Check your federal resume before USAJOBS does

Since September 27, 2025, a USAJOBS resume over two pages is not considered. Upload yours to check the page count, and the dates, hours per week, series and grade OPM asks for on every job. Paste the announcement too, to see which qualifications your resume proves.

Example result

A two-job resume, checked against a GS-0343-12 announcement

A GS-11 management analyst applying one grade up, with a resume pasted as text. It fits on one page, but misses what OPM asks for on every job. This is what the tool returned for it, unedited. Press Try an example above to load it into the tool. The people and companies are made up.

What was pasted in

The resume

Jordan Ruiz Denver, CO · jordan.ruiz@example.com · (555) 555-0123 · U.S. citizen WORK EXPERIENCE Management Analyst U.S. Department of the Interior, Lakewood, CO GS-11 · 06/2021 – Present - Analyze workload and staffing data for 6 regional offices and brief the deputy director on options. - Led a review of travel approvals that cut processing time from 9 days to 4. - Draft performance reports and budget justifications for the regional program. - Supervisor: Pat Lee, (555) 555-0199, may contact. Salary: $86,000 per year. Budget Analyst Front Range Health District, Denver, CO 2017 – 2021 - Prepared the $40 million annual operating budget and monthly variance reports. - Built cost models for 3 new clinics. EDUCATION Master of Public Administration, University of Colorado Denver, 05/2017, GPA 3.7

The announcement

Management and Program Analyst, GS-0343-12 Specialized experience: one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 level, which includes: - Analyzing and evaluating the effectiveness of programs and operations using quantitative and qualitative methods; - Preparing budget justifications and tracking program expenditures; - Developing recommendations to improve business processes and presenting them to senior management; - Writing reports and briefing materials for senior leaders.

2 things to fix before you apply

Checked against OPM’s two-page resume guidance: the page limit, and month/year dates and hours per week on every job, with series and grade on federal jobs.

page (estimate)

!
1 page
Within the two-page limit.
Estimated from the length of the text. Check the page count of the PDF you upload.
✓
Email and phone number
OPM asks for your name, email and phone number.
✕
Management Analyst, U.S. Department of the Interior
Add the hours you worked per week, e.g. 40 hours per week.
Add the series to the grade, e.g. GS-0343-11.
✕
Budget Analyst, Front Range Health District
Give the month as well as the year for the start and end, e.g. 05/2019 – 08/2022.
Add the hours you worked per week, e.g. 40 hours per week.
!
Room to save: supervisor details and salary
OPM’s two-page guidance doesn’t ask for these. Unless the announcement does, take them out and use the space for qualifications.

Your match

You are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI.

83%

6 covered · 3 thin · 0 missing

!
MustOne year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-11 level
Your resume may show this, but no single line says it. Add one that does, so a reader scanning for it finds it.
✓
MustAnalyzing and evaluating the effectiveness of programs and operations using quantitative and qualitative methods
Your resume: Analyze workload and staffing data for 6 regional offices and brief the deputy director on options.
✓
MustPreparing budget justifications
Your resume: Draft performance reports and budget justifications for the regional program.
!
MustTracking program expenditures
Your resume: Prepared the $40 million annual operating budget and monthly variance reports.
Variance reports suggest expenditure tracking, but it is from a Budget Analyst role, not clearly tied to a program's expenditures in the current context.
✓
MustDeveloping recommendations to improve business processes
Your resume: Led a review of travel approvals that cut processing time from 9 days to 4.
✓
MustPresenting recommendations to senior management
Your resume: brief the deputy director on options
!
MustWriting reports for senior leaders
Your resume: Draft performance reports and budget justifications for the regional program.
Reports are drafted, but the resume does not say they go to senior leaders.
✓
MustWriting briefing materials for senior leaders
Your resume: brief the deputy director on options
✓
MustU.S. citizenship / work rights
Your resume: U.S. citizen

Quotes are checked against what you pasted; a requirement marked covered always has one. AI can still misread things, so treat this as a second opinion.

How it works

What this tool looks for

The two-page limit

OPM’s Merit Hiring Plan limits federal resumes to two pages for jobs under Title 5, uploaded or built in USAJOBS. Agencies only review resumes of two pages or less. Upload the PDF you’ll submit: its page count is exact. A Word file reports the count Word saved, and pasted text gives an estimate.

What every job needs

OPM’s guidance for applicants asks for the same facts on each relevant job. The checker reads each job’s heading and tells you what’s missing.

Job title and employer
Start and end dates as month and year, e.g. 05/2019 – 08/2022
Hours worked per week
Series and grade for federal jobs, e.g. GS-0343-11

Room you can win back

Older federal resumes carried supervisor names, phone numbers and salaries. The two-page guidance doesn’t ask for them, so the checker flags them: unless the announcement wants them, that space is better spent on qualifications.

Questions

About this tool

Is the page count accurate?

For a PDF, yes: it’s the number of pages in the file, which is what USAJOBS counts. For Word, it’s the count Word saved when the file was last saved, which can differ from the PDF. For pasted text it’s an estimate from the length.

Do I need my supervisor’s contact details or my salary?

OPM’s two-page resume guidance doesn’t list them. Include them only if the job announcement asks you to.

Does it check whether I meet the qualifications?

Paste the announcement’s qualifications or specialized experience and it lists each one, whether your resume proves it, and the line that proves it. Whether you qualify is still decided by the agency.

Is my resume stored?

No. What you paste is sent to the AI to produce your result and isn’t saved. We keep a record that the tool ran (not what you pasted) and a scrambled form of your IP address for up to two days, to limit each tool to 3 checks a day.

How many times can I use it?

Three checks a day without an account. In CandidThread, the resume editor has fields for series, grade and hours per week and warns you when a federal resume passes two pages.