HOW TO LAND A GOVERNMENT JOB
by Dennis V. Damp
Email: govjobs@aol.com
WELCOME
Are you interested in pursuing a career with the federal government, or are you actively looking for a government job? If so, you've come to the right place!
This area of the Internet Career Connection will help you explore federal government careers and provide you with access to jobs opportunities stateside or overseas in over 900 occupational fields. Within this article, you will find a tremendous amount of information and resources that you can use to explore and understand today's lucrative federal job market. This article covers the following topics:
- Federal Employment - An Overview
- What Jobs Are Available
- Your Federal Application or Resume
- Interviewing Techniques
- Civil Service Exams
- Veterans Preference
- Overseas Employment
- Post Office Jobs
- Federal Employee's Information
- Employment Opportunities for People With Disabilities
- Pay Schedules
- Job Hunters Checklist
- Job Resources and Links
First, to understand your options, consider the numbers! Uncle Sam hires an average of 327,000 (non-Postal) workers yearly to replace employees that transfer to other jobs, retire, or stop working for the Federal Government for various reasons. Add another 40,000 Postal Service vacancies to the 327,000 figure and you'll get a good idea of the annual employment needs - and opportunities - of the Federal Government. Also, the average annual salary of all full-time employees exceeded $46,000 (as of March 1998). In addition to hundreds of thousands of job openings each year and great salaries, the U.S. Government is the largest employer in the United States, hiring 2.5 percent of the nation's civilian work force!
Excellent job opportunities are available for those who know how to tap this lucrative job market. All government hiring is based on performance and qualifications regardless of your sex, race, color, creed, religion, disability, or national origin. Where else can you apply for a high paying, entry-level job that offers employment at thousands of locations nationally and/or internationally, excellent career advancement opportunities, plus careers in hundreds of occupations! For millions of Americans, working for Uncle Sam was one of the best decisions of their lives.
FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT - AN OVERVIEW
The Federal Government of the United States affects the lives of Americans everywhere. It defends Americans from foreign aggressors, represents American interests abroad, provides important public services, creates and enforces laws, and administers social programs. Workers employed by the Federal Government play a vital role in these and many other facets of every day American life.
This article describes career opportunities in civilian jobs offered by the Federal Government, including career opportunities in the U.S. Postal Service - an independent agency of the Federal Government.
Six federal agencies employ 79 percent of the American work force, or 2,212,823 employees. Of the 104,300 federal employees stationed abroad, slightly over half are U.S. Citizens. The remaining employees are foreign nationals.
Professional specialty and executive, administrative, and managerial occupations:
Together, professional specialty and executive, administrative, and managerial occupations comprise about 47 percent of Federal employment. Almost all professional specialty jobs require a four-year college degree. Some, such as engineers, physicians and life and physical scientists require a bachelor's or higher degree in a specific field of study.
Administrative support occupations:
Almost 1 Federal worker in 4 falls into this category, not counting the U.S. Postal Service. Administrative support workers usually need only a high school diploma, though any further training or experience, such as a junior college degree, or at least two years of relevant work experience, is an asset. Administrative support workers aid management staff with administrative duties. They include secretaries; bookkeepers; accounting, auditing, stock, traffic, shipping, and receiving clerks; receptionists; and switch-board operators.
Technicians and related support occupations:
Technicians make up about 8 percent of the Federal workforce. They may aid professionals in research, analysis, or law enforcement. Often their tasks and skills are quite specialized, such as the case for air traffic controllers. As a result, many technicians are required to have some vocational training or extensive work experience; many have two?year associate degrees.
Engineering technicians, who may work either directly with engineers or by themselves, are common. Other technician occupations include health technicians, such as dental hygienists and radiologists, who have specialized health service jobs, or legal assistants, who aid judges and attorneys.
Other occupations:
There exists a variety of other kinds of occupations that require no more than a high school degree, although some departments and agencies may prefer workers with some vocational training or previous experience. For instance, some precision production workers like mechanics or machinists, or service workers such as chefs or barbers need some specific training or experience. The Federal Government also offers apprenticeship programs, which train unskilled workers on the job for some skilled occupations.
Click here for additional overview information regarding the federal workforce and the 900+ occupations offered by Uncle Sam.
WHAT JOBS ARE AVAILABLE?
There are several resources that you can use to learn about actual job openings offered by the Federal Government.
For example, you can call the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). OPM is the Federal Government's main hiring agency. OPM offers a phone hotline called USAJOBS (1-912-757-3000) which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also visit OPM's Internet website to search their database of employment openings.
