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Dammerung posted:I'm going to sound pretty dumb for asking this, but how would I tell? This was the original job posting. I hope it's a good one! Thank you for wishing us luck, I'm hoping this will work out. I'm hoping it will be a bit more like this...
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Apr 20, 2021 22:03
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Antivehicular posted:No idea about locality pay, sorry. As for full-time telework at the IRS: it really depends on your particular job and department, as some tasks are much more dependent on paper documents than others. I'm in submission processing, which is pretty doc-dependent and has few to no full-time remote opportunities; I'm currently teleworking but have to go in one day a week to catch up with paper documents, while my fiance in another SP department just transitioned from a two-week-remote/one-week-office schedule to being back in the office full-time because of paper backlog. I imagine Accounts Management and other departments that need paper returns less might have more options. I'm in ACS and am fully teleworking right now. We've not had any news about coming back into the office at this point and if we were it might just be 1-day a week based on what the union says. Some of us have the option of going in if we want, but none of the poeple in my group have opted for it as far as I'm aware besides our manager.
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Apr 20, 2021 22:13
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Struggling to stay motivated in my ACDEMO role. I’m a GS 14 equivalent with little to no management oversight. My team is small but critical in our org. I should be grateful but I seem to hate everyday. There is very little structure and my bosses are erratic and disorganized. I hate working with incompetent support contractors that are making more than me. I work at a DC HQ office. Been in the role 14 months. Should I leave?
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Apr 21, 2021 13:44
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My wife was wanting to get info FEMA as a reservist, but there seems to be a couple ways? Like emailing your resume to some email, applying to specific posts on usajobs, or applying and working for a contractor that does FEMA contracts, is one way better than the other?
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Apr 21, 2021 13:59
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Howard Phillips posted:Struggling to stay motivated in my ACDEMO role. I’m a GS 14 equivalent with little to no management oversight. My team is small but critical in our org. I should be grateful but I seem to hate everyday. There is very little structure and my bosses are erratic and disorganized. I hate working with incompetent support contractors that are making more than me. I work at a DC HQ office. Are you career or excepted service? It is usually recommended that you stay for 3-years so that your TSP match vests. If your career service you also get reinstatement eligibility after 3-years. Your pension will not vest until 5 years. If you're a veteran then none of this matters. You can do what you want and you'll likely be able to easily get rehired for another Federal gig if you ever want to come back. There are pros and cons to being a contractor. Lots of people like it. The biggest reason most people stay in Fed. work is because they have a family which makes the job security very important.
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Apr 21, 2021 14:19
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laxbro posted:Are you career or excepted service? It is usually recommended that you stay for 3-years so that your TSP match vests. If your career service you also get reinstatement eligibility after 3-years. Your pension will not vest until 5 years. If you're a veteran then none of this matters. You can do what you want and you'll likely be able to easily get rehired for another Federal gig if you ever want to come back. I am career. Will become permanent when my two year probationary period ends in ten months. I’m a veteran. Becoming a deputy PM is kind of a milestone that people in ACDEMO work towards and it’s not something I want, at least today. Any tips on coping near term in a dysfunctional org and rice bowl syndrome coworkers?
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Apr 21, 2021 15:30
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Howard Phillips posted:Any tips on coping near term in a dysfunctional org and rice bowl syndrome coworkers? I’m also acqdemo and your description of your chain of command and expected career milestones are similar to mine. However, I would say I’m having a pretty good time with my work, and will also tell most people that doing it for the government is about the best deal you can get in America. I learned engineering because I wanted to tinker with and design cool things, and that’s what I do every day. I’ve just fully accepted the fact that this is simply something that’s outside of management’s understanding completely. The lack of oversight effectively means I am free to do the job the way I want to do it, as long as I can accept that there is a certain lack of straightforwardness to the situation. My chain of command is also constantly trying to push me out of the lab and into meeting rooms and responsibilities that involve more stupid paperwork, but I just have to put a fair amount of elbow grease into avoiding those things. Sure, it tends to mean that I don’t get bs awards or any real recognition, and will always get an average salary increase at best at the annual review, but I don’t really care. On the one hand, I make less than many people with “engineer” in their title, on the other hand I make way way more than the lion’s share of people literally designing and prototyping circuits, which is what I want to be getting paid for right now. And silly me, my idea of a good life is to do something fun like circuit design for normal full time hours and pay and have plenty of time left over for other things like sleep, exercise, making music, and playing video games with my friends. So no, I’ll keep doing it for the government, thank you very much. I’m not sure I’d call any of this “advise” for your situation, but just wanted to share my thoughts and paradigm, at least. I don’t think my approach and attitude would work for everyone.
