You read the USAJOBS announcement. You wrote what you thought was a solid federal resume. You hit submit and waited. Then you got the email: "Not Referred."

I went through this cycle dozens of times after I separated from the Navy. Applied to GS-7 and GS-9 positions across environmental management, supply, logistics — anything that looked like a fit. Zero callbacks for over a year. The resume I was submitting had real experience on it. The problem was the words I used to describe that experience did not match the words the hiring system was looking for.

That is what this article is about. Not theory, not vague advice about "optimizing your resume." I am going to walk you through exactly where to find keywords in a USAJOBS announcement, how to build a usajobs keywords list for any position, and how to work those keywords into a federal resume that actually gets you referred. This is the process I used to get hired into six different federal career fields, and the same process 17,500+ veterans have used through BMR.

Why Do Keywords Matter on a USAJOBS Resume?

Federal hiring runs through a system called USA Staffing. When you submit your resume through USAJOBS, USA Staffing processes it alongside every other application for that announcement. HR specialists use this system to evaluate whether your resume demonstrates the qualifications listed in the job posting.

USA Staffing works as a rack-and-stack. It does not automatically reject your resume. What it does is help HR specialists rank applicants based on how well their resumes match the announcement requirements. Resumes with stronger keyword alignment rank higher. Resumes without the right language sink to the bottom of the list where nobody scrolls.

Think of it this way: if a position asks for "contract administration" experience and your resume says "managed vendor agreements," you have the experience. But the HR specialist scanning 200 applications is looking for the exact phrase from the announcement. If it is not there, your resume does not surface to the top of the pile during that initial review.

The federal resume keywords you choose directly determine where your application lands in that ranking. This is why the same veteran can get "Not Referred" for one announcement and "Best Qualified" for another — even when the jobs look similar on paper.

Where Do You Find the Right Keywords in a Job Announcement?

Every USAJOBS announcement follows a standard structure. The keywords you need are spread across specific sections, and you need to pull from all of them — not just the obvious ones.

The Duties Section

This is where hiring managers describe the actual day-to-day work. Read every sentence and pull out the action verbs and technical terms. If the duty says "Performs contract closeout procedures including final inspection, acceptance testing, and property disposition," your keywords list includes: contract closeout, final inspection, acceptance testing, property disposition. Each of those phrases needs to appear in your resume if you have that experience.

The Qualifications Section

This section contains two keyword goldmines. First, the specialized experience paragraph tells you exactly what the hiring team considers qualifying experience at the target grade level. Second, any listed KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) give you additional keyword clusters to address.

Pay close attention to the grade-level requirements. A GS-11 announcement for a Contract Specialist might require "experience with pre-award and post-award contract actions including cost/price analysis." Every italicized or bolded term in that sentence is a keyword: pre-award, post-award, contract actions, cost/price analysis.

The How You Will Be Evaluated Section

This is the section many applicants skip. It lists the specific competencies the rating panel will assess. If it says "Ability to manage acquisition planning, market research, and source selection," those are direct keywords that need to appear in your resume. These competencies often map directly to the scoring criteria HR specialists use when they review your application.

For a detailed walkthrough of every section in a USAJOBS posting, check the guide on how to decode a USAJOBS job announcement.

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What Does a USAJOBS Keywords List Actually Look Like?

I am going to build a real example so you can see what this looks like in practice. Say you are applying to a GS-12 Logistics Management Specialist (0346 series) position. Here is what your extracted keywords list might include after reading the full announcement:

From the Duties section: supply chain management, distribution operations, inventory control, logistics planning, warehouse management, transportation coordination, material readiness, demand forecasting

From the Qualifications section: logistics management, supply operations, property accountability, fleet management, procurement support, sustainment planning

From the Evaluation Criteria: analytical ability, problem solving, oral communication, written communication, organizational awareness, customer service

That gives you roughly 20 keywords and phrases for a single announcement. Not all of them will apply to your background — you should only include the ones where you have legitimate experience. But this list becomes your blueprint for rewriting your resume bullets.

The second version hits five keywords from our list: supply chain management, inventory control, property accountability, warehouse, and a system name (GCSS-Army). It also includes numbers — 450-person battalion, $12M in equipment, 4 facilities — which give the HR specialist concrete evidence of your scope.

When I was applying for positions in the environmental management and logistics career fields, I built a new keywords list for every single announcement. The overlap between similar positions was usually about 60-70%, but that remaining 30% made the difference between "Referred" and "Not Referred."

How Do You Work Keywords Into a 2-Page Federal Resume?

Federal resumes are 2 pages max under current OPM guidelines. That means you do not have unlimited space to dump keywords. You need a strategy for where they go and how they read naturally.

Your Professional Summary

The top of your resume — your summary or qualifications statement — is prime keyword real estate. This is the first thing the HR specialist reads during that initial 6-second scan. Load it with the 4-5 highest-priority keywords from the announcement. If the position emphasizes "acquisition planning" and "contract administration," both of those phrases should appear in your opening summary.

Work Experience Bullets

This is where the bulk of your keywords land. Each position on your resume should include the required federal details — hours per week, supervisor name and phone number, salary, start/end dates — plus accomplishment bullets that mirror the announcement language. Write your bullets by looking at the duties section of the announcement and describing your experience using those same terms.

