"Navigating the Bureaucratic Employment Vortex"
“Success in obtaining a federal job depends to a great extent on the active efforts that are made to find available job openings and then to apply for them in the manner specified; this will almost always be through a specific agency or office where an opening exists” (LRP Publications, 2010)
USAJOBS
The Office of Personnel Management’s centralized job hub – USAJOBS – is a database that contains a pretty decent federal job search engine that was developed by Monster.com (In January 2003, OPM contracted out its USAJOBS website to Monster.com to make the site more visually appealing and easier to use.) This website is the first place to check for federal job openings available to the general public (One of the merit principles requires agencies to select applicants solely on the basis of their relative knowledge, skills, and ability as determined through fair and open competition. To achieve fair and open competition, federal agencies publicly advertise job vacancies. As a means of notifying the public of federal job openings, agencies are required to post their vacancies in OPMs centralized electronic job database, USAJOBS.) Currently, there are little over 25,000 openings in the federal government, and of those openings many are law enforcement, management, information technology, administration, and health positions. Nearly all federal agencies must advertise their vacancy announcements on USAJOBS. However, there are some agencies that are exempted from posting vacancy announcements on USAJOBS. Instead, they have their own hiring systems and assessment tools.
In addition, not only does USAJOBS provide a job seeker a convenient single location to look for federal job vacancies, but also provides a résumé builder, a search agent (renamed as ‘saved searches’) that automatically searches for jobs based on your job criteria, and the flexibility to personalize your account with a photo and an ‘attention-grabber’ introduction, along with the capability to upload a cover letter and other required documents. A far cry from the old way of posting vacancy announcements as paper notices in post offices throughout the U.S.
Other Employment Avenues
As mentioned before, not all agencies advertise their job opening on USAJOBS. Therefore, I strongly recommend do not entirely rely on USAJOBS to find job openings in the federal government. You must also integrate some other useful methods in your job search. Remember: your success on landing a federal job, or for that matter any job, directly depends on your proactive labors to turn over as many stones as possible to find job openings, and then apply for them with ferocious tenacity!
Networking
An old, but true idiom: “Who you know and who they know”, is the best known tactic in looking for a job. Better widely known as ‘networking’, this approach is the best tool you got in your job search arsenal. Hands down! So, when you hear someone exasperate, “I guess it’s who you know!” Politely tell them, “Yes, it is who you know and it’s best to learn how to enlist those ‘who’ into your job search.” And though USAJOBS is the federal government’s primary location to look for a federal job, you cannot rest your laurels on depending on this website alone. When looking for a federal job, or for that matter, just looking for a job you must employ (no pun intend) a comprehensive job search strategy to maximize your individual marketability, with the hope to achieve a job offer in a short period of time. And in my opinion, and the opinions of experienced career coaches and counselors, networking is your number one tool in searching for a federal job. Here are some good facts:
* “Relatives and friends are the most common source of information about job vacancies, with a third of the government’s new hires placed through competitive processes having first learned about the job they accepted in this way” (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, 1999).
* According to a career counselor and author, 60 percent of companies’ new employees were hired through employee referrals (Bolles)
* In another report, nearly 45 percent of new hires had first learned about their new federal job from their friends and relatives (U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, 2008)
So you have it. When it comes to looking for a job, networking is very effective, especially when you cast a large net and enlist family members, friends, professors, alumni, professional peers, to name a few. You can also network in professional associations, contracting jobs, job clubs, career support groups, training courses, and even through widely known social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. However, regardless of who you approach during networking, your approach takes sort of a different approach when networking for a federal job.
The Partnership for Public Service states that the “difference between networking for the public sector rather than for the private sector is that you will want to focus your contact building, research, and time on people who either work in government or who know someone who does” (Partnership for Public Service, 2010). These people will be able to help you by providing information about the hiring process, the position’s core competencies and what it’s like working for the federal government. Furthermore, many government jobs are often filled from within because agencies can choose to select only from current employees and because employees on the inside are aware of these vacancies when they occur. It is a good thing to know employees in the agency where one wants to work. They can be asked to keep an eye on the agency bulletin board for vacancy announcements (LRP Publications, 2010).
Nonetheless, you must keep in mind that a federal hiring official – basically someone who has the authority to make the final selection – is bound to uphold the Merit System Principles (5 USC § 2301):
To ensure that “recruitment should be from qualified individuals from appropriate sources in an endeavor to achieve a work force from all segments of society, and selection and advancement should be determined solely on the basis of relative ability, knowledge and skills, after fair and open competition which assures that all receive equal opportunity.”
In plain language, the hiring official must avoid any probability that nepotism, partisan politics, favoritism, or other non-merit factors are involved. With that in mind, when you are talking with someone who works for the government, just remember they cannot hire you directly. You have to apply competitively along with other job candidates.
How to begin networking?
