Welcome to the Federal Prose blog, dedicated to providing useful information to help people navigate the federal hiring process. Whether one is a current federal employee looking for a promotion or a member of the private sector looking to break into the federal government, there are many obstacles to keep you from achieving your career goals. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that the U.S. government is the largest corporation in the world with over 2.7 million employees and annual revenues (taxes) in excess of $2.2 trillion.

Over the last seven years, I have written hundreds of federal applications for a broad range of clients and have found that most people are, at best, uncomfortable with the federal hiring process. On as daily basis, I speak with people who would like to enter the federal civilian service and have absolutely no idea of where to start. This is compounded by the sheer magnitude of divergent information available in print and on the Internet. For instance, one might be told by a federal hiring manager that all KSAs must be less than one page in length. However, in completing narratives for a GS-12 or higher, it is often impossible to encapsulate the essence of the applicant’s specific achievements in less than one page. What is the answer? Depends on the agency. Basically, there are very few rules about the federal hiring process. Here are a few I’ve discovered:

FEDERAL JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. USAJobs is meant to be a repository for all government jobs. It often is.

2. Agency-specific websites are good secondary job announcement sources.

3. Do not ever pay to access any listing of current federal job openings.

4. Always make sure you are actually eligible prior to applying for a position.

5. If the job is open for less than one week, it is probably already taken.

6. If a job is open for more than three weeks, funding or actual availability is suspect.

FEDERAL APPLICATION PROCESS:

1. You must identify a specific job announcement and write application accordingly.

2. There is no standard Federal resume format.

3. Brevity is secondary only to detail.

4. A significant portion of federal agencies to not use USAJobs resume builder.

5. All applications are rated using a unique point system for that agency (or sub-agency).

6. If you do not complete all components of the application, you will not be considered.

INCREASING YOUR CHANCES FOR SUCCESS:

1. The federal government does not actively seek career-changers.

2. Specialized experience is key, with education and special preferences next.

3. Do not base your grade-level decision on comparative salary in private sector.

4. It is extremely difficult to get hired from the private sector at over GS-13 level.

5. The fastest way up the federal ladder is to re-locate for promotions.

6. It is much easier to get a federal job if you are currently working in that field.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rules above. The federal hiring process is a marathon, not a sprint. The final and most important rule to remember is that Focus + Persistence = Success.

Eric Brass
Certified Federal Resume Writer and Career Coach

Federal Prose

Tags: Federal Application Process, federal job, federal resume, government job

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 10:39 am and is filed under Federal Application Process. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.