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Apr 21, 2021 16:05
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Howard Phillips posted:Any tips on coping near term in a dysfunctional org and rice bowl syndrome coworkers? Honestly you just have to make your peace with it. Get hobbies and fulfillment outside of work. I understand that this can be harder said then done for people that are micromanaged. But you are in a senior SME role on a small team so it sounds like you really have a lot of autonomy as long as you get your work done. I used to get super frustrated but I've made peace with it. I have a ton of autonomy and leadership defers to me on most things. I get to clock out 4:00p.m. on the do to pick up my kid from daycare. I'm at a park by 4:15 - it's great. My wife did defense consulting for a few years so I've seen what it is like. She was making tons of money but she always worked 60-70 hours weeks (including weekends). Officers and SES calling her at 6:00am or 8:00pm to discuss whatever zany idea they wanted her team to do even though it was well outside the scope of the (poorly) written PWS. For training and professional development you can learn a useful skill (that's somehow related to your work). I taught myself to code and completed CS50 a few years back. If you go into the office every day then hit up the gym during your lunch break (if they're open). Its hard to get frustrated after doing a set of heavy deadlifts or squats! But federal service isn't for everyone. It sucks that there is so much bureaucracy and mismanagement. It causes a lot of really good people to leave. Lots of people love the private sector. My wife did a pathways internship at a prestigious agency and hated it. She knew that Federal service wasn't for her.
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Apr 21, 2021 16:07
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Rakeris posted:My wife was wanting to get info FEMA as a reservist, but there seems to be a couple ways? Like emailing your resume to some email, applying to specific posts on usajobs, or applying and working for a contractor that does FEMA contracts, is one way better than the other?
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Apr 21, 2021 16:22
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confusingly, I did both - apply on usajobs and email the FEMA cadre I’d applied to my resume. when I was looking at my file on FedHR the emailed resume was in there but all the stuff on my job offer matched the usajobs posting! so I guess what I’m saying is doing both doesn’t hurt and may have gotten my usajobs app noticed
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Apr 21, 2021 19:12
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Dr. Quarex posted:I think everyone I know on the inside who has talked about the application process went through the "just send in your résumé" method, but I imagine they must hire through the other methods too. I kind of wonder if those postings are a new thing, as I definitely do not remember seeing so many FEMA postings back when I was first desperately trying to get into the government. I am hoping the increased number of USAJobs postings is a good sign for me! Also, they've been contacting my references, so I'm getting increasingly hopeful. And nervous. But it's a good kind of nervous.
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Apr 21, 2021 20:31
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laxbro posted:Honestly you just have to make your peace with it. Get hobbies and fulfillment outside of work. I understand that this can be harder said then done for people that are micromanaged. But you are in a senior SME role on a small team so it sounds like you really have a lot of autonomy as long as you get your work done. I used to get super frustrated but I've made peace with it. I have a ton of autonomy and leadership defers to me on most things. I get to clock out 4:00p.m. on the do to pick up my kid from daycare. I'm at a park by 4:15 - it's great. My wife did defense consulting for a few years so I've seen what it is like. She was making tons of money but she always worked 60-70 hours weeks (including weekends). Officers and SES calling her at 6:00am or 8:00pm to discuss whatever zany idea they wanted her team to do even though it was well outside the scope of the (poorly) written PWS. Thanks laxbro. Very helpful reply. You're right, I just need to let go off certain things and not get spun up on stuff that I can't control. As for getting hobbies and fulfillment, yes I need to work on that. If work is the only thing in your life, it's very easy to burn out.
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Apr 21, 2021 22:24
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Oh cool, a USAJOBS thread. I've been applying to various scientist/ecologist/geologist related jobs at gs-11 level, even a few gs-9s, with USGS, NOAA, NPS, BLM, FWS for the past year or so with not much luck. I'm trying to break out of academia (have a PhD and a postdoc under my belt) while also applying to the few academic postdocs that show up here and there, since my current postdoc ended and I'm now unemployed. I'm thinking it's for a few reasons, pandemic, I don't have a lot of applied experience applying knowledge of NEPA or other legislation, I don't really have an easy in with few contacts in gov't, and my previous work might not directly translate to a lot of the jobs since it's pretty specialized geochemistry stuff. Or it seems like a lot of these positions they've got someone in mind and are required by the rules to advertise widely. I've been referred a few times or considered eligible, but so far seems to go nowhere. Maybe something will pan out, hopefully before unemployment benefits run out.
