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This website has been really helpful so far. There are a lot of knowledgeable people on here so I figured I will ask you all my questions.
The "Relocation to NoVA" thread helped me out some because my husband, myself and our two young sons are moving to northern VA in about a month and I am becoming overwhelmed at all the things that I need to figure out like the best place to live, best schools and how to get a job in Northern VA. I'm from Manassas, VA but after I went in the Army at 18, I have only been back for visits and have never lived in VA as an adult. The perspective is quite different from a young girl to a wife and mother of 2.
Now we are moving back to my home state because I love VA but I am suddenly overwhelmed with all the decisions to make of coming back to my home state but possibly a different city, a husband and two kids in tow and needing to find a quality place to live near good schools and most importantly, needing to head back to work after four years of college.
I saved the "Relocation" thread for later reference. But my main question is how are people applying for jobs at USAJOBS.com and actually getting the job?
I always apply to jobs there and I am never contacted. Is there somewhere I can go to check the status of my application? Do keywords in my resume make a huge difference? Has anyone ever been picked up for a position and the organization paid for the clearance that you needed?
Do I need to use a VA address to be picked up?
Do I need to have a bachelor's degree for an IT job? Has anyone ever gotten picked up for an IT job without finishing their bachelor's? If so, what other credentials did you have (e.g. government clearance, A+, Net+, Cisco, etc.). I have worked in IT for 5 years while I was in the Army and at ITT and now I am in college. I graduate next year but I am having the hardest time getting a job while my friend got a GS job fairly quickly. She is an accountant though and doesn't need a clearance like I do. My clearance has lasped since I stopped working to finish college. Also, she is finished with her degree and I don't have mine yet. I compare myself to her because I am at the point where I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I am highly qualified in my job and employers have told me that my resume is impressive, yet I don't ever seem to get picked up for an IT position.
I know it's a lot of questions but I am beginning to wonder what am I doing wrong.
Also, if I wanted to get another GS job that wasn't in the IT field just to get my foot in the door, what do you all recommend? Thanks for your responses!
Last edited by NOVAChick; 09-26-2009 at 04:17 PM..
The government job search/application process is daunting. I am working with someone right now to apply for a job in my office. She is totally 100% qualified and I'm afraid she won't make the certification after she puts in her resume because it can just be a flakey process!!
First off, if the job does not list a college degree as a requirement, then you don't need one...period. That shouldn't be what is disqualifying you. If it does need a degree and you don't have one yet, then you should not even be applying.
For a government job, not having a clearance at the time of application also will not disqualify you. It is a condition of keeping your employment but most people I know that come in from the outside, even if they have a clearance through their company, need to be reinvestigated because the DoD does not use the same agency to grant the clearance as the contractors do. Crazy, right? All clearances are not created equally although it is highly unlikely that you would have a clearance at a private company and not be able to get one in the government but I guess it does happen.
Your key words need to be spot on or you will not make it through the first run of selectees. You must be fanatical almost at matching your experience to what is written on the job announcement. Your resume that you input into USAJOBS will not end up looking like anything that you would hand out and it should be meticulously tailored to each announcement. Don't just entered a resume in there and start shooting it out to ten different applications. Each applicatation/announcement is going to require you to tweak your resume to match it.
There is no way to check the status of your application. Ideally, at some point, you should receive a letter from the agency telling you that you were not qualified for the job. I know these are hit or miss though. Sometimes I got one, sometimes I didn't.
Is your husband in the military? If so, you should now qualify for a military spouse preference. Somewhere in USAJOBS you need to make sure you get that. Also, if you served in the military, have you served under any of the "Operation XXXXX's" that would get you a 5-point preference?
The government job search/application process is daunting. I am working with someone right now to apply for a job in my office. She is totally 100% qualified and I'm afraid she won't make the certification after she puts in her resume because it can just be a flakey process!!
First off, if the job does not list a college degree as a requirement, then you don't need one...period. That shouldn't be what is disqualifying you. If it does need a degree and you don't have one yet, then you should not even be applying.
For a government job, not having a clearance at the time of application also will not disqualify you. It is a condition of keeping your employment but most people I know that come in from the outside, even if they have a clearance through their company, need to be reinvestigated because the DoD does not use the same agency to grant the clearance as the contractors do. Crazy, right? All clearances are not created equally although it is highly unlikely that you would have a clearance at a private company and not be able to get one in the government but I guess it does happen.
Your key words need to be spot on or you will not make it through the first run of selectees. You must be fanatical almost at matching your experience to what is written on the job announcement. Your resume that you input into USAJOBS will not end up looking like anything that you would hand out and it should be meticulously tailored to each announcement. Don't just entered a resume in there and start shooting it out to ten different applications. Each applicatation/announcement is going to require you to tweak your resume to match it.
There is no way to check the status of your application. Ideally, at some point, you should receive a letter from the agency telling you that you were not qualified for the job. I know these are hit or miss though. Sometimes I got one, sometimes I didn't.
Is your husband in the military? If so, you should now qualify for a military spouse preference. Somewhere in USAJOBS you need to make sure you get that. Also, if you served in the military, have you served under any of the "Operation XXXXX's" that would get you a 5-point preference?
Your information was awesome and spot on. I kind of figured that I would need to match my keywords better. I was one of "those" people and just shooting my resume out to numerous job announcements because matching keywords was a bit time consuming and I didn't think matching keywords was that important.
