Resumes for Government, Policy, and Advocacy

2026 Updates: There are some great new resources for resume formatting. We highly recommend using vmock to help with formatting and refining your resume. 

Guidelines around federal resumes are changing, and fast. Be sure to read the job description closely to understand what's required. Learn more about the changes here and refer to USAJobs and OPM for the most up-to-date guidance.

Also check out our Top 10 Tips for Resume Writing!

Susan and Amy discuss the document that's central to internship and job applications: the resume. They cover why the resume is central to government, policy, and advocacy applications, how to format it, and the difference between a resume and CV. Applying for federal positions through USAJobs? You’ll get the scoop on how a federal resume differs and a few tips on beating the algorithm. 

Come by our community pop-in hours for feedback or stop by the Center for Career Engagement anytime M-F 9-5 for more general feedback.

Transcript

[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.]
Hello everyone. This is Amber Brown and Ahmar Ursani.

We are both GSI career coaches, and we're here to provide a few updates and a refresh on our existing podcast series.

So some of our episodes use our old community name, but we want to clarify that our new community name is Government Policy and Social Impact.

Or you can just say GG, see for short.

We want to highlight our updated career engagement model as well in this episode because it helps us contextualize the work we do.

So I'm going to give you a brief overview of the stages, and you can see more in the show notes.

So it starts with understanding yourself, which is super important for reflection and visioning possibilities,

preparing to the actual search and apply process.

And then finally when you're actually engaging in your opportunity.

So you may also hear in some of our older podcast episodes, a reference to what's called a live chat.

And we wanted to make sure you noted that it's no longer in existence, but instead we have a different resource,

which we have various in-person drop in hours that we had that are GPS specific throughout the week.

And there was also a time that you can meet our career peers. Um, available Monday through Friday for on demand support.

Additionally, we no longer use canvas. All the resources have migrated to our GPS website.

A link again will be provided in the show notes. And our last technology update is we want to discuss Career link.

It's now handshake. So in handshake it's our one stop shop for career related events job and um, job and internship postings.

You can schedule your appointments there and more. And to close, we want to state that our annual Career expo now has a GPS specific focus day,

where employers from our industry come to you to discuss career options.

This, along with our annual Changemaker Summit, which brings local nonprofits to campus, helps you see how you can make an impact on our world.

So thank you so much for listening to this. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to anyone on our team.

Hope you're having a good day. See you. Yeah. Thank you.

Welcome to the GPP podcast for budding politicos, policy wonks and advocates.

I'm Amy Heath Carpentier, and I'm Susan Craig.

As career counselors in Washington University's career center and co-directors of the Government and Public Policy Work Group.

We walk alongside burgeoning policy wonks, politicos and change agents as they chart their paths to change the world.

This podcast is for you if you're interested in hearing tips and techniques that will position you to find your place in the fast moving,

mission driven world of politics, policy and advocacy. All righty, all righty.

Today we're talking about resumes. We're going to talk about why the resume is so important in the political and policy realms,

how to format it, the difference between a resume and a CV, and how a federal resume is different.

So, Amy, why do you think a resume is so important in this field?

So we all know that resumes give employers a snapshot of what you bring to the table,

the skills, knowledge and abilities you've accumulated over time and what you offer to them and to the causes you care about the most.

It also serves as a writing sample, and writing is one of the number one skills in policy and advocacy.

And so to be able to show employers that you can articulate well what you bring is as important as how it is formatted.

It's also, I think, an opportunity to just show what you care about, right?

I mean, this field is so driven by your mission and what you're what you care about, what you want to do to change the world.

And so if you can show that in your resume, I think it's really, um, beneficial.

But I think it's also important to remember that everybody has opinions about resumes.

Right. And it's a very subjective document.

So just remember that everyone will give you different opinions about it and that you need to keep it living.

It's not a static, um, one and done sort of assignment.

You need to, um, keep changing it and adjusting it depending on the employer or depending upon how your experience does change.

So let's get started and talk a bit about formatting. Susan, what do you think about the length of a resume?

I am a big believer in the one page resume. How about you?

I'm the same way. Most undergraduates, even if they have considerable research experience and then would be on the verge of a CV style resume,

which we'll get to in a moment. At this stage, you really should have a one page resume.

You can highlight everything you need to do within that space, particularly for government policy and advocacy.

And to go back to your point about, you know, being a writing sample in this in this field,

it's really important to be able to convey big ideas in a small space. And so what better way to show that right than in a resume?

Exactly. So let's talk a bit about the headings. Sometimes in business headings or business resumes.

