Talk to a consultant. Get the résumé written.
Your career today is not last year’s. The market is competitive, the ATS screens for keywords first, and a reviewer reads fast. It starts with a working session, by phone or video, with a consultant who has done this for decades.
First Hour
$210- Your objectives, challenges, and the jobs you are targeting
- A verbal résumé review against one real job announcement
- The keywords that announcement screens for, and how to use them
- Straight recommendations on length, dates, titles, and what to feature
- How the ATS reads you before a human does
Second Hour
Optional, recommended- A review of your next draft, after you apply the first hour’s notes
- Deeper work on accomplishments, metrics, and keywords
- How to use AI well on any part of the résumé
Done-for-you writing
$210 / hr · quoted- A professional writer builds your two-page résumé after the consultation
- Priced to the work your résumé needs, quoted up front
- Federal, private industry, or the move between them
Federal hiring does not work like the rest of the job market.
Your résumé is competing differently than it did last year. None of what follows reflects your record. It reflects a system most people were never taught to read.
We have read it since 1973.
The ATS screens first
Software ranks you on keywords before a person ever opens your file. Miss the terms the announcement uses and you are filtered out, qualified or not.
The reviewer reads fast
An HR specialist scans for experience that is relevant and clearly stated. Anything buried on the page might as well not be there.
The federal résumé runs long
Five to ten pages of duties, often written for a different decade. The best of your record gets lost inside it.
We read a real posting the way the screen does.
Bring the federal job you actually want. We pull the keywords the announcement screens for, score your résumé against them, and hand you the plan. Pick a track to see it.
You prove three of six on the page today. We surface your A-123 work, pull the metrics out of the narrative, and add the certification line the screen is looking for.
Illustrative example · your real review runs on the announcement you bring
Federal Job®
Kathryn Troutman pioneered the federal résumé and the methodology agencies still train on. The shelf that anchored federal career publishing for decades, now in its eighth edition.
The shelf the field still trains on.
Jobseeker’s Guide, 10th Ed.
Ten Steps to a Federal Job® — the methodology agencies still train on, for military and spouses.
From$21.95
Federal Resume Guidebook, 8th Ed.
The book on the two-page federal résumé. Keyword sets, accomplishment stories, real before-and-afters.
From$21.95
The Stars Are Lined Up for Military Spouses®
The federal job search for active-duty spouses: the four hiring paths and how to win on each.
From$15.95
Transitioning Your Federal Résumé
Moving between federal and private industry: how to convert the record so the other market reads it.
From$29.95See a real one, keywords and all.
These come straight from our published federal-career guidance. A real announcement, a two-page résumé built to it, with the keywords the screen looks for highlighted in red. The same work we do with you in the consultation.
The posting we target. Every keyword the screen scores comes from this.
The two-page OPM format, with the announcement’s language placed where a reviewer reads first.
Challenge, Context, Action, Result — the outcome lands early and quantified.
The federal expertise translates: one page, the result up top, for the private market.
Work from the same playbook yourself with the books, or schedule a consultation and we build it with you against your announcement.
Samples drawn from The Resume Place published guidance · details changed for privacy
One session, four moves. No mystery.
In their words.
Kathryn Troutman, the owner of The Resume Place, literally wrote the book on federal resume writing. After reading it and preparing my resume, I decided I could benefit from working with Kathryn directly, both on improving my resume even more and on preparing for federal job interviews. Kathryn’s personalized feedback and coaching has been absolutely invaluable in helping me receive more than a half-dozen federal job offers (and still counting). Particularly in a few instances when I feel I’ve hit a wall, Kathryn always seems to know what I’m doing wrong and how to fix my mistake.
I submitted my academic resume to Resume Place staff person Emily. We discussed and reworked it, also developing a suitable cover letter to accompany it. I sent it out to four potential employers, and I was amazed to receive an outstanding offer the next day. True story, and I am grateful to Resume Place for the exceptional result.
Good afternoon Katherine! Thank you for all the assistance yesterday and confirming that my beliefs in the current working environment were correct. … My application has already been reviewed and was forwarded from HR with the status “Forwarded – Manager Review”. I’m hopeful that I will receive a call soon for an interview. Thanks again!!
I highly recommend Rita Chambers of The Resume Place for anyone interested in working for and earning promotions in the federal government. The federal hiring process and the resume builder on www.usajobs.gov are cumbersome and contradict all the resume guidance we received in college or resume workshops. A well-crafted one-to-two-page resume will not include sufficient information to earn you a federal job. Rita dedicated herself to understanding my concerns with my old resume. She showed a healthy commitment and curiosity in me and my job search by asking challenging questions which ensured my resume stood out from other applicants. In under a week, she took my federal employment history with its disparate collection of duties and accomplishments and helped me craft an easy-to-read professional resume. All winning streaks begin with a single victory. My first victory was working with Rita to better my resume. Thanks to her, I will land the interviews that lead to promotions and more fulfilling work.
While somewhat experienced, in the acquisition of government applications and interview appointments, I nevertheless felt the need for professional advice. A close friend referenced me to The Resume Place, Inc. before I was to attend a key agency Senior Executive Service (SES) interview. After a preliminary discussion Kathryn was able to efficiently design an interview simulation, application, and post-op review. Her no-nonsense observations/insight, guidance and follow-up has provided me with lifelong tips sharpening the “Last 5 Percent” interview elements crucial to placement success in the increasingly competitive governmental environment. I could tell the positive difference made during the extensive agency interview that followed.
Interview preparation and practice.
We practice your accomplishments with you and give feedback on your stories: the details, the challenges, the results. We listen to your answers and recommend changes and improvements.
We coach you to write “Tell Me About Yourself” and to prepare your accomplishment stories for the open-ended interview questions that decide federal and executive panels.