But I know you are right b/c I went to a resume workshop less than a year ago and my instructor said we had to meticulously do this. I felt my resume probably had the keywords needed from when I wrote it about 8 years ago so I crazily ignored her expert advice. I got caught up with my kids and college and just tried to send out resumes when I found the time.
I won't make that mistake again. I plan to take your advice because I know it is sound from past people telling me this time and time again but I just never listened...and I plan to match the keywords, work on some other things and get the job!
Thank you so much, Christine. You don't how much your advice has helped me because like most people know, I really need a job to live in VA and offset costs. My husband is in the Army right now but he is getting out in a few months. I am going to try to apply for jobs before he does so I can get the 10-point preference.
Thanks again. Take care.
Last edited by NOVAChick; 09-26-2009 at 04:34 PM..
Make sure you check into the preferences for military spouses. It is sort of a new hiring benefit and I'm not quite sure how it works but I imagine that when you apply (or in the area where you resume is updated) you will need to "check some box there" and this going to give some type of point preference.
I'll throw in my two cents as I got a govt job. As everyone else said, you have to match the words as it was posted in the job description. I would suggest you literally copy sentences or phrases that are described and you should use them. In many case, resumes are put into a software program (before anyone actually reads them!), and basically, this program finds all the keywords that the govt is looking for and counts them and gives you a score. If you pass a certain score, you move to the next round (phone interview) and then someone reads your resume. If they like you then, you get an in-face interview and go from there. Therefore, the more times you use those keywords the better.
Also, ther are books on how to apply to a govt. job.
This is true at my agency. The resume first goes through a computer system that looks for hits on the keywords. If enough hits are found, the resume is selected. All the selected resumes (there could be hundreds) are then forwarded to our HR group (which is located across the country) and a real, live human being sorts through the computer dump of resumes looking for the ones that have the actual skills that were asked for in the resume. Once that HR person selects them, they are given a point rating and forwarded to us. In our agency, we usually only receive a pool of about 7-10 candidates. Some will be rated in the 90 point range, some in teh 80 point range, and some in the 70 point range. If you score lower than that, you generally do not get in the pool.
So it is extremely important to specifically address every sentence in the announcement. And it's not good enough to just restate it, you must say what your role was in that task, some examples of how you performed it, and to what level. Your response to the announcement could be very lengthy.
Make sure you check into the preferences for military spouses. It is sort of a new hiring benefit and I'm not quite sure how it works but I imagine that when you apply (or in the area where you resume is updated) you will need to "check some box there" and this going to give some type of point preference.
Christine,
You are correct. This option is somewhere on the website. I always make sure to check it. Thanks!
I'll throw in my two cents as I got a govt job. As everyone else said, you have to match the words as it was posted in the job description. I would suggest you literally copy sentences or phrases that are described and you should use them. In many case, resumes are put into a software program (before anyone actually reads them!), and basically, this program finds all the keywords that the govt is looking for and counts them and gives you a score. If you pass a certain score, you move to the next round (phone interview) and then someone reads your resume. If they like you then, you get an in-face interview and go from there. Therefore, the more times you use those keywords the better.
Also, ther are books on how to apply to a govt. job.
Wow! I didn't know that. I guess I am about to start cutting and pasting away...lol. That is quite a shock to find out. I did not know that.
My sister actually got hired without even an in-person interview. She only had a phone interview and was hired. But it took her 2 years to finally get picked up. We were just under the impression that it just took a long time for everyone to get a GS job but then my friend, Alex, got out of the Air Force and she got one within months. I actually think she got multiple job offers. And this is when I started to think, "Ok, so what am I doing wrong?"
This is true at my agency. The resume first goes through a computer system that looks for hits on the keywords. If enough hits are found, the resume is selected. All the selected resumes (there could be hundreds) are then forwarded to our HR group (which is located across the country) and a real, live human being sorts through the computer dump of resumes looking for the ones that have the actual skills that were asked for in the resume. Once that HR person selects them, they are given a point rating and forwarded to us. In our agency, we usually only receive a pool of about 7-10 candidates. Some will be rated in the 90 point range, some in teh 80 point range, and some in the 70 point range. If you score lower than that, you generally do not get in the pool.
So it is extremely important to specifically address every sentence in the announcement. And it's not good enough to just restate it, you must say what your role was in that task, some examples of how you performed it, and to what level. Your response to the announcement could be very lengthy.
Wow, I knew it was a daunting process but I could have never imagined how crazy it would be just to apply for one job announcement. I am planning on taking a week off from school just to really pay all my attention to getting my resumes correct so I can have a higher chance of getting a GS job.
NovaChick,....if you do it right and have the skills they are looking for, you should get at least a phone interview. In-person interview may depend of GS level and also agency. I applied to 5 govt jobs and interviewed at 3 of them. The cuts are very deep at each level of the selection process. I think on some jobs, they phone-interviewed 5-7 people and then only in-person interviewed 2-3. Normally, expect a good six months (fast track) from when the job is closing to actually being hired and/or start. My job posting closed in mid-march and I started in mid Sept. Also, make sure you follow the instructions to a tee!!! If you are missing any documents (transcripts, etc.) that they request, you are automatically eliminated. If they are late, you are eliminated. There is someone who has a checklist of items to be included in the resume submission...any missing parts means you are eliminated. It's unlike non-govt. that may give you a call and ask for them, the govt. will not do that, so place close attention to the required documents.
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Thank you!
We were just under the impression that it just took a long time for everyone to get a GS job but then my friend, Alex, got out of the Air Force and she got one within months. I actually think she got multiple job offers. And this is when I started to think, "Ok, so what am I doing wrong?"