The headings will be broken up such that you have, you know, paid experienced in one part and activities in another.

But in these fields, in the government policy, in the advocacy space, we think you should customize your headings to, to emphasize your strengths.

And so the top third of your resume is where you should put your most relevant experience.

And so you can, you know, adjust that space.

Whatever way will show what the experience that's most relevant to the opportunity that you're applying for.

So you might have your first heading B education and then your second heading might be relevant experience or professional

experience to allow you to bring up and down the activities or the jobs that you think is most relevant to the position.

And remember, it's sorry. It's okay.

So in other words,

what you're saying is pick the experience that you think is most reflective of your skills or your how you're positioned for the job.

Right. And just put it at the top and then figure out a title that makes that, um, make sense?

Exactly. And you don't have to have been paid for that.

If you were really involved in campus in a particular advocacy kind of role or in your student group,

you have been putting on events and things, maybe that's the most important and most relevant and that's fine.

So I know you have strong thoughts about using leadership as one of those titles.

Exactly. Leadership is often placed on a resume that as you come into college and if you are have a, you know,

if you're using a leadership section on your resume at this stage,

you may want to really consider whether or not the experiences that you would list underneath that.

And most students list their experiences that are, you know, student group oriented.

At that point, it probably can go under relevant or professional experience rather than leadership.

It's a little presumptuous to be putting a leadership experience underneath there,

when in fact the people who are going to be maybe reviewing your resume at some point are really leaders in the field.

Agreed. And you can still convey some leadership experience without having to title it in such an overt way.

So let's talk a little bit about, because we have conflicting opinions about the kind of objective statement or that,

you know, a sentence or two at the top. Um, share your thoughts on that.

So just remember, as we said, resumes are subjective documents and people have different thoughts on these.

So we're going to share both. And you can figure out what you think. So objective statements have their roots in engineering resumes.

Engineers never wrote cover letters for for many many years.

They just didn't write cover letters. So they had this objective statement at the top.

I feel like as an undergrad, it's probably wasted space for you,

unless you want to create some kind of summary that explains where and where you're going.

But in general, I think an objective statement is just extra space that you're taking up that you could possibly bring a more important,

relevant or professional experience into that top third of your resume.

But I know that there are certain circumstances under which you would disagree with that.

Susan. Yeah. So I tend to like that experience, and I don't like it being called objective.

I don't even like a label on it. I just kind of like almost like a LinkedIn summary, one of those really good, um,

kind of encapsulating sentences that that has some important keywords in it.

If there's a kind of a, um, a disconnect between your resume and the job description, I think that that statement can really help to bridge that gap.

But I think if there are some important keywords that you want to highlight, it's a good place to do that.

I agree with you, particularly for graduate students.

And I know you see a number of students that are transitioning fields and using their graduate degrees to do that,

particularly in the international affairs program. So in that case and situation, I would be much more pro that kind of summary statement at the top.

So just a few more thoughts about formatting before we move on.

Um, generally, high school experiences is okay to keep on your resume for, I don't know what, a couple of years.

I kind of think by the time you're like a junior or senior, it should be falling off.

What do you think? I completely agree with that. Oftentimes what you're doing, by the time you're in a junior year,

you have enough to put on that resume that you don't need to have those experiences from high school anymore.

The only way I would change that or adjust that would be if the high school experience say you,

you did a Hill internship between high school and college,

or you did something that was such a standout, significant experience that you really needed it on there,

but that should be decided in consultation with someone in the career center or one of your advisors,

just to make sure it's still it still applies because there is a way in which,

you know, our accomplishments become wrapped up in our storyline, and sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees, if you will.

In terms of what's most significant in our own background in resumes.

And the last thing that we should just discuss quickly is the the interest

section that you might have at the very bottom that kind of says some things,

some more personal things about you, maybe that it's just it indicates what's some of your, um, what how you would use your free time.

Right. And I think that often comes off as you start to get the space right, starts to get pretty tight.

It's like more superfluous. And so you think you can take that off, but I and I think you agree.

I like the interest section, not a long one, but just a line that has some, um, insights into who you are,

especially if those, um, experiences are, you know, helpful for you in, you know,

performing in front of an audience or, um, demonstrating some like flexibility in certain situations or,

you know, often it's even just like a nice way to connect with somebody in a, in a personal way.

Over in, during an interview. I know, you know, for this field, most, um, jobs have a really, really big stack of resumes, right?

So if you can set yourself apart somehow, it might be through the intersection.

I agree, I think a couple of, you know, well, selected interests in there makes a ton of sense.

