How to Prepare a Federal Resume for Archaeology and CRM Jobs

If you have a good private-sector CRM resume, you do not yet have a federal resume. Federal hiring works differently. A human resources specialist, who may not be an archaeologist, decides whether you meet the minimum qualifications, and they can credit only what is written in your application. This guide explains how to prepare for that, using the current rules.

The rules you have to follow

Two pages, no more. Since September 27, 2025, USAJOBS limits resumes to two pages. The limit covers resumes stored in your profile, uploaded resumes and resumes made with the resume builder. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) says that if the only resume you submit is longer than two pages, you are ineligible for further consideration. The limit applies to competitive and excepted service announcements under Title 5. Some other agencies, and positions that require a curriculum vitae, may accept longer documents, but only if the announcement tells you how to submit them.

Make it readable. OPM's applicant guidance recommends saving your resume as a PDF, using a plain sans-serif font such as Calibri, Arial or Roboto, setting margins to 0.5 inches, and using about 14-point type for titles and 10-point type for the main text. Individual announcements can set their own rules, and one we looked at requires at least 10-point text and 0.5-inch margins. Do not shrink the type to squeeze in more.

Include the required details. OPM says to include:

Your name and how to reach you, including email and phone number.
For each relevant job: the job title and employer, the series and grade for any federal position, start and end dates by month and year (for example, 05/2019 to 08/2022), and the number of hours you worked per week.
Work descriptions that match the job announcement and address all of its required qualifications.
Education: the school, completion date, degree type and GPA, plus any certifications or licenses the position requires.
Optional items when they are relevant, such as job-related training, language skills, professional publications and affiliations.

OPM's list does not include supervisor contact details, but some announcements ask for other documents, so read the full announcement. Leave off your Social Security number and personal details such as a photo.

Read the announcement first

Before you write anything, read the whole announcement. Pay attention to:

Who may apply. Some announcements are open to the public. Others are open only to current or former federal employees or to special hiring paths. If you are not eligible, apply to an announcement that is open to you.
Series and grade. Archaeologists are in the Archeology series, 0193. Archaeological technician jobs are often in other series, such as 0102, so check the requirements for the series listed.
The qualifications. Look for the specialized experience, which is the experience that equipped you to do the job. Announcements typically define it as one year at the next lower grade. For example, a GS-11 job asks for a year of experience at the GS-9 level.
Required documents, which usually include the resume, transcripts, and eligibility documents such as veterans' preference papers.
How you will be evaluated, for example by a questionnaire, online assessments or a structured resume review.
Citizenship and the closing date. Many positions require U.S. citizenship, and all qualifications must be met by the closing date.

Show that you meet the 0193 requirements

For the Archeology series, OPM's basic requirement can be met through education, through experience, or through a combination. The education route asks for a degree with specific coursework in archeology, including an archeological field school, and related coursework such as geography, history, environmental studies, scientific writing or surveying. The experience route asks for four years of archeological work, including field experience. Read the OPM standard for the exact semester hours.

If you qualify through education, you have to prove it. The announcements we looked at ask for your college transcripts, at least when you rely on education to qualify. Some archeologist announcements at the GS-9 level and above also require a graduate degree and ask for evidence that you meet the Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualification Standards. Our guide to those standards and the RPA explains them. Make each element easy to find in your resume: the graduate degree, the professional experience, the supervised field and analytic work, and a completed thesis or report.

Turn CRM experience into federal experience

Your CRM work counts, but it has to be described the way a reviewer can credit it.

Give each job the same structure. Write the title and employer, the dates by month and year, the hours per week, and then a few short bullets.

Show scale and responsibility. Reviewers want to see what you did and how much of it. Where you can, give numbers such as acres surveyed, sites recorded, crew size, number of projects and reports you wrote or contributed to. An illustration, to be replaced with your own facts: "Directed a four-person crew in pedestrian survey of about 3,000 acres for a pipeline project, recorded 25 archaeological sites on state forms and wrote the survey sections of the report."

Use the announcement's words. If the announcement says "identify and evaluate historic properties," use that wording where it is true of your work, and name the tasks the job requires, such as survey, site recording, evaluation, report writing, consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office or GIS. Our guide to Section 106 explains the process behind many of these tasks.

Match the level of the grade. For technician positions, show accuracy and skill in survey, excavation, recording and equipment. For higher grades, show independent work: leading crews, directing fieldwork, writing reports, coordinating with agencies and managing project schedules.

Handle seasonal and short jobs carefully. Experience is credited for time actually worked, so give the months you worked and the hours per week. One entry per employer can list several seasons, for example "04/2019 to 09/2019 and 04/2020 to 09/2020, 40 hours per week." Do not present gaps between seasons as employment.

State real hours. The National Park Service explains that full-time credit is based on 40 hours per week, and that entries such as "part time" or "varied" earn no credit. Give a number.

Count all of your experience. Unpaid work, including volunteer work and internships, can be credited if it meets the same requirements. Field school belongs on the resume too, with its dates and hours.

Keep it to two pages

OPM's tips for the two-page limit are:

Put the most relevant and most recent experience first.
Use concise language that focuses on results.
Use language from the job announcement.
Focus on skills and competencies.
Remove outdated or unrelated experience.

In practice, that means cutting old non-archaeology jobs, merging repeated seasonal work, dropping a long list of every project you have worked on, and leaving out an objective statement. If the announcement does not ask for it, leave it off.

The questionnaire and assessments

Many announcements add an application questionnaire, online assessments or a structured resume review. Two of the archeologist announcements we looked at did, and neither relied on the resume alone.

The National Park Service explains that every answer on an occupational questionnaire must be supported by the documents you submit. If it is not, your score can be lowered, which can remove you from the list of best-qualified candidates. Overrating yourself is penalized, but underrating hurts too, because specialists do not raise your rating for you. Write your resume so that each skill you claim in the questionnaire appears in it.

Some announcements also include short written questions. Requirements in this area have changed, including through court action, so follow the instructions in each announcement. Finish all required assessments before the closing date.

A final check before you submit

Is your resume two pages or fewer, and saved as a PDF?
Does every required qualification appear in it, in words a non-archaeologist can follow?
Does each job have month and year dates and the hours per week?
Do your questionnaire answers match what your resume shows?
Have you attached everything the announcement requires, such as transcripts and eligibility documents?
Are you eligible under "Who may apply," and is the closing date still ahead?

When you are ready, browse current federal archaeology jobs on this site. Each listing links to the original USAJOBS announcement.

Sources and further reading

This guide is general information, not legal or professional advice. Regulations, standards and employer practices change, so check the official sources linked above before relying on any detail.