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razz posted:You MIGHT get through the first level that way. I have done this and even spoken with the hiring manager for a job who said he had no idea why my resume didn't get in. Well, they only send a certain number of resumes to the hiring manager's desk (in my case 10 and absolutely no more) so even if you do everything right, maybe so did 50 other people. Doesn't mean yours will get through. Federal hiring is so hosed.
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Feb 24, 2014 22:44
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CronoGamer posted:Which agency is that for? CIA. If the peace corps thing is relevant, the job application will state it if you go and start the application process.
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Feb 25, 2014 02:27
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Xandu posted:CIA. If the peace corps thing is relevant, the job application will state it if you go and start the application process. Right, thought so. CIA was one of the few I knew already, would be interesting to know about the other agencies. I'm hitting the 5 year mark from the end of my Peace Corps service in three weeks...
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Feb 25, 2014 05:30
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I've been applying to a bunch of federal jobs over the past few days trying to take advantage of my newly received (and useless) liberal arts degree as well as my 10 points veteran's preference. I keep imagining my applications being marked by some guy in a cubicle as having 10 total points before being thrown in a bin. But it seems like what you're all saying is that they will never see a person 
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Feb 25, 2014 18:22
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So, I think I want to stay in my current job for at least a few more years, but eventually I want to move back to Austin, TX. Are there actually any good federal jobs down there? Either that or watch centers of some sort?
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Feb 25, 2014 19:06
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ThePriceJustWentUp posted:I've been applying to a bunch of federal jobs over the past few days trying to take advantage of my newly received (and useless) liberal arts degree as well as my 10 points veteran's preference. I keep imagining my applications being marked by some guy in a cubicle as having 10 total points before being thrown in a bin. But it seems like what you're all saying is that they will never see a person What kind of job would you like? Worst case scenario, now that you know the "put stuff in your résumé" trick you can start doing that and might only be a little bit behind.
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Feb 25, 2014 21:35
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ThePriceJustWentUp posted:I've been applying to a bunch of federal jobs over the past few days trying to take advantage of my newly received (and useless) liberal arts degree as well as my 10 points veteran's preference. I keep imagining my applications being marked by some guy in a cubicle as having 10 total points before being thrown in a bin. But it seems like what you're all saying is that they will never see a person http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/23/arizona-parks-program-helps-homeless-veterans-become-rangers/ Just become homeless and move to Arizona. Voila, an instant $12 an hour job.
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Feb 25, 2014 22:01
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Quarex posted:The good news is that on the FederalSoup message boards there are constantly people going ballistic in whine-mode about how 10-point preference veterans are unfairly taking everyone's jobs. Well, actually, they say "preference veterans" since it would be a little more heartless to directly attack 10-point veterans (correct me if I am wrong, but does that not mean you were long-term injured? I am sorry to hear that, though I am glad that the government seemingly tries to help its soldiers get decent jobs in this regard). And I wasn't injured in war, no need to feel sorry. There are many others who got a worse deal than I did, some of whom I knew. Anyway, I'm just not sure what they are determining scores on. If I have to answer "I have not had experience or education doing [this particular thing]" too many times, will that just get me screened out by the computer? Because I know I could do that drat job. It's just that my background doesn't exactly line up with quality assurance. They don't ask about prerequisite skills, just if I have done those exact things. I haven't, but so what?
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Feb 25, 2014 22:22
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Not really sure if this has been posted before but I had an interview with DFAS maybe a month ago and since then they pretty much fell of the face of the planet until yesterday. I got an email to send them a Form 306 (Declaration of Federal Employment) while they never gave me an official offer I am assuming that is next in the process?? I am pretty new to USAJOBS and the federal employment process as I am just about to leave the military, is there more steps after this point or its pretty much a yes/no to me getting an offer? couldn't find too much information online in that regard or assuming that each agency is differing in how they handle employment for government positions.
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Feb 26, 2014 00:10
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ThePriceJustWentUp posted:Anyway, I'm just not sure what they are determining scores on. If I have to answer "I have not had experience or education doing [this particular thing]" too many times, will that just get me screened out by the computer? Because I know I could do that drat job. It's just that my background doesn't exactly line up with quality assurance. They don't ask about prerequisite skills, just if I have done those exact things. I haven't, but so what? Just so you know (and I'm sure you wouldn't do this on purpose) but absolutely DO NOT lie or even stretch the truth the tiniest bit about your previous work experience. You will be automatically disqualified when they find out, and they will find out. I was referred for a federal job once and then a few days later got an email saying my application was rejected because they couldn't verify my employment history. I think what happened was I had a 5-month temp job and I answered yes to "do you have 6 months experience doing XYZ?". Well, technically that was a lie because they couldn't verify 6 months since I put in my application that I worked at this job from April-August (only 5 months) or whatever. It's so very tempting when you're really close to being able to click "yes" or "I have experience" but if you don't have EXACTLY what they ask, do not say that you do. You absolutely will not get hired that way.