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Apr 21, 2021 23:04
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Had an interview with the Mint today and it was probably the worst of my four interviews, not helped because the questions they were asking were way too long and asked for a bunch of things that implied wanting an example for each which is a bit wtf for a GS5-7 ladder position.
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Apr 22, 2021 01:58
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Xelkelvos posted:Had an interview with the Mint today and it was probably the worst of my four interviews, not helped because the questions they were asking were way too long and asked for a bunch of things that implied wanting an example for each which is a bit wtf for a GS5-7 ladder position. Dang, that does sound pretty rough. That being said, I think it's a good sign that you can look back and realize that it's a little strange as compared to the other interviews you've had! I think that says good things about you as an applicant. I saw that I had a conditional job offer waiting for me and I thought it was the FEMA position... and it wasn't. I'm still happy, but I want just that little bit more.
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Apr 22, 2021 21:44
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Someone I know is trying to apply for a position at the National Endowment for the Humanities. The listing states the location as Washington DC, but also listed as telework eligible. My reading of that is that the position would be in DC with potential part-time telework, as opposed to full time telework. Is that correct? Listing for reference: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/598743700
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Apr 27, 2021 18:17
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Shadragul posted:Someone I know is trying to apply for a position at the National Endowment for the Humanities. The listing states the location as Washington DC, but also listed as telework eligible. My reading of that is that the position would be in DC with potential part-time telework, as opposed to full time telework. Is that correct? I would agree with that reading and also be aware that eve full-time telework positions can also expect you to move locally and have some availability. Frankly, I'd never attempt to parse it myself or ask goons, if it was important to me, I'd use the contact info (phone/email) at the bottom of the posting to 100% verify with the agency's HR team.
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Apr 27, 2021 18:32
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Toshimo posted:I would agree with that reading and also be aware that eve full-time telework positions can also expect you to move locally and have some availability. Frankly, I'd never attempt to parse it myself or ask goons, if it was important to me, I'd use the contact info (phone/email) at the bottom of the posting to 100% verify with the agency's HR team. Yes, and also most agencies I know of wouldn't allow someone not to be available locally due to location-based pay (i.e., they don't want to be paying someone the premium that is supposed to compensate for DC's high cost of living to someone who doesn't live in that area).
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Apr 27, 2021 18:55
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Sir John Falstaff posted:Yes, and also most agencies I know of wouldn't allow someone not to be available locally due to location-based pay (i.e., they don't want to be paying someone the premium that is supposed to compensate for DC's high cost of living to someone who doesn't live in that area). if you have a home based duty station for full time telework, the locality is typically same as your residence. at least that’s the case in my little corner of USDA. my current job is historically DC based, but my duty station is Denver.
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Apr 29, 2021 05:32
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AtomicSX posted:Anyone know if FSAFEDS will up the dependent care FSA limit to $10,500 in response to the relief bill? I can't find any news on the topic. I'm sure you know this, but FSAFEDS sent out an email on this yesterday: FSAFeds posted:Dear FSAFEDS Participant,
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Apr 30, 2021 14:15
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Balloon Time Hooray! posted:Oh cool, a USAJOBS thread. I've been applying to various scientist/ecologist/geologist related jobs at gs-11 level, even a few gs-9s, with USGS, NOAA, NPS, BLM, FWS for the past year or so with not much luck. I'm trying to break out of academia (have a PhD and a postdoc under my belt) while also applying to the few academic postdocs that show up here and there, since my current postdoc ended and I'm now unemployed. I'm thinking it's for a few reasons, pandemic, I don't have a lot of applied experience applying knowledge of NEPA or other legislation, I don't really have an easy in with few contacts in gov't, and my previous work might not directly translate to a lot of the jobs since it's pretty specialized geochemistry stuff. Or it seems like a lot of these positions they've got someone in mind and are required by the rules to advertise widely. I've been referred a few times or considered eligible, but so far seems to go nowhere. Maybe something will pan out, hopefully before unemployment benefits run out. Breaking into the public sector can be hard, just keep doing what you're doing and consider going to conferences/seminars to network and find out about possible opportunities, make yourself known. A PI might just pursue funding for particular projects specifically because they have somebody well qualified in mind, they just need to know you exist. I'm with the USGS in post-fire restoration ecology, soil science & ecology is really taking off currently as there's a lot of potential there in terms of restoration/carbon sequestration especially with the 30x30 plan funneling loads'a money our way. I'd say you're in a pretty auspicious position and there's certainly plenty of work for you in government science, but USA Jobs will fight you every step of the way because it needs to sustain it's rotten black heart by feeding on your life energy through bureaucratic suffering.
