Back at it after a week of dissertation/publication nonsense and a weekend off. I've finally had a chance to work through my wrk4us digests and am overwhelmed by all the good info I've had sitting in my inbox.
I have several posts in the works; this one piggybacks on an earlier post and gives more info than a wikipedia link. [I can't believe I gave you a wiki link. I would fail me for incompetence and laziness except I know all you On the Hunt readers regularly use wikipedia].
Here's some more details on GS levels.
GS-9 jobs in the past have tended to be "team member" jobs. GS-12 tend to be the "team leaders." To take this out of corporatespeak and put it into academicese: GS-12=faculty. GS-9=RA/TA. GS-7=undergrad intern/work study kid. [Apparently there are no GS-10 jobs]
Here's how positions for geographers are classified.
"GS-9 geographers are engaged either in taxonomic and descriptive work of fairly substantial scope and complexity, or in analytic and interpretive work of relative limited score and complexity.
Research work at this level is typically performed under close supervision and involved responsibility for segments of the research process which are integrated into the overall project. This is distinguished from work involving the full scope of the research process as described at the GS-11 level.
Geographers doing taxonomic and descriptive work have independent responsibility for small projects or significant segments of larger projects. Their assignments have value as independent units of work, although they are often part of larger projects. This should be distinguished from assignments at the GS-7 level which do not typically represent complete projects or work units."
Job requirements for every federal job classification is managed and documented by the Office of Presidential Management. I found the geography info under the "0100 Social Science, Psychology, and Welfare Group". You can use this info here to help determine which level to apply for and to also see what kinds of skills each position requires. Nice.
Showing posts with label GSlevels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GSlevels. Show all posts
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
searching usajobs.gov + GS levels info
This is completely and utterly based on email convos off the wrk4us listserv (emails from 9Feb10). But I've cut through the blahblah and given us some how-tos so you don't have to read 3 single spaced pages of emails. Here's my winnowed down and tested methods, based on wrk4us posters suggestions.
Big picture pointers. Just because we have or will have soon an english/history/anthro degree, doesn't mean that we have work for Department of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, etc. The Census Bureau recently needed a historian. Currently the Bureau of Land Management is looking for an anthropologist. Everyone says to keep searches broad.
On the usajobs.gov site we can search for possible jobs several ways. With both suggested methods below you want to sign in and start an account. You can save your searches as “agents”. You can't do a search and then sign in/register and save that search. Sign in first, then search. I learned this the hard way.
Search Agents/RSSs feeds
We can create up to 10 search agents (aka saved searches). They can search by agency, GS level, locale, occupation. Whatever. Agents will find stuff and email you. I also have RSSs feeds going right now just to moniter big stuff. When I'm closer to ready for real job search time, I'll develop search agents with more specific parameters (right now I have an RSS feed on “social” and “social scientist.” My “social” pulls random stuff like electronics mechanic, nurse, and intelligence officer).
If you are still testing the waters, here's how to RSS: follow one of the search suggestions below or just do a "messing-around" search on usajobs.gov. Once you get a search going that seems interesting, go to the righthand side, underneath the "refine this search" box. At the bottom of the righthand banner, you'll see "RSS Feed of this Search". Alternatively, you can click the RSS button which is at the end of the web address in your browser. Click RSS. You'll see all the jobs listed on a striped down website. Add this bookmark and give it a name. I keep my bookmarked RSSs in my menu (favorites) bar--everytime a new job gets posted an alert goes up on the link in the bar. So if 10 jobs get added to my "UsaJobSoc" bookmarked RSS, it looks like this on my menu bar: "UsaJobSoc(10)". Once I click on the link and see the 10 new jobs, the (10) goes away. Awesome, right? Anytime you are on any possible employer website and they have an RSS in the browser bar click it. You can *sometimes* select employment opportunities. However, be careful and monitor both the RSS link and the real website, just in case. For example, Brookings has an RSS feed for their jobs page, but it doesn't actually pull new listings. Ergh.
How to Make a usajobs Search Agent (aka saved search) : Go to usajobs.gov. Upper right: create an account. Fill out just the bio basics. Once you have an account, go to the homepage for usajobs.gov (upper left gets you there). Start searching (see below different techniques). Once you have a search going that you think is fruitful, go to “save this search and email me jobs”. Don't see that? Yeah, it's that teeny-tiny print on the right, underneath the “refine your search” fields. Once you hit that and you're on the “create a job search agent” skip all the blahblah and scroll to the very bottom. Specify how often you want emails (5 fields up from the bottom). Give your agent a title and save.
Searching Methods
1) GS Levels (this link is wikipedia's explanation of GS levels)
Big picture pointers. Just because we have or will have soon an english/history/anthro degree, doesn't mean that we have work for Department of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, etc. The Census Bureau recently needed a historian. Currently the Bureau of Land Management is looking for an anthropologist. Everyone says to keep searches broad.
On the usajobs.gov site we can search for possible jobs several ways. With both suggested methods below you want to sign in and start an account. You can save your searches as “agents”. You can't do a search and then sign in/register and save that search. Sign in first, then search. I learned this the hard way.
Search Agents/RSSs feeds
We can create up to 10 search agents (aka saved searches). They can search by agency, GS level, locale, occupation. Whatever. Agents will find stuff and email you. I also have RSSs feeds going right now just to moniter big stuff. When I'm closer to ready for real job search time, I'll develop search agents with more specific parameters (right now I have an RSS feed on “social” and “social scientist.” My “social” pulls random stuff like electronics mechanic, nurse, and intelligence officer).
