Checked 27 October 2026. Format settings and required details from the USAJOBS Help Center articles on writing a resume (edited 21 October 2026) and adding a resume (edited 9 October 2026), and OPM’s applicant and agency guidance on the two-page limit, read on 27 October 2026. USAJOBS can change its recommendations; the job announcement you apply to is the authority for that job.
A federal resume template for 2026 has one job the older ones did not: fit everything on two pages. Since 27 September 2025, OPM’s guidance says a resume for a federal job must be no longer than two pages, and USAJOBS “will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages”. The free template below is set to the format USAJOBS recommends and has a place for each detail OPM and USAJOBS list for every job you rely on. It comes as a Word file you can edit and a PDF you can print. This page explains each setting, each block and the mistakes that long-form templates still carry. The rule itself, with its exceptions, is in our two-page rule guide.
The short answer
We found no official federal resume template on the OPM and USAJOBS pages we read. USAJOBS recommends a format, and OPM and USAJOBS list what each job must show; any layout that keeps both and stays within two pages works.
USAJOBS also offers its own resume builder. This template is for applicants who would rather write in Word, then upload a PDF, which is the file type USAJOBS recommends “to maintain formatting and number of pages”.
OPM two-page guidance; USAJOBS Help Center, read 27 October 2026.
Free download · no sign-up
The 2026 federal resume template, set to the USAJOBS recommendations
US Letter (8.5 x 11 inch), 0.5 inch margins, a sans-serif font from the USAJOBS list, 14 point name and section titles, 10 point text, and a block for every detail OPM and USAJOBS ask for in each job. Edit the Word file, then save it as a PDF before you upload.
Download the Word template (.docx)Download the PDF to print
The Word file uses Calibri, which USAJOBS lists; switch to Lato, its first suggestion, if you have it installed. The PDF uses Helvetica, also on the USAJOBS list. Both are blank: nothing in them is about you until you write it.
- Paste one USAJOBS announcement and your work history
- Pulls out the specialized-experience lines and the grade
- Shows which words of each line your history already uses
- Lists the job details USAJOBS asks for that we could not find
- Writes each relevant job against the specialized experience
- Writes from the facts you give; a check removes lines with a number, acronym or known tool name not in your text
What the template is set to, and why
Every setting below comes from the USAJOBS Help Center. Only some are rules; the rest are recommendations, and the table says which. Our template follows all of them so you do not have to decide.
| Setting | In the template | Rule or recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Length | One page of blocks, with room to fill to two | Rule: “Your resume must be two pages or less” (USAJOBS); “Resumes must be no longer than two-pages in length” (OPM) |
| Page size | US Letter, 8.5 x 11 inch | Instruction: “Use a standard 8.5x11-inch size for your document.” (USAJOBS) |
| Margins | 0.5 inch on every side | Recommendation: “Make your page margins 0.5 inches.” (USAJOBS) |
| Font | Calibri (Word file), Helvetica (PDF) | Recommendation: a sans-serif font “like Lato, if available”; also Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open Sans, Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noto Sans (USAJOBS) |
| Sizes | 14 pt name and section titles, 10 pt text | Recommendation: “Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text” (USAJOBS) |
| File type | Edit the .docx, upload a PDF | Recommendation: PDF; Word (DOC, DOCX), RTF, TXT, ODT, GIF, JPG, JPEG and PNG are also accepted; PDF portfolio files are not (USAJOBS) |
| File size | A text PDF of a few kilobytes | Rule: “Your resume must be 5 MB or less.” (USAJOBS) |
| Legibility | No text below 10 pt (our choice, not an official minimum) | Rule: resumes “must be legible” for eligibility and qualification review (OPM agency guidance). No page we read sets a minimum font size. |
Our advice on the font: Lato is the first font USAJOBS names, “if available”. If it is not installed on your computer, Word swaps it for another font, which can push text onto a third page; that is why the Word file uses Calibri, which USAJOBS also lists. If you change the font, check the page count again in the PDF you upload.
How the template spends two pages
The template, block by block
Here is the template as text. Everything in [brackets] is for you to replace or delete. The order follows OPM’s applicant guidance: contact information, relevant work experience, education and certifications, then optional details.
The template · fill in the brackets
[FIRST NAME LAST NAME]
[email address] | [phone number] | [City, State]
[Add any other contact detail the announcement asks for]
SUMMARY
[Optional, 2 to 3 lines: your main qualification for THIS announcement, in its own terms. Example shape: "[Job title] with [number] years of [the specialized experience the announcement names], including [two tasks it lists]."]