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Feb 26, 2014 05:34
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CherryCola posted:So, I think I want to stay in my current job for at least a few more years, but eventually I want to move back to Austin, TX. Are there actually any good federal jobs down there? Either that or watch centers of some sort? There's a bajillion at Ft. Hood if you don't mind commuting.
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Feb 26, 2014 07:23
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I have a real start date! Or an "EOD" as you would call it if you wanted to ensure nobody outside the government knew what you were talking about! Great! I enjoyed the process of negotiating the start date as I have never before heard of a job pushing you to start a month later than you originally try to start. But so it goes.ThePriceJustWentUp posted:I'm just applying for these skate Quality Assurance Specialist jobs around my metro area. Should I be tailoring my entire resume and application around their KSA's? That's what I didn't do. I had an IT background before school. Should I bother even putting most of that in?
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Feb 26, 2014 21:47
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Thought this might be a good place to post this: http://www.cbo.gov/publication/42921 It's a couple of years old, but still fairly relevant. And quite interesting. There is a reputation that although the benefits are better in the public sector, the private sector offers greater compensation for similar jobs. While that may have been true at one point, this report clearly demonstrates it's not true anymore. You can see that compensation (minus benefits) is EXACTLY THE SAME for someone with a bachelor's degree, and ACTUALLY GREATER for someone below that level. At the master's level, the compensation is just a smidge higher, but is still dwarfed by the massive difference in the value of benefits. You only get a significant boost to total compensation at the PhD level. And there's two important things to note. First, the analysis does not consider availability of work. If you've got a doctorate in anything besides medicine, good freaking luck getting a private sector job anywhere close to this level of compensation, or anywhere other than the massively oversaturated and underpaid university job market for that matter. Second, from the article: quote:Even among workers with similar observable characteristics, however, employees of the federal government and the private sector may differ in other attributes, such as motivation or effort, that are not easy to measure but that can matter a great deal for individuals' compensation. This all just reinforces my already-held belief that federal government work is the best deal in America. Although it's a somewhat older article, just something fun for those of you seeking public sector work to drool over, and those of us already in the service to  about.
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Feb 26, 2014 23:32
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Quarex posted:I have a real start date! Or an "EOD" as you would call it if you wanted to ensure nobody outside the government knew what you were talking about! Great! I enjoyed the process of negotiating the start date as I have never before heard of a job pushing you to start a month later than you originally try to start. But so it goes. I guess this confirms my suspicions that I hadn't put nearly enough into my applications to justify getting any responses. We'll see though. And to Razz, no I never planned on lying on my application. I only wanted to know if they really meant it when they said they wanted someone to have this exact previous experience to do a particular job. It seems like the answer to that is yes, but how you portray that is up to you. But if there's nothing I can finagle in my history to make it look like I've done a certain thing before, and I can't qualify on education alone for a job, then I guess I am just SOL for that particular one. That's alright I guess. Thanks for the info guys. Is there anyone in this thread who helps with creating a good government resume?
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Feb 26, 2014 23:53
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Could someone with experience in Federal hiring practices take a look at the Ask about Air Traffic Control thread? There was a major posting a few weeks back for trainee controllers, and rumor has it 90% of the applicants failed a 20 question multiple choice "biographical assessment", or that there has been some error in how the results were tabulated. Basically nobody knows anything and people are repeating things heard posted on other forums that somebody may have heard someone else talk about.
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Feb 28, 2014 19:24
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How soon should I start applying for a job? My master's course ends in September and I don't mind taking a month or so off, but more than that and it'll get pretty dicey. I just don't want to start before I can list my dissertation project and skills from it. I realize biology (and lordy, Marine Biology) are in a bit of a pinch...
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Feb 28, 2014 20:04
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Konstantin posted:Could someone with experience in Federal hiring practices take a look at the Ask about Air Traffic Control thread? There was a major posting a few weeks back for trainee controllers, and rumor has it 90% of the applicants failed a 20 question multiple choice "biographical assessment", or that there has been some error in how the results were tabulated. Basically nobody knows anything and people are repeating things heard posted on other forums that somebody may have heard someone else talk about. Sounds like the federal hiring process to me.  .
