re: How to apply for Government Jobs

quote:

---

The trick is to put damn near every word of the job posting in your resume. Be creative, a computer goes through and makes the initial matches and that's the toughest hurtle.

Search key terms like physics, metrology...apply to every one in the country that you're interested in. They'll likely move you. Some places may not be as 'diverse' as it is down here and your willingness to move will help.

There are state jobs too.

---

This is good advice, but getting through the computer scan of the resume was the easy part for my brother. He made it to the selecting officials desk for 12 jobs before he landed one. The thing that helped him the most was that the selecting official recognized his name from a previous relationship and he was brought in for an interview. Also, a lot of these jobs already have people in mind when they are announced.

That's good advice for engineers with a traditional undergrad who can go into design and/or follow the route to be a PE. Have you read this guy's posts?

literally governmentjobs.com. I've actually found a job on there before.

LINK

He has a masters, he's qualified for most entry level positions in the field, even considering where it's from

Just left the public sector after 3 years and moved to the private so here's my input:

-I was in HR, two different agencies. It is pretty much total luck of the draw if we view your application or not. For one position we can get 300+ applications, neither agency used any sort of word matching software like previously mentioned. The state is in the stone age after all and that is private sector shite
-you will need to take the PLE or engineering test prior to even applying to any jobs or it will automatically void your application and you just wasted your time. It's easy and takes about 3 hours of your time, you take it at the Wildlife and Fisheries building off Florida iirc
-You come off as a completely useless moron who can't do anything without anyone else's help, exactly what the state wants so you'll certainly be hired shortly.
-99% of the people I worked with were southern/university of Phoenix grads and I can't say I've ever worked with a bigger group of dumbasses.
Good luck, office politics play a part in everything there. Don't ever plan on being promoted unless you want to shite on everyone else.

Shouldn't have gone to southern.

Go to the Army, go through OCS, and try to go through the engineering branch

quote:

---

i wish I could land an engineering tech position

---

Also, do you even read job descriptions? This is shoveling gravel and dirt and shite on the side of the road for $12 an hour. After like 10 years you get to move into an office and mix mud all day. This is one of the highest turnover positions we had.

USAJobs is the official one. That is likely your best bet to become an official taxpayer-supported leech.

Ah gots yo stem hanging right heaunh!

read the jobs carefully and if you see a pattern drag your resume into conformity.

use free tutorials online. I presume you know some computer language.
keep it up. if you have not written code in 2 years, write a little program.

if you know SQL, use it. Download a free subset. Keep in practice.

do pretend interviews. get really good at talking about whatever projects you did in college. BE POSITIVE.

one thing they will ask you is what are your weak points. Think about it and end up talking about things any HR person would want.
I NEED to succeed. I have to stay late some times if I feel like I am close to a solution.

work on the resume once a week. stay on it.

you can do it.

PS. the guys suggesting you take just about anything to get into the feds have the right idea, but you may be able to get in the department you want to be in if you take a much lower paying job with only some technical requirements. Be a tester. Do anything related to what you really want to do so you get close. Then when openings happen, you can bid. STAY IN THE GAME. be serious about every aspect. learn every week. after you are in a month or two, look for mentors, coaches.