WORK EXPERIENCE
[Job Title], [Pay plan]-[Series]-[Grade] (federal jobs only, e.g. GS-0343-11)
[Employer or agency name], [City, State]
[MM/YYYY] – [MM/YYYY or Present] | [Number] hours per week
- [Put the experience most relevant to the announcement first, and keep every job you need to show the required experience. Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z].]
- [A task the announcement names, in the announcement’s words, with the scale: how many, how often, how much.]
- [A result with a number, percentage, dollar amount or plain description.]
- [A tool, system or law the announcement names, written the way the announcement writes it.]
- [3 to 6 lines is usually enough. Leave out duties the announcement does not ask about.]
[Job Title], [Pay plan]-[Series]-[Grade] for any federal job
[Employer name], [City, State]
[MM/YYYY] – [MM/YYYY] | [Number] hours per week
- [Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z].]
- [A second task from the announcement that you did in this job.]
- [Keep only what is relevant to this announcement.]
[Job Title or Volunteer Role], [Pay plan]-[Series]-[Grade] for any federal job
[Employer or organization], [City, State]
[MM/YYYY] – [MM/YYYY] | [Number] hours per week
- [Older or less related work: one or two lines, or remove it.]
EDUCATION
[School or institution], [City, State]
[Degree type and major], [Completion date MM/YYYY], [Cumulative GPA]
CERTIFICATIONS AND LICENSES
[Type of certification or license], [date] (when relevant or required by the announcement)
OPTIONAL DETAILS (WHEN RELEVANT)
[Current security clearance] | [Job-related training] | [Language skills]
[Organizations and affiliations] | [Professional publications] | [Eligibility for special programs]
Free to use and change. A ProSyllabus template, not affiliated with OPM or USAJOBS. None of the OPM or USAJOBS pages we read requires a particular template; follow any format instructions in your announcement.
The contact block
OPM asks for your name and how best to contact you, including email address and phone number; USAJOBS lists full name, email address and phone number, and tells you to read the announcement in case it asks for more. USAJOBS also lists what to leave out of your profile and resume: classified or government sensitive information, your Social Security Number, photos of yourself, personal information such as age, sex or religious affiliation, and encrypted or digitally signed documents. None of these has a place in the template.
The summary (optional)
None of the official pages asks for a summary. We kept a two-to-three-line slot because the USAJOBS article asks you to check whether a hiring agency can see your main credentials within 10 to 15 seconds and whether you sell yourself “on the top quarter of the first page”. Our advice: if your summary only repeats the jobs below it, delete it and give the lines to your work experience.
Each job block
This is where most of the two pages go, and where most older templates are wrong for 2026. For each relevant job, OPM and USAJOBS list the same details. The pay plan is not on either list; the template includes it because the USAJOBS example (“Program Analyst GS-343-11”) shows it. Repeat the series and grade on every federal job you list, not just the first.
| Line in the template | What to write | Example | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Job Title], [Pay plan]-[Series]-[Grade] | Your title; for federal jobs only, the series and grade (and, as in the USAJOBS example, the pay plan) | Program Analyst GS-343-11 (the USAJOBS example) | OPM; USAJOBS writing article |
| [Employer or agency name] | The employer’s name | U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency | OPM; USAJOBS |
| [MM/YYYY] – [MM/YYYY or Present] | Start and end dates with month and year | 05/2019 – 08/2022 (the OPM example) | OPM; USAJOBS |
| [Number] hours per week | The hours you worked per week | 40 hours per week | OPM; USAJOBS |
| Bullets | Brief descriptions that show you can perform the tasks at the level the announcement requires | “Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z].” | OPM; USAJOBS pattern |
Hours per week are not decoration. OPM’s qualification policy says part-time work “is prorated in crediting experience”: 20 hours a week for 12 months is credited as 6 months. Leaving the hours out leaves a listed detail missing, and may stop the agency from confirming how much creditable experience you have. Our specialized experience guide shows how the year is counted and how to write the bullets that prove it.
Education, certifications and optional details
When education is relevant or required, OPM and USAJOBS list four details: name of school or institution, completion date, degree type, and grade point average (OPM says cumulative GPA). When the announcement requires a license or certification, include it with its type and date and provide any required documents such as transcripts. OPM’s optional details, “when relevant”, are a current security clearance, job-related training, language skills, organizations and affiliations, professional publications and eligibility for special programs. The template groups them into one block so you can delete the ones that do not apply.
Self-check · one question
Which job header gives a hiring agency every header detail OPM and USAJOBS list for a federal job?
