One way to impress interviewers is to provide them with a portfolio of documents that validate your success and your reputation. Such a sales pitch, incorporating proof of success, is more convincing than uncorroborated promises of future productivity. Providing hard copies of your documents, rather than electronic versions, allows your interviewers to make a decision about you immediately after your interview — without the task of downloading electronic documents. A portfolio of tangible, eye-catching work will help you stand out from the pack. For example, I recently helped a GS-14 Web master prepare an interview portfolio that included printouts of…

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry plans to ask agencies to stop requiring job seekers to fill out those reviled knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) essays and to rely instead on applicant résumés to decide if someone is qualified and warrants a second look. Some tips on crafting winning résumés: *Tailor your résumé to your target job. Just as you give more attention to mail that is addressed to you personally than to junk mail that is addressed to the entire world, hiring managers give more attention to résumés that address their specific needs than to résumés that are…

Contrary to popular belief, USAJobs.gov does not list all federal job opportunities. Some of the types of openings and opportunities you might miss if you restrict your job search to USAJobs: *Openings in the excepted service. While agencies generally are required to advertise competitive service openings and fill them through open competitions, agencies in the excepted service may fill their openings through their own relatively flexible procedures, which do not necessarily involve posting openings on USAJobs. These agencies include the State Department, CIA and other intelligence agencies, Government Accountability Office and the Federal Reserve Board. How to find openings in excepted…

If you’re a fed who has a book inside you, you’re in good company. Since I published my own book, “How to Land a Top-Paying Federal Job,” many feds have asked me how they can get their books published. My advice: *Get motivated. You will probably spend several years pursuing a book contract and then writing and promoting your book. You will be able to maintain your fire in the belly through this protracted, time-consuming process only if you’re inspired by solid intellectual reasons for writing a book. Such reasons may, for example, include your desire to educate a large…

The next time you moderate a panel of speakers or introduce a speaker at an event, use your stint as the master-of-ceremonies as an opportunity to showcase your communication and management skills. Here is a checklist to help you do so: *Collect the bio or résumé of each speaker. Peruse books, articles or Web sites published by each of them. *Prepare a brief welcome that underscores the importance of the event’s topic and its relevance to current events. Your welcome should also preview the event agenda and mention the time allotted for each agenda item. *Call the speakers. You’ll need to remind…

Although name-dropping is generally a faux pas in social situations, it’s good strategy on your résumé, job application essays, job interviews and annual summaries of your accomplishments. Your high-level associations may, for example, include: the titles of senior managers and executives inside and outside of your organization who have used, approved, praised or benefited from your work; the names of the stakeholder groups with whom you have interacted; the names of important projects you have worked on; the names of publications and high-traffic Web sites that have published your articles, quoted you or discussed your projects; the names of conferences…

How can you persuasively sell yourself to hiring managers without sounding self-serving and egocentric? By factually describing your achievements, their importance, and how they improved your employer’s operations. And by not offering baseless descriptions of how valuable you are, predicting how impressed hiring managers will be with you, or otherwise describing yourself in unqualified grandiose terms. Remember: Bombast usually bombs. In your résumé and job applications and during your interviews, back up descriptions of your results with concrete examples, hard data and objective validation of your results. In short, present yourself in factual, specific terms. By doing so, you show your high value…

I am frequently asked, “What is the most common mistake that job-seekers make on their résumés and application essays?” My answer: Virtually all of the thousands of job applications that I have reviewed — no matter how much expertise is offered by the job-seekers they represent — are dominated by unimpressive statements from job descriptions instead of specific, achievement-oriented descriptions of successes. They fail to convey the importance of the job-seeker’s accomplishments. Therefore, they fail to show how the job seeker could improve his target employer’s operations. I was recently consulted by the communications director of one of the most powerful members…

Here’s a sample of tried-and-true job application tips that have helped many of my federal clients advance. *Remember that employers don’t hire people; they hire applications. No matter how impressive your credentials are, they won’t help you land your next job if they are not conveyed in clear and compelling terms on your application. *Get a second opinion. To objectively evaluate how well your application comes across to others, show it to others and ask for their opinions. *Even if your hiring managers know you, assume they have no prior knowledge of your work. Even if you are the “inside” applicant,…

As the saying goes, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” One way to create your future is to plan and prepare for your long-term career moves. How? Search USAJOBS.gov and agency Web sites for announcements for the types of jobs you would eventually like to land; identify gaps in your background that might thwart your pursuit; and work now to eliminate those gaps. If you have set your sights on the Senior Executive Service, start working now to gain experience in any SES executive core qualifications (ECQs) in which you are lacking. The Office of Personnel Management outlines…