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Do you have what it takes to be a senior executive in the federal government?

You may have the skills, the brains, the energy and the determination to land a Senior Executive Service position, but if you don't have a winning application package, you won't be joining the ranks of Uncle Sam's top cadre of career civil servants.

This week, I'll give you a brief orientation and overview of how to apply for an SES job.

Everyone needs help with the arduous federal executive job application. For either federal or private sector senior managers, getting through the SES application process is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Here's the total SES package:

1. Cover Letter. This is not mandatory, but a considerate gesture. I compare this to the letter of interest that most universities require of their higher education recruits. Private industry job applications always expect a cover letter. This is an opportunity to write about your interest in this position and to state why you think you are an excellent candidate for the position. The letter can be one to one-and-a-half pages.

2. Federal Resume. Most SES job announcements will allow you to use a resume, SF-171 or OF-612, or any format you choose. I recommend the resume as the executive application. The resume is more versatile and better looking as a presentation of your executive qualifications and experience than an application form. The federal executive resume is usually four to six pages in length.

3. Mandatory Managerial or Technical Factors. Make sure you read the job announcement carefully for these factors. SES announcements may have two to three Managerial Factors and two to three Technical Factors. You'll have to write short statements addressing each of them. Each factor statement should be no more than two-thirds to one page. If you have questions, be sure to call the contact person listed on the announcement for clarification, even if the closing date has passed. Sometimes closing dates change because there haven't been enough applicants.

4. Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). You are required to write about your experiences that support the following five executive leadership competencies: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, Building Coalitions (Communications). Each of your ECQ statements should be one to one-and-a-half pages long. The recommended format for describing your ECQs is: Context, Challenge, Action and Result.

How long will the application process take?

Well, before you even start reviewing SES openings, you should:

1. Write your federal resume. You should review earlier resumes, SF-171s, evaluations, and certificates for executive level achievements. These are the critical factors in the SES application.

Federal employees will have to convert their SF-171s into the resume. It will take eight to 10 hours to pare down the narrative from your current 171s and create new descriptions emphasizing accomplishments and results.

Private industry applicants will need "only" six to eight hours to build up their private sector resume. Non-federal executives will also need to include a multitude of compliance details (e.g., starting and ending salaries, high school graduation, supervisor's names and telephones) that no one in their right mind would include on a private-sector resume.

2. Draft the ECQs. Each ECQ statement will take a couple of hours to write, re-write and edit. The focus will be on examples of your leadership experiences. I'll write about each of the ECQs in future columns.

Once you find an SES job you want to apply for, you can write the following items based on the specific position requirements:

• Technical and Managerial Factors
  
• Cover Letter

The total package might be 15 to 20 pages, the length of a major term paper. Writing a successful SES application takes research, time, planning and knowledge of the agency and its programs.

A critical factor is the extent to which you have monitored and recorded your career development. Once a set of ECQs has been prepared, they won't vary significantly between positions, because they are descriptions of your strategic vision and leadership capacity, and are intended to cover a broad range of leadership abilities. The resume, meanwhile, might highlight more accomplishments that relate to the position for which you're applying. If you do your resume right the first time you apply for an SES position, the resume is unlikely to require much rewriting in the future.

Stay tuned to my column for the next few weeks for more tips on getting an SES position. If you need help in the meantime, check out the SES section of my Web site (www.resume-place.com) for hints and information about upcoming workshops. You can also check out SES job vacancies in GovExec.com's Careers section.

Kathryn Kraemer has been the president of The Resume Place, Inc. for 27 years. Kathryn helps people get promoted and change jobs. She is the pioneer designer of the new "federal resume." She wrote and published the first book on federal resume writing and is a popular resume writing workshop leader in government.

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