If you choose not to use one of these forms, you may use a resume, but you must include all the information that appears on the new form, including your social security number and other details that you would never put on a short, industrial-strength resume. Since the federal government had no experience with resumes until 1995, it is not a part of the exciting electronic job search and resume revolution described by career columnist Joyce Lain Kennedy and business editor Thomas J. Morrow in their 1994 co-written books on this subject. In this new world, resume-writing rules have changed. It does, but it's based on precisely-designed questionnaires and optical scan forms, not resumes. Electronic scanners can screen and rate up to 25 applications per minute.
Computers are faster and more objective.
Private sector employers may be able to lose, forget, hide or neglect a resume, but Uncle Sam has a legal obligation to give each applicant the same opportunity to be screened and hired under the competitive civil service. These electronic technologies will become more and more important in the future federal hiring process. For now, we are in a major transition period. It's the federal application form or resume-the test that you write yourself. You Want in Government, will help you pass the test.