June 10, 2025 – Kathryn Troutman, President, Resume Place, Inc.
To Federal Employees:
Get ready everyone… for the biggest Federal Application Change since Reinvention Government in 1976 by VP Al Gore who said “that the government should accept a resume like the rest of the world” – eliminating the green and white SF-171. And … I wrote the first book on Federal resume writing – the Federal Resume Guidebook.
On May 29, 2025, OPM sent a MEMO stating the Federal Resume will no longer be the long format – but will be 2-pages – like private industry!
This is incredible for everyone, considering that some people have resumes that are 10 or 15 or 20 pages! SO… this will be such a huge change for federal job applicants!… And me and the RP writing team are busy creating styles and formats for the 2-page Skills-Based Searchable Federal Resume!
“President Trump directed the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to develop and send to agency heads a Federal Hiring Plan that brings to the Federal workforce only highly-capable Americans dedicated to the furtherance of American ideals, values, and interests.” You can read the Memo here
III. Improving the Job Application Process
USAJOBS will add standard language in the job opportunity announcement template emphasizing that candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution. And all job opportunity announcements will state that candidates will not be hired based on their race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.
Going forward, to implement Executive Order 14170, all Federal job vacancy announcements graded at GS-05 or above will include four short, free-response essay questions:
1. How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government? Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience.
2. In this role, how would you use your skills and experience to improve government efficiency and effectiveness? Provide specific examples where you improved processes, reduced costs, or improved outcomes.
3. How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.
4. How has a strong work ethic contributed to your professional, academic or personal achievements? Provide one or two specific examples, and explain how those qualities would enable you to serve effectively in this position.
Applicants will be required to certify that they are using their own words, and did not use a consultant or AI (such as a large language model [LLM]). To reduce the burden on candidates, the responses cannot exceed 200 words per question.
OPM and agencies will improve applicant user experience during the job search by encouraging applicants to make their resumes searchable in their USAJOBS.gov profile.
This will allow Federal hiring specialists and hiring managers to find their resumes as part of agency recruitment campaigns or staffing searches.
Agencies should re-post links to their USAJOBS announcements to third-party recruitment sites such as LinkedIn, Handshake, and Indeed to reach a wider job seeker audience.
Agencies may use a short eligibility questionnaire as part of the initial job application for screening purposes only. These may include initial, job-specific questions such as requiring candidates to certify, for example, that they are U.S. citizens, are willing to carry a firearm in performance of their job duties, or hold certifications that are required to perform the role.
As set forth above, agencies must require at least one technical or alternative assessment for candidate ranking. To improve communication with candidates throughout the hiring process, OPM will require automatic generation of USAJOBS and USA Staffing notifications for applicants at key stages of the hiring process, instead of relying on agency HR professionals to send notifications.
And OPM will merge USAJOBS and USA Staffing to create a more streamlined applicant experience and reduce duplication and redundant requirements.
Reducing Time-to-Hire to 80 Days – Page 11 – Executive Order 14170 directs that government-wide time-to-hire be reduced to under 80 days. This goal refers to time to initial offer, though the Merit Hiring Plan will also seek to reduce delays associated with personnel vetting requirements.
Fully implementing practices like pooled hiring and shared certificates through USAJOBS Talent Pools and Talent Programs and USA Staffing’s Candidate Inventory will significantly improve the Federal hiring time average.