- A. Program Analyst, Department of Labor, 2021 – 2024
- B. Program Analyst, GS-0343-11, Department of Labor, 06/2021 – 09/2024
- C. Program Analyst, GS-0343-11, Department of Labor, 06/2021 – 09/2024, 40 hours per week
- D. Senior Program Analyst (acting), Department of Labor, full time
Show the answer and why
Answer: C.
C has every header detail: job title, series and grade (with the pay plan, as in the USAJOBS example), employer, start and end month and year, and hours per week. A has no series, grade, months or hours. B has no hours, so the agency cannot tell whether the work was full or part time, and part-time work is prorated. Under any header, the bullets still have to give the brief descriptions of your work that OPM and USAJOBS also list. D has no dates, and “full time” is not a number of hours. OPM also says titles are not used to judge specialized experience, so “acting” in a title does not stand in for describing the work.
An original ProSyllabus question built from the OPM applicant guidance and the USAJOBS writing article.
- Paste one USAJOBS announcement and your work history
- Pulls out the specialized-experience lines and the grade
- Shows which words of each line your history already uses
- Lists the job details USAJOBS asks for that we could not find
- Writes each relevant job against the specialized experience
- Writes from the facts you give; a check removes lines with a number, acronym or known tool name not in your text
Word or PDF, upload or resume builder
USAJOBS gives two routes to a resume in your profile: upload a file or build one in its resume builder. You can keep up to five resumes in your profile. Both routes hold you to two pages.
| Question | Upload this template | USAJOBS resume builder |
|---|---|---|
| Which file should I upload? | A PDF saved from the Word file. USAJOBS recommends a PDF “to maintain formatting and number of pages”. | No file: the builder starts from your USAJOBS profile. |
| What if it runs past two pages? | USAJOBS will not allow you to upload resumes longer than two pages. Cut, then save the PDF again. | “If your resume is more than two pages, you will not be able to save it to your profile.” |
| Can I change it later? | Upload a new file; USAJOBS says you need to upload a new file with the changes. | Yes, in Documents; you can also duplicate a resume and edit the copy for another job. |
| Can I paste from Word? | Not needed. | Yes, but some formatting, such as bullets, may not work. USAJOBS suggests saving as plain text (.txt) first. |
Our advice: save the PDF from Word with “Save as PDF” or “Export”, not by printing to an image, so the text stays selectable and the file stays small. Then open the PDF and count its pages before you upload.
Free checker
Filled in the template? Check the PDF before you upload it.
Drop your resume PDF into the ProSyllabus federal resume checker. Your browser reads the file; nothing is uploaded or stored. It tells you the page count, the file size, whether the PDF carries attachments, the font, font sizes and margins it finds, and, for each job it identifies, whether it finds the header details OPM and USAJOBS ask for: title and employer, start and end dates with month and year, hours per week, and series and grade for federal jobs. “Not found” means the checker could not find it, so check those lines yourself. It does not judge your descriptions: the bullets still have to show you can do the announcement’s tasks at the required level.
A planning aid by ProSyllabus, not affiliated with OPM or USAJOBS. The hiring agency decides whether you qualify.
Where older federal resume templates go wrong
Where other pages get this wrong
A long-form, three-to-five-page federal resume template is now the wrong template for most federal jobs.
Commonly published instead: templates that tell you to list every duty, every job since school, salary and supervisor details at length, and that run to several pages.
The Merit Hiring Plan memo of 29 May 2025 said it “will prohibit the current longform Federal resume structure”, and OPM’s guidance applies the two-page limit to all Title 5 competitive and excepted service announcements. Where the limit applies and the only resume an agency receives is longer than two pages, OPM tells it the applicant is ineligible for further consideration. A longer document is possible only where the announcement asks for one through the “other documents” option.
| Older template habit | What the 2026 pages say |
|---|---|
| Several pages of duties per job | OPM: “Prioritize most relevant and recent experience” and “Remove outdated or unrelated experience.” |
| A photo, date of birth or SSN at the top | USAJOBS: leave out photos, your SSN and personal information such as age, sex or religious affiliation. |
| Text shrunk to 8 point to fit | USAJOBS suggests 10 point for the main text; OPM requires a legible resume. |
| Years only (2019 – 2022) | OPM and USAJOBS: start and end dates with month and year. |
| One generic resume for every job | USAJOBS: “You should tailor your resume to include experience relevant to each job you want to apply for.” |
Our reading of the older habit of listing a supervisor’s name and phone number and a salary for each job: neither OPM’s applicant guidance nor the USAJOBS writing article lists them. Include them only if your announcement asks for them.