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Feb 28, 2014 20:30
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Aerofallosov posted:How soon should I start applying for a job? My master's course ends in September and I don't mind taking a month or so off, but more than that and it'll get pretty dicey. I just don't want to start before I can list my dissertation project and skills from it. I realize biology (and lordy, Marine Biology) are in a bit of a pinch... If you want a Federal job lined up by September, you need to start applying...last month. It took me 6 months from the time I applied for my job until my first day of work, and I understand that my case was in fact unusually fast. If you've only got a little leeway before things become "dicey", you may wanna line up some other gig while applying for the public sector.
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Feb 28, 2014 22:42
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Did anyone check out the Intelligence Community Virtual Career Fair? I saw the link for it on the day of the fair. It says you can still access it, but there won't be anyone there for the live chat. If you checked it out, how did it go? Was it helpful at all?
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Mar 1, 2014 00:13
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I applied in August and started in January, and that was with the shutdown delaying all the interviews for 3 weeks. Depends on the agency, probably. But earlier is better.
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Mar 1, 2014 01:12
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I applied in June and am only finally starting this April (EOD 4/20, refrain from smoking weed everyday!). I have heard before that if you assume it will take 6-12 months and plan accordingly (if it is possible to plan for that) then you will be happy.
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Mar 1, 2014 02:24
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I applied at the end of August and had a job offer by early November, including time for the shutdown. Results not typical.
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Mar 1, 2014 05:26
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Aerofallosov posted:How soon should I start applying for a job? My master's course ends in September and I don't mind taking a month or so off, but more than that and it'll get pretty dicey. I just don't want to start before I can list my dissertation project and skills from it. I realize biology (and lordy, Marine Biology) are in a bit of a pinch... Start applying in September. The government will not recognize your degree until you have it in your hands. Remember that there is 0 chance of landing a fed job in 1 month so prepare yourself for that.
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Mar 1, 2014 13:50
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razz posted:Okay this is just an anecdote but I had an interview a few weeks ago at a state park that is partially under federal management so there were both state and federal employees at my interview. I did what you said, brought my resume to the interview and handed out a copy to everyone. They all looked at the HR lady who was there at the interview, and did not, I assume COULD NOT look at my resume. I saw the guy who would be my direct supervisor trying to peek at my resume when the HR lady was not looking. Before that second, he had never seen my resume and did not know anything about me or my qualifications for the position. I know this for a fact because I met with him the day before. So the sad reality is the guy who would be my boss, who I would be working directly under, has absolutely zero say in the hiring process, it's all done through HR. You "win" the job if you say the right keywords during the interview, much like you "win" an interview if you put the right keywords in your resume. As a federal manager who has hired several individuals, I have never had anyone from HR present during interviews I have participated in. I am not aware of any reason why I could not review an applicant's resume. When we have hiring panels, HR gives each of us a packet for each interviewee. The packets include all of the application materials they submitted. Perhaps it was some type of state personnel policy in place at that park?
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Mar 2, 2014 00:50
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Womacks-JP-23 posted:Start applying in September. The government will not recognize your degree until you have it in your hands. Got it, that's good to know. My old college advised me to start hunting before graduation, and I didn't do a lot of that before I graduated then ended up taking a horrible call center job. Thanks, folks.
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Mar 5, 2014 00:16
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What's the deal with the Recent Graduates program? When did this replace FCIP as a way around hiring veterans? I've been working for SSA for ~4 years now. Before and since I was hired I've always kept my eye open for 1811 series Investigator jobs, since I studied criminal investigation in college, but they're usually too high a grade or too far away for me to bother applying to. Now a couple 1811 positions just opened up hiring at 09, RIGHT in my current city, but they only seem to be open to recent (2 years, or 6 if you're a veteran) graduates 
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Mar 5, 2014 19:09
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Man_of_Teflon posted:What's the deal with the Recent Graduates program? When did this replace FCIP as a way around hiring veterans? Man veterans get anywhere from 5 to 10 points of preference on college grads as it is
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Mar 5, 2014 19:22
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Man_of_Teflon posted:What's the deal with the Recent Graduates program? When did this replace FCIP as a way around hiring veterans? The Pathways programs were implemented exactly because agencies were using FCIP to sidestep preference-eligible veterans. That's why veterans get the longer time period post-graduation under recent graduate hiring. I started my federal career in an 1811 position. If that is what you truly want, you need to look for 1811 vacancies with any agency in any city. The 1811 series is probably the most competitive job in the entire civil service. The year I started my agency hired 19 people for 1811 positions out of more than 10,000 applicants. Fortunately for me I was right at the post-Gulf War sweet spot where enough time had elapsed from the end of the war that most of those veterans were no longer looking for entry-level jobs. I couldn't imagine how difficult it is to be hired now without being a preference-eligible veteran.
