Wanna Work for the Government?
By: Nancy | November 06, 2008 | Category: Money
Last week, I promised in the comments section of my blog entry on preparing for a job layoff that we'd talk this week about how to start a career with the federal government. 
I've got to be honest: becoming a fed was not on my life's to-do list. Didn't even occur to me. But as a communications major, I graduated into a really tough private sector job market in 1990. Despite my fussing that "No, there couldn't possibly be a job in the government for broadcasters," a friend passed my resume to her friend, who passed it to her bosses who eventually became my bosses.
Almost 18 years later, I can tell you that I've used what I learned in my major every single day, and I've learned so much more from my years on the job growing and exercising my communications experience. Plus, I've appreciated the relative stability of working for Uncle Sam while so many of those companies I initially applied to went under or went through massive layoffs.
While I still have nightmares of typing up and using gallons of correction fluid on my "SF 171" federal job application, today's generation of would-be feds can just go to USAJobs.gov or its partner site for students to find and apply for federal jobs. Both sites are from the US Office of Personnel Management, the mega HR department of the federal government.
Don't want to move to Washington, DC to work for the federal government? Not a problem. Only about one in ten of the more 1.8 million federal jobs are actually located in the nation's capitol. Right now USAJobs.gov is showing more than 3,000 federal job openings in the Denver area, more than 2,500 in and around Dallas, more than 1,000 each in Nashville and Detroit and nearly 700 each in Milwaukee and Raleigh.
Before you dive into applying for that federal job, it'll pay to get some tips on the application process, and to learn writing techniques that can help your resume and application rise to the top of the applicant pool.
You can find out about different agencies you're interested in by visiting BestPlacesToWork.org and the Partnership for Public Service's downloadable publication: "Where The Jobs Are". It outlines the mission of individual government agencies, features examples of each agency's most popular jobs and provides projections of agencies' hiring needs in the coming years. And you can get a taste of federal work life by checking out Joe Davidson’s Federal Diary in the Washington Post and the website and the radio station dedicated to the life and work of government employees: Federal News Radio.
If you're looking for state or local government jobs from law enforcement to teaching, USAJobs.gov's State and Local page is the place to start.
Ok, I know lots of Gov Gab's readers are government employees like me. So I really want to hear from you about your experience working for the government—the good and the not-so-good. Are you new or are you an 'old timer' like me? What tips can you share with people who are considering a career in public service?
Permalink
| View Comments [5]
| 
E-mail This Entry
| Tags:
federal
government_job
nancy
usajobs.gov
Bookmark and share: 
About social bookmarking
RSS Feeds
E-mail Updates
That was in 1999 - so my ten year anniversary will be next year! Isn't is amazing how time flies by.
Comment Permalink
Comment Permalink
Comment Permalink
Good Luck on your effort.
Comment Permalink
- Be patient. It can sometimes take a while to get a response to an application.
- If you don't understand something, call the agency you're applying with. Someone should always be available to explain a job vacancy/posting to you.
- Once you're in, use the resources available to you. Census, at least, had lots of training available and brown bag lunch seminars.
- If you're not happy, look for an opening in another department or agency.
Hope that helps!
Comment Permalink