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I asked about Crystal City at our last USCIS meeting with the director, and he made it sound like the center is opening and operating regardless of what it is they end up doing there (as they were going to open a new center or two even before the new amnesty stuff came out). So your wife should certainly expect to still go, as far as I know.
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Mar 27, 2015 01:58
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Was it a conditional offer of employment? Sometimes agencies send these out if you meet all the standards, but is contingent on passing a background check.
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Mar 27, 2015 02:13
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As someone who is very interested in working for the SSA, how easy is it to get into one of the G-5 positions like Claims Rep or Contact Rep? I have a pretty mediocre GPA (below a 3.0, above a 2.5), but solid job experience, good internships, and great interviewing skills (my most recent job hiring told me I was the best interview they've had in years, and it's a very large company). My current job is also similar to contact representative - I work in a hard drive data recovery department, I contact customers to find out what they'd like us to recover, then provide them information on how much of their data we managed to recover once the job is done, how much the recovery is going to cost them, etc. Could anyone tell me what my chances of getting into these lower positions are like with my background?
FOXDIE fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Mar 31, 2015 |
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Mar 31, 2015 06:47
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Fairly easy I assume. My cousin is a claims rep/adjuster right now at SSA and his degree is in biology and work experience consists of driving buses I poo poo you not.
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Mar 31, 2015 14:08
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You're definitely qualified. The question is just getting in the door, as is the case with many federal jobs. Claims rep is definitely a step up from "contact rep," which is a call center situation. I'm currently a claims' rep. It has a promotion ladder of GS 5/7/9/11, which I think contact reps might cap out at 7. The job itself is actually fairly complicated, but they train you on everything and don't expect you to know anything about Social Security... hence the trick being to just get the job in the first place (I was fortunate to have non-competitive eligibility). Another position sort of in between those is Service Representative, which is the person who is at the windows in the local offices, dealing with people as they come in. Service reps cap out at GS 9. Apply to any job openings for any of these three positions if you want to get into the agency. Theoretically you should be competitive for GS5, but how HR works is a mystery to me. I and a bunch of other people with master's degrees and years of experience were hired at GS 5s...
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Mar 31, 2015 14:44
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FOXDIE posted:As someone who is very interested in working for the SSA, how easy is it to get into one of the G-5 positions like Claims Rep or Contact Rep? I have a pretty mediocre GPA (below a 3.0, above a 2.5), but solid job experience, good internships, and great interviewing skills (my most recent job hiring told me I was the best interview they've had in years, and it's a very large company). My current job is also similar to contact representative - I work in a hard drive data recovery department, I contact customers to find out what they'd like us to recover, then provide them information on how much of their data we managed to recover once the job is done, how much the recovery is going to cost them, etc. Could anyone tell me what my chances of getting into these lower positions are like with my background? I'm an old timer at SSA, T2 technical expert. You definitely should at least get an interview. What part of the country are you in? If you are in one of our regional hubs there are a lot more opportunities. Also SSA loves nepotism so if you know someone who knows someone use it.
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Apr 1, 2015 02:56
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Don't forget that once you're in, you can start applying to those sweet status only jobs.
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Apr 1, 2015 03:52
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Nutella posted:I'm an old timer at SSA, T2 technical expert. You definitely should at least get an interview. What part of the country are you in? If you are in one of our regional hubs there are a lot more opportunities. Also SSA loves nepotism so if you know someone who knows someone use it. I live in Kentucky. I know that there's two SSA offices in the Louisville area, as well as one across the river in Albany, Indiana. My only other family member with civil service experience is my grandfather who handled workers' comp for the USPS, but he's been retired long enough that I doubt he knows anyone anymore. Regardless, thanks to everyone for the encouragement, I'm very interested in the SSA but wasn't sure if I could meet the qualifications. Good to know there's at least a chance.
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Apr 1, 2015 06:06
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asdf
Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Dec 1, 2020 |
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Apr 2, 2015 18:21
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Thesaurus posted:Does anyone work for or have experience with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Comission)? I'm interviewing with them for an investigator position. It's a good gig, but be prepared to see the absolute worst of life in the working world. There's a whole lot of ugly out there and EEOC usually ends up seeing it up close and personal.