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Apr 30, 2021 16:07
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I mean: The US Federal Gov’t Jobs Megathread: feeding on your life energy through bureaucratic suffering.
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Apr 30, 2021 16:49
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Argh. The Department of State updated the Visa Bulletin and I am now buried in premium processing applications for green cards.
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Apr 30, 2021 19:06
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laxbro posted:I'm sure you know this, but FSAFEDS sent out an email on this yesterday: Yes I did see that and was going to post it to the thread, thanks!
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May 2, 2021 14:30
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laxbro posted:I'm sure you know this, but FSAFEDS sent out an email on this yesterday: Thanks for posting, I either didn't get or overlooked the email.
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May 2, 2021 15:01
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Got the Tentative Offer for that US Mint job I applied for despite thinking that I bombed it. Only issue is that they're offering the GS-5 and not the GS-7 despite me qualifying via Superior Academic Achievement and the rejection note on the application tracking page saying I didn't meet the "Specialized Experience" part which includes SAA. Here's the posting for reference: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/592673700 Edit: The HR Specialist's out of office response has this as an alternate contact email, lmao " KL!@#$@fiscal.trea^&.gov "
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May 5, 2021 19:46
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Coming in as a 5 is less than ideal, but if that position really has noncompetitive promotion potential to 13 you could do a lot worse than to ride that appointment from a 5 to a 13. That kind of promotion potential isn’t super common. I haven’t touched classification in a long time, but presumably you’re looking at 5/7/9/11/12/13, so five years to full performance level instead of four isn’t necessarily a huge deal. That assumes that promotions are automatic unless you gently caress up, which has been my experience but I’ve never done work for that agency. I wouldn’t walk away from that 5 offer is all I’m saying.
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May 6, 2021 01:38
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Xelkelvos posted:Got the Tentative Offer for that US Mint job I applied for despite thinking that I bombed it. Only issue is that they're offering the GS-5 and not the GS-7 despite me qualifying via Superior Academic Achievement and the rejection note on the application tracking page saying I didn't meet the "Specialized Experience" part which includes SAA. As someone who got bad advice from a lazy HR person, get it ironed out before confirming acceptance. I only got beat out of some steps, not 2 whole grades, and I was very displeased.
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May 6, 2021 01:50
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Loucks posted:Coming in as a 5 is less than ideal, but if that position really has noncompetitive promotion potential to 13 you could do a lot worse than to ride that appointment from a 5 to a 13. That kind of promotion potential isn’t super common. I haven’t touched classification in a long time, but presumably you’re looking at 5/7/9/11/12/13, so five years to full performance level instead of four isn’t necessarily a huge deal. That assumes that promotions are automatic unless you gently caress up, which has been my experience but I’ve never done work for that agency. Definitely not. At least compared to my current IRS position. But if I am qualified, I'm gonna fight for that extra $4+ an hour as much as I can. Toshimo posted:As someone who got bad advice from a lazy HR person, get it ironed out before confirming acceptance. I only got beat out of some steps, not 2 whole grades, and I was very displeased. I'm still at the Tentative Offer stage and I haven't yet sent in my OF306 so there's still time. That said, if the HR person doesn't give me word and is sorta wishy washy on it, I'll probably CC the other engineers that were CC'd in the original Tentative Offer notice.
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May 6, 2021 02:01
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Xelkelvos posted:Definitely not. At least compared to my current IRS position. But if I am qualified, I'm gonna fight for that extra $4+ an hour as much as I can. Just to be clear, if you stick around in that position for the duration the difference between starting at a 5 and a 7 is around $70,000 (in the DC area). If you let that past you because someone didn't do their due diligence, that realization will definitely hit you eventually when you realize you could have bought yourself a couple of new cars and some nice vacations in a few years. Be your own best advocate. Take the 5 if you have to, but don't be afraid to get that $70,000 you deserve.
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May 6, 2021 02:19
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Speaking of poo poo federal HR, heard a rumor today that a pair of hotshot crews have more than half of their employees on a volunteer agreement because HR didn't process their onboarding paperwork on time. Getting your rear end busted during critical 80 is one thing when you're getting paid for it, it's totally another when you're donating your time to uncle sam.
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May 6, 2021 07:03
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Depending on how exactly that went down that may be an anti-deficiency act beef.