A federal resume has more detail than a civilian resume. You include things like hours worked per week, supervisor contact information, and detailed duty descriptions. But more detail does not mean more pages. It means every word earns its place. If a bullet does not include a keyword from the announcement or demonstrate a qualifying competency, cut it and replace it with one that does.

Education and Certifications

Some announcements have specific education requirements or list preferred certifications. If you have them, make sure the exact terminology matches. If the announcement says "FAC-C Level II" and your resume says "Level 2 Contracting Certification," that is a missed keyword match. Use the exact phrasing from the announcement.

For step-by-step guidance on structuring the whole document, see our walkthrough on federal resume format and OPM requirements. And if you want to see what a finished product looks like, check out these federal resume examples.

What Mistakes Kill Your Keyword Strategy?

After helping 17,500+ veterans build federal resumes through BMR, I see the same keyword mistakes come up week after week. Here are the ones that cost people referrals.

Using Military Jargon Without Translation

Your military experience is real and valuable. But if the announcement says "logistics coordination" and your resume says "S-4 operations," the HR specialist may not connect the dots — especially if they are evaluating 200+ applications in a batch. You need both: the civilian/federal term that matches the announcement AND enough context to show the scope of what you did. Writing "logistics coordination and supply chain operations (S-4)" gives you the keyword match and the military context.

Copying Keywords Without Context

I have seen resumes where veterans clearly pulled every keyword from the announcement and jammed them into a skills section at the bottom. That approach backfires. HR specialists are trained to look for demonstrated experience, not keyword lists. A bullet that says "Experienced in acquisition planning, market research, source selection, and contract administration" without any details tells the reviewer nothing about what you actually did.

Using One Resume for Every Application

This is the single biggest mistake. Every USAJOBS announcement is different, even for positions with the same title and series. A GS-12 Contract Specialist at the Army Corps of Engineers and a GS-12 Contract Specialist at the VA will have different duties, different evaluation criteria, and different keyword priorities. Submitting the same resume to both announcements means at least one of them will be a poor keyword match.

Ignoring the Questionnaire Connection

Every USAJOBS application includes an occupational questionnaire. The questions in that questionnaire map directly to the evaluation criteria in the announcement. If you answer "Expert" on a questionnaire item about "developing acquisition strategies," your resume better include that exact phrase with supporting evidence. When your questionnaire answers and resume keywords do not align, it raises red flags during the consistency review.

Can You Use the Same Keywords Across Multiple Applications?

Partially. Some keywords are standard across a job series. If you are applying to multiple 1102 (Contract Specialist) positions, terms like "contract administration," "FAR/DFARS," and "acquisition planning" will appear in almost every announcement. Those are your baseline keywords, and they should be in every version of your resume for that series.

But the unique keywords — the ones specific to each announcement — change every time. One position might emphasize "construction contract oversight" while another focuses on "IT services acquisition." Those differences are exactly where tailoring matters. You keep your baseline keywords consistent and swap out the unique ones for each application.

Here is a practical approach that worked for me across six federal career fields. I kept a master resume document with all of my experience written out in full detail — longer than 2 pages, just for reference. Then for each application, I pulled the relevant bullets and rewrote them using that specific announcement's keywords. The master document was my source material. The tailored 2-page resume was what I submitted.

If you want a full breakdown of the application process from start to finish, the guide on how to apply on USAJOBS covers every step. And for tracking where each application stands, see our breakdown of USAJOBS application statuses.

How Does BMR Handle Keyword Extraction Automatically?

Everything I described above — reading the announcement, pulling keywords from each section, building a keywords list, rewriting your bullets — that is exactly what BMR's Federal Resume Builder automates.

You paste the USAJOBS announcement URL. BMR reads the duties, qualifications, evaluation criteria, and job series classification. It builds the keyword map and then tailors your resume to match — keeping all the required federal formatting (hours/week, supervisor info, detailed duties) while aligning your experience language to the announcement.

Every tailored resume is 2 pages, formatted for USA Staffing, and built around the actual keywords from your specific announcement. You get two free tailored resumes to start — no credit card required.

We have had veterans go from months of "Not Referred" results to "Best Qualified" on their first tailored resume. The experience was always there. The keywords were the missing piece.

If you are using the USAJOBS resume builder instead of uploading your own document, our walkthrough on the USAJOBS resume builder fields explains exactly what goes in each section.

What Should You Do Right Now?

Open the USAJOBS announcement you are targeting. Read the Duties section, the Qualifications section, and the How You Will Be Evaluated section. Write down every technical term, action verb, and competency phrase. That is your usajobs keywords list for this position.

Then open your current resume and compare. How many of those keywords appear word-for-word in your bullets? If the answer is fewer than half, your resume needs to be rewritten for this specific announcement.

You can do this manually — it takes time but it works. Or you can paste the announcement into BMR's Federal Resume Builder and get a keyword-matched, properly formatted federal resume in minutes. Either way, stop submitting the same generic resume to every federal job posting. Tailoring to the announcement's exact keywords is what separates "Not Referred" from "Best Qualified."

For more on writing a complete federal resume from scratch, start with our comprehensive guide on how to write a federal resume.