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Apr 2, 2015 21:23
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I am now immediately sad that I did not even know the EEOC was a thing, as it sounds like exactly where I should have always wanted to work. Is it the kind of law enforcement that requires you to join by a certain age or forever hold your peace? I forgot what the age is for that since I am now happy in my non-law-enforcement immigration role anyway, but still. I did hear about how EEO, which I am going to assume is the same thing as EEOC until told otherwise, somewhat regularly sent undercover people to our immigration academy classes. A few years back one of the undercover agents was sitting in class right next to the guy who decided to talk about how he would never accept orders from a black woman, and things did not play out well for him after that.
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Apr 3, 2015 01:29
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Depends on your series. They're probably 1801s (investigators) that don't have an age limit, but not covered under special retirement.
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Apr 3, 2015 05:44
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Yeah, EEOC investigators aren't law enforcement, they don't have the power to arrest. They are regulators, really. The couple of EEOC investigators I've done union work with, I've heard loving horror stories from about bosses doing awful, violent, and criminal things to employees, the worst of which is concentrated in low-wage work like fast food. The federal sector has some EEO issues, but it's rare that it's to the level it is out in the private sector. Take a look into it Quarex, it's worth investigating if you think you'd derive some value from it.
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Apr 3, 2015 14:42
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FOXDIE posted:As someone who is very interested in working for the SSA, how easy is it to get into one of the G-5 positions like Claims Rep or Contact Rep? I have a pretty mediocre GPA (below a 3.0, above a 2.5), but solid job experience, good internships, and great interviewing skills (my most recent job hiring told me I was the best interview they've had in years, and it's a very large company). My current job is also similar to contact representative - I work in a hard drive data recovery department, I contact customers to find out what they'd like us to recover, then provide them information on how much of their data we managed to recover once the job is done, how much the recovery is going to cost them, etc. Could anyone tell me what my chances of getting into these lower positions are like with my background? Try case tech with SSA ODAR too. I'm an attorney with the agency, but I know my office has hired a contact rep and case techs within the last year or so.
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Apr 3, 2015 17:09
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Evil SpongeBob posted:Depends on your series. They're probably 1801s (investigators) that don't have an age limit, but not covered under special retirement. They're 1860 (Equal Opportunity Investigator) series. They used to be 1810 (General Investigator) until about 6 years ago when the 1860 series was created.
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Apr 6, 2015 01:30
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It seems as though my state office doing disability determination with SSA is having all employees go through a federal background check, fingerprinting, etc. They are stating it's related to compliance with HSPD-12 but as far as I can tell that was enacted over 10 years ago, so who knows what put the bee in their collective bonnets right now. We'll get a federal badge but have no other benefits of federal employment. Sigh. So close, yet so far...
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Apr 6, 2015 16:32
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marchantia posted:It seems as though my state office doing disability determination with SSA is having all employees go through a federal background check, fingerprinting, etc. They are stating it's related to compliance with HSPD-12 but as far as I can tell that was enacted over 10 years ago, so who knows what put the bee in their collective bonnets right now. We'll get a federal badge but have no other benefits of federal employment. Sigh. So close, yet so far... Weird. We never did such a thing. Do you share a building with the Feds? Maybe we don't have it bc we're next door rather than sharing with SSA. I have to sign in and out when I go over and my state badge doesn't work, but we all do the same work. Anyone else apply for Railroad Retirement Board's mass listing end of last year? I know they were hiring in at least 10 locations. I made the cert. Share when/if you get a call! I applied for the listings here as well as in Baltimore.
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Apr 7, 2015 00:03
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It sounds like they are going state to state with it. Our region's fed offices are in Chicago and we're in Madison, so no shared buildings. We were told 9 states have gone through the process and they were going to eventually hit all of them. SSA is making an effort to "credential" all employees and contractors, which I guess includes us. Everyone is throwing a big fit about it here, but I've already embraced that big brother is watching over us all, might as well make it official...and I'm pretty sure some group (local cops??) finger printed our entire elementary school at some point in my childhood, so I'm already theoretically screwed if I want to suddenly transition to a life of crime.
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Apr 7, 2015 16:10
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De Nomolos posted:Weird. We never did such a thing. Do you share a building with the Feds? Maybe we don't have it bc we're next door rather than sharing with SSA. I have to sign in and out when I go over and my state badge doesn't work, but we all do the same work. I just applied for a listing last month, are you saying they still haven't interviewed after a year? That's disheartening.
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Apr 7, 2015 21:00
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I remember applying to the Railroad Retirement Board in 2013 and it being one of the fastest rejections I got. You must all have some excellent Choo-Choo Credentials.
