How to Fit Your Federal Resume on Two Pages (Step-by-Step)

Your federal resume keeps growing and you can't cut a thing. This walkthrough covers every section and shows how to fit a long career into two pages without losing anything that qualifies you for the job.

If you didn't know, federal resumes are now capped at two pages. This was announced as part of the new Merit Hiring Plan. There is also one move that saves eight to 10 lines of space per position, and it is usually the one that rescues a long career.

Looking for federal jobs? Start with our list of the highest-paying jobs for the next 10 years, then come back and build the resume.

Quick note before we start. I see the same people asking me the same thing: veterans after separation, folks chasing federal law enforcement jobs, people eyeing Department of Interior jobs or IRS jobs, even someone who just wants a state employment opportunities listing. Doesn't matter. The two-page rule and the steps below work for any application for government jobs. And if you're a service member, this is basically a guide to jobs for military members too.

Not sure where to look yet? USAJOBS is the official government job seekers website. Every federal announcement lives there, and every job announcement tells you exactly what experience they want. Read it before you write anything.

Step 1: Fix the Layout First

Before you type one word, fix the layout. If you get this wrong, you will waste space or run out of room.

(Image: Federal resume layout settings: 0.5 inch margins, single spacing, 10 to 11 point font)

Margins

Set the margins to half an inch on all sides. The default is 1 inch, which is way too much for this. You're not turning this into a college professor's CV.

In Google Docs: go to File, then Page setup, set all margins to 0.5, click OK, and set it as default.

Spacing

Use single spacing, not 1.5 and not double. Add a little space after each paragraph so your sections can still breathe.

1. Select all of your text (Ctrl+A on Windows, Command+A on a Mac).
2. Click the line and paragraph spacing button in the toolbar.
3. Set it to single and add space after paragraph.

Single spacing packs it tight, and the space after keeps it from looking like a wall of text.

Font

Pick one font and stick with it: Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman. Nothing fancy.

• Body text: 10 or 11 points.
• Section headers (like Professional Experience): 12 or 13 points, bold.
• Never go below 10 points.

A manager is reading hundreds of these. Tiny fonts tire their eyes, and a tired reviewer drops you to the bottom of the pile.

These settings give you about 750 to 800 words per page, and that is your whole budget. From here on, everything is about deciding what earns a spot on the page.

If you'd rather skip this setup, skip the generic resume templates too. Most of them aren't built for federal. Of all the resume builders I've tried, the free one from Best Military Resume has this layout already built in.

Step 2: Fill It In, Top to Bottom

Now that the layout is done, fill it in from top to bottom, in the exact order it should sit on the page.

(Image: Federal resume section order from contact information to certifications)

Contact Information

Two to four lines: your name, phone, email, city and state. More people are starting to put their full street address. Don't. Just use your city and state.

Applying out of state, like federal jobs in Virginia or federal jobs in Connecticut? Say you're open to relocating. Getting a job in a different state happens all the time in federal hiring, but the manager has to see you're willing.

Summary

Keep it to four to six lines. This is your six-second pitch, because most managers read your summary and your first job and decide right there whether to keep going. A bloated summary needs to be compressed.

Include:

• Total years of relevant experience
• Your highest GS equivalent
• The two or three things that match the announcement

Don't write "a dedicated professional with a passion for excellence." It says nothing.

To find your two or three things, open the job announcement and pull the specialized experience wording from the qualifications section, then match it to what you actually did. This is your blueprint. These are basically the keywords they look for.

Also check the occupational series, like GS-0301 or the 1801 series. Read the job abstract, see how they describe it, and use that same language in your bullets.

Tailoring Your Resume to the Job

Tailoring a resume for each job is tedious, so I use Best Military Resume (BMR). For example, say I want to apply for a program manager job:

1. Copy the job title and description from the federal announcement.
2. In BMR, click Create New Resume, then Federal Resume, and paste the job description.
3. Click Extract.

It pulls the title, location, series, closing date, qualifications and all of the keywords your resume needs to get through to a human. A lot of people don't realize that if your resume doesn't match the keywords, it won't go to a human at all. It will just say you're not qualified. That's why you tailor your resume for every single job.

You can download the result as a Word file or a PDF. I recommend PDF.

Professional Experience

Your work experience eats up 60 to 70 percent of your whole resume. Every job needs a title, the employer, and the city and state. If you're military, list the title, the location and what you did.