Caution: While OPM is the government's main hiring agency, it does not have information on all government jobs. Many of the federal departments and agencies do their own hiring without the assistance of OPM. Therefore, you are strongly encouraged to contact specific federal departments and agencies (where you think you may like to work) directly to inquire about employment opportunities. Click here to gain access to over 200 different federal agency employment websites.
Additional avenues are also available to locate open job announcements including; OPM and federal agency sponsored job hot lines, Internet web sites, computer generated data bases, employment services, directories, and periodicals that publish job listings. These resources are covered in The Book of U.S. Government Jobs written by Dennis V. Damp.
WHERE ARE THE JOBS LOCATED?
Contrary to popular believe, only about 12 percent of all federal jobs are located in Washington D.C. Most of the government jobs are scattered throughout the United States. Government employees work in offices, shipyards, laboratories, national parks, hospitals, military bases and many other settings across the country and overseas.
COMPETITIVE SERVICE
Approximately 57 percent of civilian jobs are in the "competitive service." This means that people applying for these types of positions must be evaluated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), either directly or through agency personnel offices (that are delegated by OPM with direct hire or case hire authority).
DETERMINING YOUR ELIGIBILITY
Eligibility for Federal employment is determined through evaluating your education and/or work experience. The results of your evaluation are then converted into a salary ranking system commonly referred to as the General pay Schedule or "GS." For example, an entry level radio operator would start at a GS-2 pay grade ($15,023 per year) if he or she was a high school graduate, or had at least three months of general experience. However, that same radio operator could start at a GS-4 ($18,401 per year) if he or she had six months of general experience and six months of specialized experience, or two years of education above high school with courses related to the occupation. Click here to learn more about the education and experience requirements for a variety of federal jobs.
YOUR FEDERAL APPLICATION OR RESUME
For many years, the main way to apply for federal employment was to fill out an application form called the SF-171 (Application for Federal Employment). However, the SF-171 is no longer required when applying for federal jobs. The SF 171 is optional and it has been replaced with a process that allows applicants to use a resume or other form of written application. As a result, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) now offers the following enhanced application services:
- Written, telephone, and automated application techniques.
- Applicant choices in how they submit written applications.
- Two new optional forms and an acceptable resume format.
- USAJOBS Internet website for job vacancy announcements.
- OPM Service Centers.
While the federal employment application process is more open and less formal than in years past, it is misleading to assume that a standard resume will land you a job with Uncle Sam. Most resumes used to seek civilian occupations are structured in such a manner that they do not contain all the information needed to be considered for federal employment. Therefore, it is suggested that you follow the guidance found in The Book of U.S. Government Jobs to learn how to write successful applications and resumes for the government job you want.
You can also use a software program called Quick & Easy Federal Jobs Kit to complete the federal application process.
One very important factor to keep in mind is this… the federal application form and process is different than the process usually followed to secure civilian employment. Mastering this process is the key to successfully landing a federal job. Click here for a list of the required information needed on the federal resume and to obtain copies of the OF-612 Optional Application form.
INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES
Their are two primary interview types that you will encounter during your job search - the informational interview and the employment interview. The informational interview, which is initiated by the job seeker, is a valuable networking tool used to explore career and job opportunities. Click here to learn more about information interviewing . Employment interviews are initiated by prospective employers to assess your ability and to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as compared to other applicants. As with the case with civilian employment, the person with acceptable qualifications and the ability to impress the interview panel gets the job.
CIVIL SERVICE EXAMS
Tests are required for specific groups of occupations including secretarial and clerical, air traffic control, and for certain entry-level jobs. However, the majority (approximately 80%) of all government jobs are filled through a competitive examination of your background, work experience, and education, not through a written exam. There are some exceptions to this rule, and non-competitive appointments are available for certain veterans, the physically challenged or handicapped, and other groups. New employees are hired for their ability to perform the work advertised in the job announcement. An applicant's ability is determined through an evaluation of educational background, work experience, and skills testing for certain job series.
Sample exams can be found in The Book of U.S. Government Jobs. You will also find exams in this book for vocabulary, reading, tabular, and arithmetic reasoning questions. When you request to take an exam through an open job announcement, OPM or the recruiting agency, will send you a complete application package that you must take with you to the scheduled exam.
Please visit Federal Jobs.Net where you can find additional information about Civil Service exams, as well as links to the OPM website where you can request to receive information about the exams online.
VETERANS PREFERENCE
There are several special civil service employment programs available to military veterans. The Veterans Preference and the Veterans Readjustment Act (VRA) are two of the better known programs. Through these programs, veterans can gain priority in Federal hiring (as long as they meet the normally required qualifications) over other individuals who have similar educational and work backgrounds, but who lack military experience.