And just as an example, I have an alum who does stand up on the side, and he's used that numerous times.

And people have responded well to it because he's in a position sometimes to need to present or to engage an audience in his work.

And given that he's willing to get up and do that kind of thing. You know, it always.

It makes him stand out, for sure.

It definitely demonstrates that you can operate in a pretty high intensity environment under with some grace and a good humor.

Exactly. So let's talk. Yeah. Go ahead.

So this is a little complicated for most people to understand.

So let's just set out some some basics. A resume in the United States is what you would use to apply for most positions.

The resume is usually one page.

And we would submit that for most positions.

Now, a CV in the United States is the term we would use for an academic resume.

So those are often used in the medical field or in Academia.

You know, when we apply to teach, we may use a CV.

They also may be used for researchers in a think tank setting.

The reason I tell you this is that you may go online and see please submit your CV.

If it's a smaller size think tank or if it's a UK Ireland, you know, in some cases European setting.

In those cases, they have very specific differences in what those resumes may look like.

And they might call them CVS because that's what they call a resume over in the UK, for example.

Don't get flustered by that. You can apply with your standard resume.

However, if you have questions about how to apply using you know,

the resume or CV guidelines of other countries, Washu has some great resources for you.

There is a website called Going Global. Off the Career Center website that we subscribe to.

And you can go in there and look at what resumes look like in Belgium and get a sense

of what you might want to do to format your resume specifically for another country.

Okay, so let's chat for a few minutes about a federal resume,

because we just gave you all this advice about how to format your resume in a very tight, concise, one page way.

And now I'm going to tell you to throw all that out when it comes to a federal resume.

but many federal resumes ask for all sorts of information that you wouldn't otherwise include on your resume,

like previous supervisor names or even phone numbers.

Um, number of hours worked per week, what you were paid.

Because if you don't, it's just a reason for your resume to be screened from the stack by the computer that's looking at it.

But that's okay, because your resume is not being looked at by a set of real eyes on the first go around.

It's being screened by an algorithm.

So the important thing is to make sure that one, you have all of those fields filled in that they've asked you for.

And then the second piece of advice is to, um, really pay close attention to keywords.

So you need to read first the qualifications and then the job description very carefully and identify what are the keywords,

what are they looking for.

And then make sure that your experience reflects those keywords specifically, not just like close to them, but actual words,

because that is what is going to, um, you know, determine whether or not your resume gets seen by a real set of eyes.

So it's a kind of arduous process, I would say.

you know, a federal resume and a nonfederal resume. Um, and once you've done it, once, it gets a lot easier to apply to multiple positions.

So let's talk a little bit about getting started with a resume.

So the first thing we want to say is that if you are coming in with your resume that you created for your, you know, college application,

or if you're a senior and you've been locked into this format for a while and you want to just, you know, make a new one, it's fine to start over.

Sometimes we get so stuck in the way that a resume is formatted that, you know, we just maybe,

maybe just want to start over from the beginning, which might be painful to hear.

Right? Because you do you invest so many hours in the, you know, just getting all the work, you know,

getting the lines to the right length and taking a word here and there to make to lessen the space.

And it's daunting, right? I mean, and once you've invested all that time, you get really um, you get attached to it.

So it's a tough, tough advice to hear, but it might be helpful if you're really struggling with how to how to reformat it or how to rethink it.

So the other thing to keep in mind when you're starting your resume is that we have also seen a number of seniors who will

send their resumes to their communication design friends to have them help format them or reformat them to look better.

And while they do often come out presenting really well, there are some issues with the way that those resumes end up, uh,

being parsed through the sometimes antiquated online systems that both the federal government and smaller non-profits, smaller think tanks, may have.

And so you want to be really careful about handing your resume over to someone to have them design it.

This Unless of course, you are a designer, in which case the resume does represent your design skills.

And maybe there are many designers that want to go into government policy and advocacy and bring those skills to bear.

And so that's a little different thing. But when you are applying for an internship with the ACLU or an internship with the State Department,

they're not looking at your resume to see how well you designed it.

They're looking at your resume to see what how you articulated what skills, knowledge, and abilities you have to offer.

When you write, format and edit.

When you edit, just get us get the experiences on the page, take a little break and then come back and revise using action verbs to begin each bullet.

And that's it. So join us next time as we discuss timelines and internship and search strategies.

And spoiler alert, internship and job openings don't come to you.

You have to go to them. But the good news is we've got plenty of time in the year.

So until next time, keep working to make your imprint on the world.

Thanks, Susan. Take care.