Federal Employment, PMF

Ha! So my plan to post more frequently was clearly one of my more public delusional moments... Oh well, I can dream, right?

First off, I should let you know that I was not forwarded onto the next round for the PMF. Hold the tears because seriously, I am super okay with this. I've been a bit busy this year (see: moving, getting new real job, finishing dissertation, plus recurrent family emergencies). I'm ready for a 12 month break from the crazy.

Plus I really like my current job and new City that I'm starting to call home. Uprooting self, Honey, and 2 cats to where ever (or temporarily leaving behind Honey + furballs) would have sucked. Best of luck to the PMFers who moved forward, and here's hoping those of us who were cut are at peace with that.

I got the PMF news before Christmas, but before I even really began making my list of "other things to do besides obsess about PMF," I saw this new and exciting Executive Order from the President. This Order, from December 27, mandates the Federal Government "make necessary an exception to the competitive hiring rules for certain positions in the Federal civil service" for students and recent graduates.

In other words--the Order provides even more ways for students and recent graduates to enter the federal workforce. Yippee!

Collectively the PMF, a newly established Internship program and a newly formed Recent Graduates program will be known as the Pathways Programs. This program is so new, that I can't even provide links to more detailed descriptions than what is found in the Exec Order.

Am excited about Recent Graduates program, especially its stipulation that "participants in the program[...]must have obtained a qualifying degree, or completed a qualifying career or technical education program, as determined by OPM, within the preceding 2 years".

Booyah, I technically graduate May 2011. Therefore I'm eligible until May 2013.

Bring it in federal government. I'm talking to you HUD.

Best Cities for Jobs, Cool Job Search Engine

This post has been making the rounds in the blogsphere this week--"12 best cities to find a job." Top of the list: DC (with 1.11 unemployed persons per advertised job).

The raw data, sans-photos, comes from juju.com (and actually extends the list to the top 50 cities where our employment chances are good) .

I had never heard of juju.com until this post. Wow, it's pretty cool! Type in your occupation and desired location in its search protocol and it actually turns up legit jobs! This is incredible! (I tried "anthropologist" + zipcode and "grants" + zipcode and got real job postings).

Man, maybe I just got lucky with these two hits, but this is way better than idealist.org or specialized RSS feeds.

Bottom line: there are jobs out there for us. There is hope.

I'm experimenting a little now with shorter posts. I'm hoping with briefer posts, I'll write more often? Also, I'm thinking folks won't fall asleep if I keep it less than essay-length. Let's see if I actually write more though....

More Student Loan Intel

Just off the phone with a student loan rep (my loans are through the government) and got a bunch of questions answered.

First, did you know that we can change our monthly repayment date? Mine was originally scheduled for the 28th of every month (what???). We are able to change the date to the 7th, 14th, 21st, or 28th of every month. Since I get paid at the beginning of the month (like the vast majority of workers in the US), I changed to a pay date on the 7th. I do automatic withdrawal which also reduces our interest rate by .25%. Every little bit helps, right?

During my chat, I also learned more details on the Income Based Repayment plan and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan. I wrote a little bit about these programs back in August but this post should provide more answers and less speculation.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is intended for people with high debt, but who continue to make relatively low incomes because they work in a nonprofit, government, or other public sector job. After 120 consecutive payments (i.e. 10 years), Student Loans will forgive the remaining balance.

According to the Student Loan rep, we apply for this program after 10 years of payment, not at the beginning of our working careers. This means that we need to have signatures from every one of our employers to sign off on the paperwork stating that you worked for them for X years during the 10 year period. See I thought we got into the program as soon as we started working in the public sector, but apparently not. Note to self: don't lose track of former employers.

During the 10 years that we are making payments, we may have our monthly repayment rate adjusted using the IBR Plan. Income Contingent Repayment Plan or Standard Repayment Plan.

If we have high debt and low income we receive significant benefits from enrolling in the IBR or ICR plans. These will adjust down our monthly payments. Then, after 10 years, the Public Sector Loan Forgiveness plan will cover the rest. The combination of these programs works best for those of us with really high debt; with low debt (it is all relative), the benefits are minimal.

At least this is how I'm understanding it as of today.

Oh real life, how you pain me sometimes...