Also, unknown to many people, military dependents and spouses of active duty personnel can receive hiring preference for government jobs under the Military Spouse Preference Program and the Family Member Preference Program.
Click here for more information on how veterans can use their military experience to gain employment with the Federal Government.
OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT
Thousands of United States citizens work for the Federal Government in foreign countries, in the United States territories, Alaska, and Hawaii. The positions that are most often available are administrative (technical and professional), accountants, auditors, budget and program officers, management analysts, nurses, procurement officers, shorthand reporters, equipment specialists, engineers, social workers, housing officers, teachers, and alcohol and drug abuse specialists. Clerical (clerk-typist, stenographer) and secretary positions are normally filled locally overseas. Click here for more information about working overseas for Uncle Sam.
POST OFFICE JOBS
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employs 852,285 workers in 300 job categories for positions at 39,000 post offices, branches, stations, and community post offices throughout the United States. Approximately 40,000 postal workers are hired each year to fill vacancies left by workers retiring, transferring to other government positions, or to replace workers who have died or who have chosen to leave the Postal Service.
Vacancies are advertised internally by the USPS and not by the Office of Personnel Management. In 1971, the Postal Service became an independent branch of the Federal Government. Pay scales are determined by the Postal Pay Act and are not a part of the General pay Schedule. Adding benefits, overtime, and premiums, the average bargaining unit hourly rate was $20.53, yielding an effective annual compensation rate of $42,711. The PS pay scale is the largest pay system in the USPS and is predominately for bargaining unit employees. There are also Executive and Administrative Schedules for non-bargaining unit employees that range from $22,297 up to $148,400 for the Postmaster General. Click here for more information about Postal employment.
FEDERAL EMPLOYEE INFORMATION
Click here to access information for federal employees, from pay and benefits to promotion, congressional legislation and agency news. At this location you can join our readers article, review various resources, read feature articles and obtain Congressional contact information and e-mail addresses. This area also lists valuable resources that federal workers can use to locate promotional opportunities and find other jobs in the federal sector.
Use this location to research most aspects of federal employment and to locate pay scales for all parts of the country. There are 30 locality pay scales that adjust the salary above the General Schedule based on cost of living adjustments. This is an excellent location for federal employees to visit when they need answers to personnel, benefits, and questions about pay and compensation.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Over 209,284 people with disabilities (seven percent of the total federal civilian workforce) work for the federal government. Opportunities exist at all levels of government and in hundreds of occupations for people with disabilities. Total disabled federal employment has remained constant at seven percent since 1980. The enactment of The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and increased awareness of hiring options by federal managers should expand total disabled employment opportunities throughout government. Without question, some of the best employment opportunities for people with disabilities exist within the Federal Government, and the Federal Government is the largest employer of people with disabilities. Click here for more information about employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
SALARY LEVELS
As stated before, the salary that you might earn as a federal employment is determined from an analysis of your education and work experience, and is also determined by whether you posses special circumstances, such as Veterans preference. Once determined, you are assigned a ranking on the General Schedule at a certain Grade and Step level. Click here to view a chart showing the latest General Schedule (i.e. salary levels) and Grade and Step levels, as determined by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. This chart also includes information regarding area pay adjustments for various localities.
JOB HUNTERS CHECKLIST
If you're still uncertain or a little confused about how to find and secure employment with Uncle Sam, you're not alone! Remember, securing Federal Employment is not like getting a job in the civilian world and, therefore, it can often be confusing and frustrating. Therefore, we've created a checklist of steps to guide you in this process. Click here for a step-by-step guide to finding and securing employment with the Federal Government.
CAREER RESOURCES AND LINKS
Click here to access a listing of hundreds of highly informative career resources and Internet websites that you can use to research federal agencies, enhance your career opportunities, review what's happening in the federal sector, and land government jobs.
ABOUT DENNIS DAMP
Email: govjobs@aol.com
URL: Federal Jobs.Net
Dennis V. Damp is the owner of Bookhaven Press. Bookhaven develops and publishes a wide variety of career guides and business titles. Damp is the author of 12 books including:
- Health Care Job Explosion!
- Take Charge of Your Federal Career
- The Book of U.S. Government Jobs
- Post Office Jobs
- Dollars & Sense: Safe Investment Strategies
Damp writes business and career articles for national magazines and newspapers and he has appeared on over 100 national radio talk shows. He is an experienced career counselor and advisor. Dennis Damp is also the Forum Leader for the Government JOBS Central forum, found within the Gonyea Online Career Center on America Online (AOL).
© 1999 by Dennis V. Damp, Bookhaven Press. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be used for any reason, other than for personal use, without written permission from Bookhaven Press LLC.
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