You may not know it, but you are involved in networking ever day. But in the context of looking for a federal job, you want to plan accordingly and target those individuals who are in the position to assist with your job search. When you begin networking, start off asking for job leads from family members, friends, and people in the community (especially those like pastors and insurance agents who associate with various groups in the community). Your personal contacts will be happy to help you. However, make sure that you do not waste their time, and especially yours. I would recommend the following:
* Have a clear plan of how you’re going to approach them
* Have your questions already prepared before you meet your contact
* Define your end goal
Target your network groups
Now that you understand the networking process in looking for a federal job, let me recommend five major networking groups that you should start with. These are adapted from the National Career Development Association training manual for Career Development Facilitators.
Personal Relationships
* Immediate family
* Extended family
* Close friends, neighbors and acquaintances
* Service professionals (lawyer, doctor, insurance agent, etc.)
* Helping professionals (minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, counselor, etc.)
* Social groups (religious groups, service organizations, fraternal organizations, sororities, sports teams, recreational groups, etc.)
* Job support groups (community, church, etc.)
Professional Relationships
* Organizational colleagues (professionals at all levels, including clerical and support staff)
* Colleagues in other organizations (customers, clients, and collaborators)
* Vendors, consultants, contractors and union representatives
Organizational and Community Affiliations
* Professional associations
* Alumni associations – national and local chapters
* Community or volunteer organizations
* Trade associations and union organizations
* Philanthropic, cultural, and civic organizations
* Certifying or licensing bodies
* Boards of directors, boards of trustees, and advisory boards
Opportunistic Networks
* Volunteering at a community group
* Talking with classmates during a training course
* Conducting information interviews (not for looking for a job, but learning about an industry and/or occupation)
* Working on a government contract
Social Media and Online Communities
One of my favorite quotes from “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002) is when Aragon said to Theoden, the King of Rohan, “Open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not.”
I liken this to Social Media today. You can ignore it or accept it. Either way...it is truly upon us and it’s serving as a new catalyst that’s expanding existing connotations of “The Information Age”. With this in mind, you can benefit from Social Media as a job seeker; albeit if you engage appropriately with the right “netiquette” (The Riley Guide) and knowing where to go for further information and additional resource. The following list of Social Media tools is recommended (Quintessential Careers) as you begin to build an online presence.
* LinkedIn.com – the site officially launched in 2003, and as of January 2011 it has more than 90 million professional members located around the world. The key functions of this site allow you to: promote your résumé and what you currently do, develop relationships with other professionals, and ask and answer questions.
* Facebook.com – the site officially launched in February 2004, and as of January 2011 it has more than 600 million active users. The key functions of this site allow you to connect with family and friends and others who work, study, and live around you. It also allows you to promote what you're doing, keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people your friends meet.
* Indeed.com – Indeed is a unique search engine for jobs. It integrates your search terms with free access to millions of employment opportunities from thousands of websites. It launched in 2004, and it gives job seekers access to millions of jobs from thousands of company websites and job boards. According to its website, it “includes all the job listings from major job boards, newspapers, associations and company career pages”.
Setting yourself apart from herd
As you begin networking with people you know and with those who are outside your direct network, I would recommend taking a creative approach with your career marketing tools (i.e., résumé, portfolio, etc). You need to set yourself apart from the rest of the herd by using some unique career marketing tools. Try the following ideas:
Networking Card
Lily Whiteman, author of “How to Land a Top-Paying federal Job”, recommends creating a networking card. She claims that this tactic will “make it easy for your contacts to sing your praises by arming them with your networking card” that provides a list of your core credentials and contact information (Whiteman, 2008).
One-page résumé
Another good tactic to use is having a ‘one-page résumé’ handy to give to your contacts. Kathryn Troutman recommends incorporating a one-page résumé, “calling card” that “you can use while networking”. Troutman emphasizes that the one-page résumé is “not intended to take the place of a job application or another more serious marketing package, but it does help others remember you when they hear about opportunities that might interest you” (Troutman, 2007).
Agency Websites
As I mentioned before, even though USAJOBS is the federal government’s primary location to look for a federal job, you cannot rest your laurels on depending on this website alone. I would also recommend looking at individual agency websites to check on career opportunities, and then adding the ones that you are interested in working for to your favorites on your browser. You should be able to find a ‘Career’ or ‘Opportunities’ link on the home webpage of that respective agency that you’re looking at. Most, if not all, agency websites will have information about their current vacancies, as well as internship opportunities, fellowships, and coop programs. However, just remember that some agencies do not update their own websites on the same day they submit to USAJOBS.
Contacting federal HR offices
Sometimes, going to the source is a great way to find out the latest information about career opportunities in the federal government. So, as you are looking for jobs on USAJOBS, networking with personal and professional contacts, and looking for opportunities on agency websites, I would also suggest contacting federal human resources offices directly for assistance and for information about special hiring programs. This approach is very effective when searching for jobs that are not required to be posted on USAJOBS.
Keep in mind, however, some human resources offices will not be aware of every opportunity in their particular agency. A hiring official may be deciding to add another position to this program, but has not approach human resources about it. Nevertheless, there are still many benefits to calling agencies directly: human resources sometimes can refer you to suitable openings quickly or possibly assist you in matching your skills to federal jobs. In addition, human resources are able to break down the bureaucratic jargon of special hiring program into laymen terms.