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Mar 8, 2014 17:45
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We talked earlier in the thread about 1811 jobs and how the Secret Service seems to be the exception to the logic that drives hiring in all the other agencies. I should know, as I was selected as a potential Secret Service Agent candidate despite no military background and certainly no "expected" work experience (police, sheriff's deputy, other agency agent) to speak of, and only my body not understanding how to produce adrenaline kept me from getting to the final interview phase (which I am sure I would have passed, being the arrogant sort of person I am). Though the Secret Service is moving out of counterfeiting and into identity fraud issues, and I wrote a master's thesis on identity documents, so that might be why I sidestepped the normal path. But who knows? It does sound like unless you are a veteran you should only really bother applying to Secret Service 1811 jobs though.
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Mar 8, 2014 22:03
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JohnnyHildo posted:I couldn't imagine how difficult it is to be hired now without being a preference-eligible veteran. Very, unless it's for something that private industry will pay you more to do (and even then that's not much easier).
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Mar 9, 2014 02:18
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Has anyone here applied for the Portsmouth, NH Passport Specialist position? I am still waiting to hear back.
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Mar 9, 2014 02:31
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ThePriceJustWentUp posted:Has anyone here applied for the Portsmouth, NH Passport Specialist position? I am still waiting to hear back. I applied for a similar position before and it took me two months before I heard back about my application (met qualifications) and then another three before they followed up (not among most qualified candidates) so good luck buddy
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Mar 9, 2014 02:44
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Declan MacManus posted:Very, unless it's for something that private industry will pay you more to do (and even then that's not much easier). I know that patent examiners get poached all the time to work for patent law firms. This explains why the USPTO has to offer up crazy good benefits to get them to stay there.
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Mar 10, 2014 03:19
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Delorence Fickle posted:I know that patent examiners get poached all the time to work for patent law firms. This explains why the USPTO has to offer up crazy good benefits to get them to stay there. What extra benefits does USPTO offer? The only federal agencies that I've seen offer extra benefits beyond the standard federal suite are those that deal with the financial industry.
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Mar 11, 2014 01:20
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Sweet, sweet telework options, man.
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Mar 11, 2014 01:55
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From what I hear, they're experimenting with more and more telework options as a way to boost morale (and also reduce overhead a bit) across all government agencies.
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Mar 11, 2014 02:09
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JohnnyHildo posted:What extra benefits does USPTO offer? The only federal agencies that I've seen offer extra benefits beyond the standard federal suite are those that deal with the financial industry. Patent examiners are on a higher pay scale than GS. Also lots of people telework, and many patent and trademark examiners "hotel" -- they don't work on the USPTO campus, but telework (permanently) from wherever they live (i.e., anywhere in the US).
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Mar 11, 2014 02:31
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McCoy Pauley posted:Patent examiners are on a higher pay scale than GS. Also lots of people telework, and many patent and trademark examiners "hotel" -- they don't work on the USPTO campus, but telework (permanently) from wherever they live (i.e., anywhere in the US). Don't forget the fact that you get to keep your DC area COLA even when you move out to a lower cost of living area. I'm not part of the Examiner Corps, but since my position qualifies for telework/hoteling in two years, I'm leaving DC for either Charleston SC, Myrtle Beach or FT. Lauderdale.
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Mar 11, 2014 06:11
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Declan MacManus posted:From what I hear, they're experimenting with more and more telework options as a way to boost morale (and also reduce overhead a bit) across all government agencies.
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Mar 11, 2014 07:33
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I recently completed my polygraph for a CBP position, and I'm nervous about it. From what I read it's normal for the examiner to be super negative and badger you about your results during the exam? "I'm seeing a lot of responses to specific questions here", "you're taking very deep breaths after some questions", etc? I'm the most boring and honest person I know, so I'm not worried I was lying or concealing anything, just want to make sure that's just how these things go I guess? All the google results I find are from antipolygraph.org so I don't take them as the most unbiased source.
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Mar 13, 2014 16:09
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