If you are still testing the waters, here's how to RSS: follow one of the search suggestions below or just do a "messing-around" search on usajobs.gov. Once you get a search going that seems interesting, go to the righthand side, underneath the "refine this search" box. At the bottom of the righthand banner, you'll see "RSS Feed of this Search". Alternatively, you can click the RSS button which is at the end of the web address in your browser. Click RSS. You'll see all the jobs listed on a striped down website. Add this bookmark and give it a name. I keep my bookmarked RSSs in my menu (favorites) bar--everytime a new job gets posted an alert goes up on the link in the bar. So if 10 jobs get added to my "UsaJobSoc" bookmarked RSS, it looks like this on my menu bar: "UsaJobSoc(10)". Once I click on the link and see the 10 new jobs, the (10) goes away. Awesome, right? Anytime you are on any possible employer website and they have an RSS in the browser bar click it. You can *sometimes* select employment opportunities. However, be careful and monitor both the RSS link and the real website, just in case. For example, Brookings has an RSS feed for their jobs page, but it doesn't actually pull new listings. Ergh.
How to Make a usajobs Search Agent (aka saved search) : Go to usajobs.gov. Upper right: create an account. Fill out just the bio basics. Once you have an account, go to the homepage for usajobs.gov (upper left gets you there). Start searching (see below different techniques). Once you have a search going that you think is fruitful, go to “save this search and email me jobs”. Don't see that? Yeah, it's that teeny-tiny print on the right, underneath the “refine your search” fields. Once you hit that and you're on the “create a job search agent” skip all the blahblah and scroll to the very bottom. Specify how often you want emails (5 fields up from the bottom). Give your agent a title and save.
Searching Methods
1) GS Levels (this link is wikipedia's explanation of GS levels)
[[see this post for more info. Now I feel less salty about posting wikipedia as a real source...]]
Posters in the know suggest to start our job search by narrowing our search to GS levels 9-11. MAs should start at GS9. PhDs can look at GS11s. PhDs do sometimes start at GS9, especially if you have limited office, research, “real world” experience and have spent your grad years mostly teaching. Starting lower on the scale=better chances. This poster, who is in the know, calls GS9-11 the “soft middle”.
How to: Go to usajobs.gov. Simply hit the blue “search jobs” button on the home page. Refine your results (rightside banner). Select grade. Further narrow your search to locale by specifying city/state in the “refine your search” (top right corner, under the red sign in button).
2) Browse
One poster with a PhD found luck using browse. Again, this brings up a lot of jobs that uses the government terms/classifications. You know, words we're not used to. For my anthropology skills I went to “social science, psychology, welfare”. For my editorial experience I went to “information, arts and public affairs”.
How to: Go to usajobs.gov. Simply hit the blue “search jobs” button on the home page. At the top, right underneath the refine your search field there is “browse jobs”. Hit “browse jobs”. Bottom of “browse jobs” page you can search by occupation. This is where the “social science, psychology, welfare,” etc. selections are. Select whatever strikes your fancy. What is cool about these search returns is that on the right banner is that you can see all the specific occupations (economist, foreign affairs specialist, anthropologist). You can further narrow your search to locale, grade, etc.
Using either method, people in the know say we should initially look through all jobs. They suggest that we focus on the "Duties" section. I mean, don't bother with the stuff that isn't you (electronic mechanic, no), but stuff that is vague--look at it. After we look at all the jobs, we can from this point on, specify in our search, just the "new" postings.
Have any other suggestions for searches? Let me know and I'll put it up!
Posters in the know suggest to start our job search by narrowing our search to GS levels 9-11. MAs should start at GS9. PhDs can look at GS11s. PhDs do sometimes start at GS9, especially if you have limited office, research, “real world” experience and have spent your grad years mostly teaching. Starting lower on the scale=better chances. This poster, who is in the know, calls GS9-11 the “soft middle”.
How to: Go to usajobs.gov. Simply hit the blue “search jobs” button on the home page. Refine your results (rightside banner). Select grade. Further narrow your search to locale by specifying city/state in the “refine your search” (top right corner, under the red sign in button).
2) Browse
One poster with a PhD found luck using browse. Again, this brings up a lot of jobs that uses the government terms/classifications. You know, words we're not used to. For my anthropology skills I went to “social science, psychology, welfare”. For my editorial experience I went to “information, arts and public affairs”.
How to: Go to usajobs.gov. Simply hit the blue “search jobs” button on the home page. At the top, right underneath the refine your search field there is “browse jobs”. Hit “browse jobs”. Bottom of “browse jobs” page you can search by occupation. This is where the “social science, psychology, welfare,” etc. selections are. Select whatever strikes your fancy. What is cool about these search returns is that on the right banner is that you can see all the specific occupations (economist, foreign affairs specialist, anthropologist). You can further narrow your search to locale, grade, etc.
Using either method, people in the know say we should initially look through all jobs. They suggest that we focus on the "Duties" section. I mean, don't bother with the stuff that isn't you (electronic mechanic, no), but stuff that is vague--look at it. After we look at all the jobs, we can from this point on, specify in our search, just the "new" postings.
Have any other suggestions for searches? Let me know and I'll put it up!
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