Required for federal resumes (do not skip these):

• Your dates, in month and year format
• Your hours per week. It's kind of annoying, but people who leave it blank hurt themselves.

Optional but nice to have:

• GS grade or pay band
• Your supervisor's name and phone, with "may contact"

Bullets: use four to eight for your newest, most relevant job. For older jobs and jobs that don't match, drop it to two to four at most.

One more thing. If you're a reemployed annuitant, put that near the top so HR doesn't have to dig for it.

Education

Keep this to four to eight lines if you can: your degree, school and graduation year. Add your GPA only if they ask for it, or, in my opinion, if it's 3.0 or higher. I personally never include mine.

For military schools, only list the courses that fit the job, not every course you sat through. If it doesn't apply to the job, don't list it.

Certifications

List the certifications that are relevant to the job. For example, if the job requires Security+, list Security+ or CCNA. Same goes for anything tied to jobs that offer on the job training, like welding or IT support. Only list it if the announcement cares.

Clearance, Citizenship and Veterans Preference

This goes at the top: your security clearance, your citizenship (US citizen) in bold, and your veterans preference. BMR lets you add these so you don't have to do it manually.

Don't skip veterans preference. For a lot of jobs for military members, it's your biggest edge, whether you're going after federal law enforcement jobs, a veteran service officer role or a security clearance investigator job. Looking for the best jobs for veterans, or good jobs for ex military? Same resume, same rules. And if you're eyeing civilian contractor jobs for military, they read a federal-style resume too.

Step 3: Fit a Long Career Into Two Pages

If you've got a long career, this is where people panic. Twenty years and six duty stations: how does that fit? Here is the rule I promised, the one that saves eight to 10 lines.

(Image: Federal resume tip: focus on the last 10 years and consolidate older experience)

Focus on the last 10 years. That's where your space goes. Anything older than 10 years, squeeze into a small block or two to three bullets. Bundle it and consolidate it into an "earlier career" section.

In my example, four paragraphs cover the earlier career. Three separate entries became one, and you didn't lose a thing. It's still tied to the job, it's clean, and it's completely OPM compliant. It saves eight to 10 lines per position, and across a 20-year career you've bought back half a page.

The same idea applies to collateral duties, like being a safety representative or a voting assistance officer. Unless the announcement actually asks for one of those, it does not earn a line.

Step 4: Write Bullets That Prove You Qualify

Here is the whole game on the two-page resume: every single line has to connect back to the job you're applying for. If it doesn't, it's taking up space you could use for something better.

The HR person is checking one thing: do your bullets prove that you have the experience the announcement asked for? Every bullet should have the same shape:

• An action verb
• What you did
• The scope
• A number for the result (if it doesn't have a number, add one)

For example: "Supervised 34 personnel as quality assurance supervisor." It has a number and says what you did. It can still be tweaked a bit, since there is a lot of jargon in it, but BMR can translate that for you for free with one click.

Skipping this costs you. Whether you're referred or not referred usually comes down to how you describe the same experience. Bloated resumes bury people under walls of text, so you did the work, but the manager never gets to the part that proves it.

"It Won't Work for Me. My MOS Is Weird."

Twenty years and six duty stations is actually fine. Consolidate the repeats, compress the old stuff, and cut the collateral duties.

The founder of BMR, Brad, a Navy vet, put it like this: a federal resume isn't necessarily a record of everything you did. It's a targeted argument for why you qualify for the job.

A Few Questions I Get a Lot

Are government jobs good? For most people I talk to, yes. Steady pay, benefits, clear grades. Whether it's one of the best government agencies to work for depends on you, so read up on the agency before you apply.

Does the two-page limit apply to state vacancies? That cap is federal. States and cities make their own rules, but a tight two-pager is safe almost everywhere.

Do I need special resume builders or resume templates for a program manager job? You don't need anything fancy. You do need a federal format that fits two pages and ties your work experience to the job announcement.

Quick Recap

• Half-inch margins
• Single spacing
• 10 or 11 point font
• Work experience at 60 to 70 percent of the resume, and consolidate
• Focus on the last 10 years
• Put a number in every bullet

You can build yours for free at Best Military Resume. Go get referred.

Sources

• OPM: Agency Guidance on the Two-Page Limit on Resume Length
• USAJOBS Help Center: What should I include in my resume?