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Apr 7, 2015 21:57
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I have general questions about working in IT for the Federal government vs. the private sector. I've never worked a government job before, and I don't have any special clearances. What I'm looking for is some idea of how easy it is to migrate over to a federal job. To give some background, I have worked for large pharmaceutical companies, and now I work on Wall St. managing servers. I am looking for a job where the people I work with don't hinder progress, are open to change and can adapt to the newest technologies. In other words not looking for a job where I'm working with Win2003 or XP and just constant "internal politics." So that all being said, how difficult would it be to find some "lofty" IT position in the federal government? I don't mean managing IT at a small 20 person office in bumfuck Iowa, I mean doing IT work for the White House. How farfetched is that to consider? Would I have to start at the bottom rung of a ladder before they would even put me on their radar?
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Apr 10, 2015 17:53
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Tailored Sauce posted:I am looking for a job where the people I work with don't hinder progress, are open to change and can adapt to the newest technologies. In other words not looking for a job where I'm working with Win2003 or XP and just constant "internal politics." Given that you just described government IT to a T, I'm not sure exactly what you'd expect to accomplish by moving to federal work. The White House has very little say over IT policy when it comes down to it. You're better off looking at how individual agencies run. But expect to not have any real say without being in upper management.
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Apr 10, 2015 18:19
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Tailored Sauce posted:I am looking for a job where the people I work with don't hinder progress, are open to change and can adapt to the newest technologies. lol, don't work for the government. Though maybe I shouldn't speak for the WHOLE government. In my corner of the DoD at least (Defense Contract Management Agency), this is like a literal list of the things that the IT people I work with hate the most about their jobs. What they tend to love about it is job security, good benefits, and work/life balance (ie - normally 40hr/week, plenty of leave, and lots and easily approved telework) quote:So that all being said, how difficult would it be to find some "lofty" IT position in the federal government? I don't mean managing IT at a small 20 person office in bumfuck Iowa, I mean doing IT work for the White House. How farfetched is that to consider? Would I have to start at the bottom rung of a ladder before they would even put me on their radar? Easy! Just be an engineering director at Facebook and make waves in social circles that include the President of the United States. President Obama Names David Recordon as Director of White House Information Technology Non-snark answer: If you're serious about doing IT for the White House specifically, this might actually be a good time to get in on the ground floor of that new service the article above mentioned, the US Digital Service. It's a new thing; I have no idea if you would have more freedom to work the way it sounds you want to compared to other fed gov IT pukes, but there it is. It seems like they're actively trying to recruit right now, and encouraging applications from the private sector at that. https://www.whitehouse.gov/digital/united-states-digital-service Justus fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Apr 10, 2015 |
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Apr 10, 2015 18:34
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Justus posted:lol, don't work for the government. Yeah, this isn't snarky, it is just good advice for you. Work for a small company if you want agility to update to new technology. The federal govt is so entrenched with other companies, departments, states, etc that updating technology is a nightmare logistically, so they just put it off until it isn't feasible to maintain the status quo, which rarely happens.
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Apr 10, 2015 18:51
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All the advice is much appreciated, thanks!
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Apr 10, 2015 18:56
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There's many good reasons to work in the federal sector, but 'technological agility' isn't one of them. Just look at the kafkaesque nightmare DFAS became after the PeopleSoft fuckup.
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Apr 10, 2015 23:24
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Must Love Dogs posted:There's many good reasons to work in the federal sector, but 'technological agility' isn't one of them. Just look at the kafkaesque nightmare DFAS became after the PeopleSoft fuckup. I'm always looking for low stress, weekends are free and happy Federal Friday gigs.
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Apr 11, 2015 01:52
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To help give another perspective, at USCIS we recently had one of our higher-ups imply that we sometimes have job postings go unanswered because there are basically no people left in the job market who still have the 1970s/1980s computer skills needed to maintain the systems we still have to use since upgrading them, as mentioned above, would be astoundingly difficult. I always wonder if it would even be possible, since if the upgrade went wrong and suddenly there were headlines like "immigration offline!" I am sure that would not go well.
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Apr 11, 2015 15:12
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marchantia posted:Yeah, this isn't snarky, it is just good advice for you. Work for a small company if you want agility to update to new technology. The federal govt is so entrenched with other companies, departments, states, etc that updating technology is a nightmare logistically, so they just put it off until it isn't feasible to maintain the status quo, which rarely happens. My work computer uses IE 9, but locked into compatibility mode so it acts like IE 7. Sometimes when I try to do something complicated, like read an email or open a word document, my computer locks up for 1-2 minutes.
