may list these using a traditional bibliography style or in a less formal way. You will want to
indicate the title of the work, the publication or online forum in which it appeared, and the dates.
Indicate whether you were the author, co-author, or other type of contributor. If more than the
5,000 allowed characters are needed, use the “Additional Information” section at the bottom of
the same screen.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This section provides up to 20,000 characters of free-form content that you can use as you wish.
If you have a “Summary of Qualifications” or “Professional Summary” section, enter it here at
the top of the block. Also use this section for job-related honors or awards, leadership activities,
particular sets of skills (e.g. computer software proficiency or typing speed), or any other
information you wish to share with the reviewers.
Section 5: FINISH
This final section allows you to “Preview” and “Finish” your resume. Review all information for
correctness. Click “Previous” if you need to go back to edit information. Click the “Finish”
button and your resume will be active and ready to use. You will be directed to the “Resumes”
page where you can view, edit, duplicate, or delete previously entered resumes. You change the
status of your resume from “Not searchable” to “Searchable” by clicking on the “Make
Searchable” link. It is not necessary to make your resume “searchable,” but doing so could
provide additional opportunity for you in the form of agencies searching the database for
particular skill sets or key words.
BUILDER ENTRY AND FORMATTING TIPS
You will notice that certain characters or formatting are not allowed in the builder. In addition,
forbidden characters can vary by section an by field. These tips will help you navigate these
limitations:
• You must complete required all fields (indicated by a red asterisk *)
• Do not rely on the USAJOBS “Spell Check.” Rather, use your own word processor’s
spelling and grammar tools by composing the content in a file on your desktop (see the
template later in this document) and using copy/paste to transfer it into the builder.
• Bold, italics, and underline do not show up in the online builder. Use CAPITALS for
emphasis or section headings.
• The job title cannot contain special characters except pound (#), dash (-), and forward
slash (/); any other characters such as apostrophes (‘,”) or commas (,) have to excluded.
• Addresses can have two lines of 100 characters each.
• City/Town can have up to 60 letters, but no special characters or numbers.
• Postal codes can have up to 20 characters, and can include a dash (-) and letters.
• Supervisor name only allows letters, a dash (-) or apostrophe (‘).
• Phone fields only permit numbers, dashes, or an “x” for extensions. Parentheses around
the area code are not permitted.