PSA: Applying to NSA

[Reel]

When applying to the NSA, they are not looking for the standard one-page resume. They want as much detail as possible.

My school offered an employer review of our resumes in preparation for tomorrow's career fair. I met with a fellow from the NSA purely by chance though it is convenient because I am interested in security work. He was very helpful and offered many tips. The one that I listed above surprised me the most. I had been instructed always to limit my resume to one page. In doing so, I sacrificed a lot of detail. However, the NSA and perhaps more use a keyword search when pulling applicants out of their pool. If you have a condensed resume, your chances of popping up in the search are very slim so pack your resume with technical words, acronyms, and buzzwords while providing lots of detail on any projects you may have done, technical courses, or work experience.

Anyhow, back to work on my resume...

 

[Feldenak]

I've been told that by several people. The length of the resume is secondary to the amount of whitespace on it. If you can do a 2-page resume without a lot of filler or alot of blank space, go for it.

 

[tami]

it's always good to have different resumes tailored to different jobs.

 

[Toasthead]

Originally posted by: Reel
When applying to the NSA, they are not looking for the standard one-page resume. They want as much detail as possible.

My school offered an employer review of our resumes in preparation for tomorrow's career fair. I met with a fellow from the NSA purely by chance though it is convenient because I am interested in security work. He was very helpful and offered many tips. The one that I listed above surprised me the most. I had been instructed always to limit my resume to one page. In doing so, I sacrificed a lot of detail. However, the NSA and perhaps more use a keyword search when pulling applicants out of their pool. If you have a condensed resume, your chances of popping up in the search are very slim so pack your resume with technical words, acronyms, and buzzwords while providing lots of detail on any projects you may have done, technical courses, or work experience.

Anyhow, back to work on my resume...

hmm so just fill your resume with tons of useless hot button words...at least they will look at it!

 

[EKKC]

if you're not Caucasian or of other minority, good luck with the 5 year background checks

 

[IronWing]

When applying for any government job be as verbose as possible on your resume. The personnel departments go through your resume comparing it to the listed job quals. If they don't find something to support every qual, your score goes down. This process can weed you out before the folks looking to hire ever see your resume so don't skimp. Tailor your resume to make sure you have something that addresses every qual listed in the job description.

 

[necine]

Originally posted by: EKKC
if you're not Caucasian or of other minority, good luck with the 5 year background checks

What do you mean of Caucasian or other minority? Last time I checked caucasian was not a minority?

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Look into Fort Meade. That's where NSA HQ is.

 

[Reel]

Well, now I have 2 resumes: the long one and the short one. The short one is still one page long about the same. The long one is 3 pages long. I figure I will bring both to the career fair tomorrow and offer them the short one but tell them I have a far more detailed one if they want it. I expect many people to say no. The hardest thing I have is my objective and he basically told me mine wasn't worth the space I was using to have it.
It is:

To use my computer engineering experience to engage in challenging and intellectually rewarding aspects of software development.

I want to change it to be something along the lines of finding a computer science/software engineering fuill-time job, especially if it is in the area of security.

I plan on applying to major software development companies as well as consulting firms that are looking for security people.