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How to go about finding and applying for a job with the federal government. Date published: 1/12/2003
IF ONE of your New Year's resolutions is to find a govern- ment job or find a better job if you're already a federal employee, I thought I would go over what I consider to be the critical steps to finding federal employment. In case you haven't noticed, the federal job market has changed drastically over the last few years. Even with the traditional two- to three-year lag in keeping up with current technology, the government has still managed to make major changes in recruiting and hiring. Contrary to what many people think, the government is not difficult to get into. There are certain steps one must follow. The process can be very long, so be prepared to wait it out. Let's begin with the search. First and foremost, be careful what you pay for. Information containing listings of government jobs is available free of charge from several sources. Be very careful about ads promising high-paying jobs. The government is like any other employer, it is not going to pay big bucks for someone with little experience or education. You can normally find job announcements (the government's term for want ads) on any agency's Web site or on the Office of Personnel Management's Web site. There are three important things to look for: The closing date. All announcements have a date by which applications must be received. If you miss that date, you may be out of luck. The area of consideration. This tells you if anyone can apply for the job or if it is open only to current federal employees or to employees of that particular agency. Minimum qualifications. If you don't have these minimum qualifications, it's a waste of time to apply. The next step is the application. Read the announcement carefully. It will tell you how to apply, what information to include and in what format that information should be. Follow the instructions carefully. Most agencies are now accepting resumes instead of application forms, but resumes also must include all the required information. Several major shifts from the traditional job-application processes have included agencies' accepting applications via e-mail, providing an automated online format and accepting applications via fax. These were all virtually unheard-of less than two or three years ago.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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