

Example duties block

Served as Operations NCO for a 120-person logistics company under U.S. Army Forces Command. Planned and executed daily and weekly operational schedules for 4 platoons across 3 fixed sites and 2 mobile training events per month. Drafted operations orders averaging 12 pages, briefed company commander and battalion S-3 weekly, and supervised execution by 8 squad-level NCOs.

Files that will not parse

PDFs with images-only text, scanned documents, multi-column layouts. Use the USAJOBS builder, or upload a clean Word doc.