This post is geared towards all of you trendsetters, who are forsaking academia in favor of let's say, more steady work with the government. (As opposed to the poor Ph.D. whom I heard is working on their 9th, yes 9th post-doc and another Ph.D. on their 6th adjunct position...) But as steady as government work may be, they are notoriously slow to hire. I don't know what the requirements are for other departments, but as I am reapplying to USAID (I worked for them many years ago as a business advisor), I thought I would share my most recent wisdom gained from going through the application process. I applied for an education position back in March through USAJobs, and had lots of fun filling out the requisite KSAs (Knowledge, Skills & Abilities). Here was my strategy:
1. Networking - I have a contact in USAID who just recently was hired for her first position, so she was my sounding board. She sent me her winning KSAs, which showed me what USAID was looking for:
A. Clear, concise and to-the-point writing that demonstrated your skill/experience match to each KSA.
B. The ability to communicate your work in your field to a wide audience - no jargon or academic-style writing.
C. Actual experience to back up each statement, and personalizations. My contact told a story of how she helped younger protégées deal with "spiders as big as their hands" to demonstrate her comfort zone in working in tropical areas. It was a "wow" factor that stood out and made her KSA memorable.
1. Networking - I have a contact in USAID who just recently was hired for her first position, so she was my sounding board. She sent me her winning KSAs, which showed me what USAID was looking for:
A. Clear, concise and to-the-point writing that demonstrated your skill/experience match to each KSA.
B. The ability to communicate your work in your field to a wide audience - no jargon or academic-style writing.
C. Actual experience to back up each statement, and personalizations. My contact told a story of how she helped younger protégées deal with "spiders as big as their hands" to demonstrate her comfort zone in working in tropical areas. It was a "wow" factor that stood out and made her KSA memorable.
2. Plagiarizing - As a Boren fellow, I must seek a government job, and they are pledged to help me do it. Last September I attended a job fair in DC where they basically told all of the fellows to "plagiarize" the government job descriptions. In these job descriptions are key words that their computer systems look for, and if you have not used any of them, your application will get tossed. So I literally cut and pasted from the job description into each of my KSAs to have those key words. Of course I expanded from there, but when the job description required "project management and field research skills", I used those exact words at least once in the KSA to which it applied.
3. Indicating that you have met the top level in each of the KSAs - In the section where I had to rank where my skills fell, I gave myself top ranking in each section. Of course I had to back each ranking up with actual proof and experience, but giving myself top marks allowed me to pass the computer screening portion of the review process. Don't lie about your accomplishments, but don't sell yourself short either - you want to stand out from the rest of the applicant pool.
Other advice:
1. Do check back with USAJobs frequently to make sure you are up-to-date with deadlines, as they DO change. My deadline was moved up by almost a month, and had I not caught it in time, I would have been barred from applying.
2. There are blogs involving government job applications to different departments, such as USAID. I checked out the USAID blog and discovered useful information, such as the going timeframe from application drop to start date is 18 months in the case of USAID.
3. Expect a bit of bureaucracy to get in your way, and prepare accordingly. For example, another student colleague applied for a position, followed up for months, and then was told that funding had been cut, and the position eliminated. However, the funding did come through shortly thereafter, and the position was reinstated - yet she had to reapply all over again. However, she had already thrown in the towel at this point, and decided not to reapply. The situation is not ideal, yet in this economy, it is not surprising. So gear up for the long haul and don't take anything personally - it is the government, after all ;-).
So I hope some of this information was helpful to you in some way, and clears up some of the mystery surrounding the USAJobs application process. Good luck!!!
Other advice:
1. Do check back with USAJobs frequently to make sure you are up-to-date with deadlines, as they DO change. My deadline was moved up by almost a month, and had I not caught it in time, I would have been barred from applying.
2. There are blogs involving government job applications to different departments, such as USAID. I checked out the USAID blog and discovered useful information, such as the going timeframe from application drop to start date is 18 months in the case of USAID.
3. Expect a bit of bureaucracy to get in your way, and prepare accordingly. For example, another student colleague applied for a position, followed up for months, and then was told that funding had been cut, and the position eliminated. However, the funding did come through shortly thereafter, and the position was reinstated - yet she had to reapply all over again. However, she had already thrown in the towel at this point, and decided not to reapply. The situation is not ideal, yet in this economy, it is not surprising. So gear up for the long haul and don't take anything personally - it is the government, after all ;-).
So I hope some of this information was helpful to you in some way, and clears up some of the mystery surrounding the USAJobs application process. Good luck!!!