Filling the template for one announcement
USAJOBS says to read the announcement before you write, and names the sections that tell you what to include: Duties, Requirements (qualifications, specialized experience and education), How to apply, How you will be evaluated, and Required documents. Our order of work, using only what those pages ask for:
Our five steps
- Copy the announcement’s specialized experience sentence into a note and split it into separate tasks.
- Put the experience closest to those tasks first, and keep every job you need to make up the required year; if you qualify through education the standard allows, show it clearly in the education block.
- Write three to six bullets for that job, each one a task from your note, in the announcement’s own words where they describe what you really did. USAJOBS: if the qualifications say MS Project, “you need to use the words MS Project in your resume”.
- Fill the dates with months, the hours per week, and the pay plan, series and grade for federal jobs, for every job you keep.
- Cut until it fits two pages, starting with older and unrelated work; then save as PDF and check the page count.
Steps 1 to 3 are our method; the wording rule and the details in step 4 are from the USAJOBS writing article and OPM’s applicant guidance.
For three finished examples at GS-7, GS-11 and GS-12, built on this same layout, see our two-page federal resume samples; every federal resume guide and tool is on the USAJOBS federal resume exam page.
The essay questions do not go in the template
The Merit Hiring Plan memo said job announcements graded GS-05 or above would include four short free-response essay questions of no more than 200 words each, and that applicants would certify they used their own words and did not use a consultant or AI. They are answered where the announcement says, not in the resume. Because applicants certify those answers are their own, ProSyllabus does not write, suggest or grade them, and this template has no place for them.
What we could not find
Not on any official page we read
- An official OPM or USAJOBS federal resume template to download. USAJOBS offers its resume builder instead.
- A rule on page numbers, headers or footers.
- A minimum font size. The pages recommend 10 point text and require a legible resume.
- How a Word file’s pages are counted if its page breaks change on another computer. USAJOBS recommends a PDF to keep the number of pages.
Pages read on 27 October 2026: the USAJOBS Help Center articles on writing and adding a resume, OPM’s applicant and agency guidance on the two-page limit, and the Merit Hiring Plan memo.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official federal resume template for 2026?
We found no official downloadable template on the OPM and USAJOBS pages we read, and none says one is required. USAJOBS recommends a format (US Letter, 0.5 inch margins, a sans-serif font such as Lato, 14 point titles and 10 point text) and offers a resume builder; OPM and USAJOBS list what each job must show.
What format should a federal resume be in 2026?
Two pages or less, on 8.5 x 11 inch pages, in a file of 5 MB or less if you upload it. USAJOBS recommends a PDF and also accepts Word (DOC, DOCX) and other formats. It recommends 0.5 inch margins, a sans-serif font such as Lato or Calibri, 14 point titles and 10 point text.
Can I upload my federal resume as a Word document?
Yes. USAJOBS accepts DOC and DOCX, but recommends saving and uploading a PDF to keep the formatting and the number of pages.
What must each job on a federal resume include?
Job title and employer; for federal jobs, the series and grade (USAJOBS also shows the pay plan); start and end dates with month and year; hours worked per week; and brief descriptions showing you can do the tasks at the level the announcement asks for.
Does a federal resume need a summary or objective?
No official page asks for one. A short summary can help a reviewer see your main credentials quickly, which USAJOBS asks you to check; if it only repeats your jobs, cut it.
Should I list my supervisor and salary on a federal resume?
Neither OPM’s applicant guidance nor the USAJOBS writing article lists them. Include them only if the job announcement asks for them.
Is this template free?
Yes. The Word and PDF files are free to download and use, with no sign-up. It is a ProSyllabus template, not affiliated with OPM or USAJOBS.
Sources
- official — USAJOBS Help Center: How do I write a resume for a federal job? (edited 21 October 2026), read 27 October 2026
- official — USAJOBS Help Center: How to add a resume to your profile (edited 9 October 2026), read 27 October 2026
- official — OPM: Applicant Guidance on the Two-Page Resume Limit (Merit Hiring Plan resources), read 27 October 2026
- official — OPM: Agency Guidance on the Two-Page Limit on Resume Length (Merit Hiring Plan resources), read 27 October 2026
- official — OPM: General Schedule Qualification Policies (General Schedule Operating Manual): experience requirements, crediting experience, qualifying education, read 27 October 2026
- official — Merit Hiring Plan, memorandum from the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and the Acting Director of OPM (29 May 2025)
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
