[Luna] Government Job App Tips

[Deborah Lee Soltesz]

Hi Gang,

As you know, one of my activities has become "cheerleader" for jobs at the 
USGS here in Flagstaff. If you've been applying and met with naught but 
frustration, I feel your pain -- I don't like hearing my "recruiting 
targets" aren't getting called for interviews any more than you don't like 
getting called. I'm not sure why getting an interview is so damned hard, 
but I'm working on figuring it out.

For those of you who have been applying to federal jobs advertisements, 
I've got a few tips. This is purely my opinion based on a small amount of 
experience, so take it for what it's worth (iow, this e-mail in no way 
represents an official statement by Uncle Sam, jus' little ol' deborah 
sittin' on her couch). I googled for some good advice, but really didn't 
find much that seemed like really good, federal-job-specific advice.

Here's my general advice for government job apps:

   * Don't worry about the 1-2 page limit -- it's okay to be verbose.
   * The initial screening is done by folks who are not subject matter
     experts who are looking at your resume for:
     - keywords: look at the job description and questions, and use
       the same keywords wherever applicable (e.g. the screeners don't
       understand that JSP is *Java* and won't mark their magic "Java
       Checkbox" if that's what the job is asking for)
     - required experience: for instance, a GS-9 requires a year at
       GS-7 level -- look at the GS-7 description and make sure your
       GS-7 equivalent experience is *very clearly* at that level
       (again, look at the keywords). You can also qualify for a GS rating
       with education -- there's a complicated mathematical formula for
       combining experience and education into a rating.
     - that your resume supports the answers to the questions - don't
       leave it to the essay questions or even multiple choice questions
       to be the answer... make sure the answer to every question matches
       something in your resume. From what I understand, including
       how many hours per week worked for part-time jobs can help clarify
       experience for the screeners -- they try to tally everything up
       to get a "grand total" for figuring out whether or not a candidate
       is qualified. See my note below about Computer Scientist positions.

Some specific tips (purely my opinion, and amount to "be redundant")
   * Add database to every database, i.e., MySQL database, PostgreSQL database,
     etc.
   * Spell out all acronyms (and include acronym): Java Server Pages (JSP)
   * Add other descriptive terms to tech jargon: C# programming language
     (even better, C# high-level, object-oriented programming language)
   * Spell out O/S experience very clearly, e.g. "Red Hat Linux Operating
     System, versions 7, 8, and 9" -- iow, say "Linux Operating System" after
     every flavor of Linux
   * List all the versions of Windows you've worked with (again with the
     phrase "Operating System")
   * Add a section with skills and how many full-time years of experience
     you have in each specific skill
   * For programming positions, be verbose about each programming environment,
     espcially if being asked for experience in developing on multiple
     platforms.

For a gov't Computer Scientist position, if you have a B.S. in C.S., 
stating you have a Computer Science degree *should* be enough, but I 
recommend redundancy anyway: add your math and statistics courses to your 
computer course list -- even better, state how many credit hours of each 
you have. If you DO NOT have a C.S. degree *DEFINITELY LIST YOUR 
COURSEWORK* Use full course titles, and make sure you list all Comp Sci, 
CIS, Math, Stats, and speciality stats (like Engineering Statistics or 
whatever). "Information Technology Specialist" positions aren't as 
stringent -- CompSci positions have a minimum educational requirement of 30 
hours of CS+Math/Stats, with at least 15 hours of those in Math/Stats... 
doesn't matter if you're a frickin' genius, you must have the educational 
requirement fulfilled for Computer Scientist positions. If you have any 
specialty courses that are applicable to a position (like Image Processing 
and Digital Signal Processing, Geography GIS or remote sensing courses, 
etc.) list them all. For non-CompSci coursework that involved a lot of 
programming (e.g., Image Processing), add a little summary that makes it 
clear the course involved a lot of programming, algorithm development, etc. 
and what programming language was used for the class.

Also, when answering the questionnaire (popular with USGS positions):

   * Do NOT underestimate your abilities... this isn't a time to be humble.
   * Answer the essay questions!

Also, every job advertisement has a contact person (ours is usually Rose 
Wheeler) -- if you want to know what's going on with a position, CALL! 
Calling her won't impact your application either positively or negatively, 
and at least you can get some info on where things are at in the process.

Also, if you would like to confidentially share your failures or success 
with me, I'd really appreciate some feedback -- it will help me learn how 
to do recruiting better (I use this term loosely, it's not the same as a 
private industry recruiter). You can e-mail me at dsoltesz at usgs.gov -- I 
will not share your information outside of work, and then, only with folks 
involved in general recruiting efforts who have "need to know." This won't 
help you with specific job openings (hiring teams have to get your 
application through channels, I can't give them your resume) but it could 
help me help all of you job seekers in the future!

deborah