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May 6, 2021 07:07
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Toshimo posted:As someone who got bad advice from a lazy HR person, get it ironed out before confirming acceptance. I only got beat out of some steps, not 2 whole grades, and I was very displeased. this. when I first started as a 5 at SSA, a bunch of us later realized we probably should have qualified as at least 7s (after discovering that other new hires did so). HR's response was basically tough luck since we'd already accepted the final offers and at that point they act like it's set in stone. (They also had some BS excuse for why certain masters degrees weren't relevant) I would have taken the GS-5 position anyways, and I've since progressed from there, but now I know that tentative offer is negotiation time. Toshimo is wisely observing that you don't just lose out on the difference in wages thet year, but every subsequent year (e.g you'll be an 11 for a year when you could have been a 12). I was once bent out of shape when my agency simply forgot to process my grade increase paperwork on time and set my promotion back a few pay periods, because i realized that it would cause me to receive lower pay for a few paychecks every subsequent year by pushing back my step progression. it's water under the bridge now but a frustrating experience
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May 6, 2021 13:03
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On offer talk, I had no idea that you could negotiate steps to meet your current salary. I got offered the GS 11 step 1 ($72,750), while I was making $81,000 in the private sector. I took the hit to get in the door, and my role is non-competitive to 13 ($103,690). My mother in law told me I could have asked to start as a GS 11 step 4 or 5 to be able to keep my income the same. Is this true? I'm using DC locality scale here.
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May 6, 2021 13:20
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Betazoid posted:On offer talk, I had no idea that you could negotiate steps to meet your current salary. I got offered the GS 11 step 1 ($72,750), while I was making $81,000 in the private sector. I took the hit to get in the door, and my role is non-competitive to 13 ($103,690). My mother in law told me I could have asked to start as a GS 11 step 4 or 5 to be able to keep my income the same. In general, yes this is a thing they can do. It's nice because they never pay you less in the gov so you'd probably go to a 12-2 or 3 instead of 1.
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May 6, 2021 13:23
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Betazoid posted:On offer talk, I had no idea that you could negotiate steps to meet your current salary. I got offered the GS 11 step 1 ($72,750), while I was making $81,000 in the private sector. I took the hit to get in the door, and my role is non-competitive to 13 ($103,690). My mother in law told me I could have asked to start as a GS 11 step 4 or 5 to be able to keep my income the same. It depends - some agencies will not negotiate at all. For your situation it sucks missing out on the potential $9k for your first year as GS-11 but since you are on a ladder it doesn't have a long term impact because you will reset at 12 step 1 within one year.
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May 6, 2021 13:36
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Hackan Slash posted:In general, yes this is a thing they can do. It's nice because they never pay you less in the gov so you'd probably go to a 12-2 or 3 instead of 1. In specific, the rule is that, when you advance a grade, they add 3 steps to your current pay rate and then set your next grade so that it pays at least that much. Usually doesn't come into play unless you are at Step 5 or higher in a grade.
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May 6, 2021 14:58
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Thesaurus posted:this. when I first started as a 5 at SSA, a bunch of us later realized we probably should have qualified as at least 7s (after discovering that other new hires did so). HR's response was basically tough luck since we'd already accepted the final offers and at that point they act like it's set in stone. (They also had some BS excuse for why certain masters degrees weren't relevant) Exact. same. position. I was desperate, they were the only offer I had at the time, I had to take it. It annoys me when I think about it, but that's a lot less nowadays.
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May 6, 2021 21:27
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I was recently selected for a 1039 appointment moving laterally within my agency & field station. It just reached HR and we're finding out that I'm ineligible for the position because I'm currently on a term appointment (after previously being on a 1039) and there needs to be a lapse in duty before I'll qualify for another 1039. Does anybody know what this is about and how it works? How long does a lapse in job duty need to be before being eligible for another temp appointment? Are there similar restrictions with reupping/rehiring for term appointments? I'm with the DoI if it matters. I'm pretty invested in the research I'm doing and since there's apparently no such thing as a permanent gov. position in the ecological sciences I expect this to be a problem for me again in the future. I would ask HR but I'd prefer to get an answer sometime within the next few months, hopefully without the palpable contempt.
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May 7, 2021 02:56
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Hackan Slash posted:In general, yes this is a thing they can do. It's nice because they never pay you less in the gov  Hello 25% pay cut, and that was after I pointed out the discrepancy assuming I knew more than HR and they said "oh we did not take your prior position into account, we can raise your base pay $1.50/hour!"
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May 7, 2021 03:29
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