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Apr 11, 2015 19:15
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Howard Phillips fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Sep 21, 2022 |
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Apr 12, 2015 21:41
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http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/rankings/overall/small I just started last week at a mid sized agency as a GS-9. I found out I'm on a 9-11-12 ladder, which was a nice surprise.
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Apr 12, 2015 22:34
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Once you get in anywhere, its easier to lateral somewhere else & is quite common. I'd go with a competitive service agency as some agencies won't accept excepted service. ^^^^I don't recommend that you not know what your journeyman level is until you start work. It's harder to fix once you start sometimes.
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Apr 12, 2015 23:12
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I thought most agencies were competitive service? Clearly not, but I am also hardly surprised that Evil SpongeBob knows far more about a federal subject than I do. I do know that we hear this is why people are so desperate to get out of the TSA, because they are not part of competitive service. Oh, looking into the subject, I see the Post Office is excepted service, and that this is 31% of federal jobs. Dang, that is something. Oh man, and the Peace Corps, and a Wikipedia article! Though they say "most civilian positions...are part of the competitive service" and I dunno, looking at that list makes me wonder what the total percentages of each are. Also that job satisfaction list has me wondering. I kind of assumed a job where you could basically set your own schedule as long as it is "80 hours in a pay period" and where you are barely supervised as long as you do your job well was about as good as it got, but USCIS is only "above median" so who knows?!?!
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Apr 13, 2015 00:57
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I think that those federal Best Places to Work surveys are good to see if an agency's good & bad points line up with your personal priorities. If its important for you to have a strong senior leadership or you like an agency who believes in training, find one that scores high in those subcategories. For example, my agency scores in the middle for pay. But everything else is in the bottom ten or one percent. We're almost at the bottom for innovation, so spergy IT folks will probably drink Drano. So if you want overtime once in a while, mediocre team work & everything else at the almost bottom, come work with me. 
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Apr 13, 2015 04:46
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Evil SpongeBob posted:Once you get in anywhere, its easier to lateral somewhere else & is quite common. I'd go with a competitive service agency as some agencies won't accept excepted service. I'm excepted and I'm pretty sure there's equivalences from excepted to competitive, by statue. I wouldn't avoid excepted, if anything, excepted service jobs (agencies have both) are more interesting work in agencies that pay better and have better benefits, under the guise of national security, LE, or IC work.
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Apr 13, 2015 12:46
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So I'm in a bit of a quandry. I'm interning at the US Attorney's Office for my state and am lucky enough to be paid for my work. The pay isn't consistent with my status as a graduate student and is several GS levels below that but a paid internship is rare enough. The problem is that I'm not learning anything here. I sit here and work on projects that have the absolute last priority while other interns work on more significant, trial related things. There is a training program in name here but it's just "here watch these DOJ orientatiom videos and attend a few trainings for things you're never going to do". I keep asking for more assignments and more types of work to do but no one knows what to give me or how to help me. Furthermore, my graduate program is in International Security and the federal legal field is not what I want to do as a career. I'm really frustrated and don't want to quit because this is my only income but I don't see any other option. My parents would help me out with money but I don't want to ask. I'm applying for a unpaid internship with DHS for the next academic year but again, my current internship is my only income source. Any advice would be appreciated. dalliance fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Apr 20, 2015 |
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Apr 20, 2015 15:21
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Does "Promotion Potential: 12" for a GS-7 imply that there is a ladder of 7/9/11/12?
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Apr 20, 2015 21:53
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Does anyone have any advice for someone graduating in 2 months with a BA in Global Studies from UCLA? I'm pretty horrified with my jobs right now. I will also get a minor in East Asian Studies, have 2 years of Mandarin + written Chinese in a classroom setting, and studied abroad in Shanghai if that matters. I have spammed a number of the USAJOBS job applications, but I feel like I must be doing something wrong.
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Apr 21, 2015 07:42
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Apply to the Foreign Service. Your an ideal fit for a mandarin LNA. The FS thread has more information.
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Apr 21, 2015 14:02
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Snipee posted:I have spammed a number of the USAJOBS job applications, but I feel like I must be doing something wrong. It's a very opaque process. You may not be doing anything wrong--it just takes forever to hear anything (if you hear anything at all).
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Apr 21, 2015 14:50
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