Shawna Tarver, ACAP contractor installation manager who led the class, holds up an example of a federal resume explaining in detail about the differences in the hiring processes for Civilian and federal jobs. Tarver explained the resumes applicants s...

CAMP MOBILE - The Army Career Alumni Program held a class for all service members and Civilians interested in applying for a federal job March 12 in the Camp Mobile ACAP building.

The objective of the two hour class was to understand the Civilian Personnel Online system for the Department of the Army. Instructions included finding and understanding vacancy announcements, who may apply and veterans' preferences, researching job classifications, understanding and using the Resume Builder in Resumix, which includes Answer and the Self Nomination process.

Shawna Tarver, ACAP contractor installation manager who led the class, explained in detail about the differences in the hiring processes for Civilian and federal jobs. Tarver explained the resumes applicants submit for Civilian jobs are written to get an interview. Federal jobs applicants must write their resumes to fit the actual position. Another example Tarver provided was resumes for Civilian jobs are short and are read by the manager but resumes for federal jobs are long, detailed, and job specific. The resumes for federal jobs rely on key words because they are read by a computer and scored to see where the applicant would fit for the job.

"The best thing I learned from this class today was printing off the job description, reading it, and taking your experiences in reference to it," said 1st Sgt. Thomas Ricks, 629th Medical Company Area Support first sergeant. "Highlighting the keywords the computer is looking for, and writing them into the resume will help, because when you submit it through Resumix the computer will identify those key words and rate you qualified."

"The computer looks for keywords in your resume and will score you and place you accordingly."