How to convert a government resume for private industry
Government resumes are bogged down by excessive formatting, 'core competencies' sections, and lists of duties instead of achievements, which private sector recruiters immediately reject. Trimming this down to a single page and focusing on business impact makes it possible to get past corporate screeners and land an industry job.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Condensing the resume to a single pageDid this help you?
- 2Removing professional summaries and core competency sectionsDid this help you?
- 3Using standard resume templates and focusing on impact percentages rather than responsibilitiesDid this help you?
- 4Lowering the number of bullet points per job on the resumeDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Bro this is too much. Too much crap condense to one page. No one gives an f about your core competencies or prof summary”source ↗
“This is definitely written for government roles, not private sector stuff.”source ↗
“Eyeing for a senior tax spot from regional to maybe even big 4 or a decent industry gig. Need to gtfo of govt”source ↗
“I’ve been in public HR for roughly 7 years now and trying to branch out to the private. For some reason though, I just can’t seem to even get an interview or pass screening?”source ↗
Where this came up
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