Top Secret Clearance jobs in CS

[cjmeck]

Originally Posted by 1duder

I'm not an analyst, I work in several areas all RF and electronic repair, satcom, UNIX related.

Alright then, sorry! Your OP said you were an analyst so I assumed as much. Best of luck to you.

[1duder]

DD719, I now what you mean about the tree and fruit. In Pensacola the bark has been stripped from our tree its so bad. Retail sales and fast food, thats it. i don't know anyone in the government so that excludes me from government jobs.
I am not to picky about work as long as its some what close to what my skills are in, I see work is work. Since I am old I have done a lot of things. So when I get hired I find my self doing all kinds of odd projects. My last job i was primarily SATCOM. I also helped build rooms, service generators, cut and weld antenna mounts, swap out a/c units, train, clean solar panels on top of a mountain, Shop help desk / IT dude.
Oh well, I am still trying to get the wife on board with this and its not going so well.

[Carrera32]

"I don't know anyone in the Government so that excludes me from Fed government jobs." Did you read my earlier post? I know what I'm talking about from 35 years of hiring and overseeing hiring in the Federal Govt (AF, Navy, Treasury, Justice). If a job is open to outside applicants, that usually means that there's no one in the organization who's qualified for the job; otherwise it would have been closed to outside applicants and open only to applicants already employed. Do jobs go to people who are known to the hiring managers? Yes, of course, just like private industry and every other employer in the country. That's networking, and it's not necessarily wrong. That's just life. And yes, sometimes the system is gamed; it happens. But that is not the situation in most cases. If the job "area of consideration" net is cast as wide as possible, that's a pretty good indicator it's a legitimate vacancy and they don't have anyone in mind. Also, the first stages in the hiring process are automated; the initial screening is done by computer and overseen by an HR person, not the hiring manager. Only the top handful of applicants out of literally thousands in some cases for a single position who are automatically scored and reviewed by HR make it to the hiring manager for an interview.

My suggestion is to get your resume in as professional shape as possible; post it on USAjobs.gov and start applying for jobs where you clearly meet the quals. Study the job posting very carefully. There's usually a series of multiple choice questions that you have to answer. It's not hard to figure out the answers that require the highest skill level and which will consequently give you the highest scores (you'll be asked to justify your answers in a short narrative following each question or in a separate submission). If you can't honestly answer the questions at the highest skill level, you probably either won't qualify or won't qualify highly enough to be interviewed or hired.

My standard advice is to apply for anything you qualify for, even positions below your skill level. The name of the game is to get hired into something. Once you're in a career or career conditional position, after 90 days, you can start applying for the jobs only open to those already employed. That's where most of the opportunities are. With sequestration, hiring from the outside is getting tighter; a lot of operating budgets have been cut, and it looks like the sequester cuts will be continued indefinitely. That said, people retire, quit, get promoted, etc., which means hiring will continue, though at a slower pace than in the past.

Also, remember, if you're a vet, you get extra consideration (veterans preference). If you're a disabled vet, you get even more consideration, and some jobs are set aside specifically for disable vets.

Bottom line is if you're not getting hired in the Fed, it's not because you don't know anybody.

[1duder]

I have a search alert and it sends me maybe 1 job a month for my former career field. I was a 0856 gs09/11 before. I was hired because the station chief knew me. Any time someone left we were asked if we knew anyone who needed a job and we could speak up and get them hired. When I transferred to another site same thing I knew someone. I use to apply for positions in the US to try and come home, I finally quit so I could come home. At that time I had lots of experience more than most of the people I worked with, so I wasn't hired solely on friendship.
This is just my experience the way it happened, I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything.

[Carrera32]

Sounds like you were in one of those situations where 1) your skill was in high demand and rare; 2) there were very few qualified people in the geographical area where you were located. Absolutely nothing wrong with getting people you know to be highly or uniquely qualified to apply for the jobs when they came open and be subsequently hired. Absolutely nothing wrong with you being the beneficiary of the same process if you had the requisite skills. What is wrong is to be hired solely on friendship.

Also sounds like you were in a career/career conditional position. If that's the case, you're probably reinstatement eligible, meaning you will be considered separately from other outside applicants for open positions and can be hired directly without competition. That's a big advantage for you. I'd suggest you not rely on the search alerts; if you really want to get back in, spend time actively searching for any type of job you qualify for, even those below your level. Get back in and you have a much better chance of connecting back to your former level and beyond. Good luck.

[1duder]

Carrera32, I worked in the UK 3 years and transferred to Italy. My kids had a lot of trouble in school so I went home after 10 months or so. I am not sure what my status is and not sure how to use it. I haven't applied for any gov jobs in maybe 10 years. When I get some time maybe tonight I will look again. I know there are some other types of service, WG I think had a lot of trade type jobs if I remember right. Well thanks for the info, didn't know for sure about the career conditional.

[Carrera32]

1duder - Check your Notices of Personnel Action, SF-50 that you received when you were hired and whenever there was a change (new position, transfer, promotion, salary increase, award, etc.). Block 34 indicates whether you are in the competitive service or not. If the block has a "1" in it, you're in the competitive service and would be either career conditional or career. Career conditional means you were hired into a career position, but hadn't served at least 3 years in that type of position. What it amounts to is in a reduction in force you would be let go before a career employee. You should also check other correspondence you had with your hiring office. Normally when appointed you'd get a letter or some type of correspondence spelling out exactly what type of appointment you were hired for. If you spent 3 years as a career conditional employee, you should have received an SF-50 changing your status from Career Conditional to Career. If you're working for the government, these SF-50s are very important to keep, as they can be used to prove your status at any time. If your documents show you are career or career conditional you can use that status as a reemployment eligible candidate and bypass the usual competition. Assuming you qualify, your name would be on a separate list from the non-status outside candidates provided to the hiring manager to consider. If the manager wants you, he or she can just hire you without any further competition. If my memory serves me correctly, if career conditional, there may be a time limit on your ability to claim reinstatement eligibility. Once you're converted to career, you'll always be reinstatement eligible. It's a big deal to get your Career status, both for RIF and for reemployment.

Since you indicate you were hired into various jobs overseas, it's quite possible you were in the excepted service. If that's the case Block 34 should have a 2 in it. Then you have no "status" per se, and you'd be considered an outside hire as if you'd never worked for the Govt (except of course you have qualifying experience, just no preference for hiring), and you'd have to compete as such for any job you're applying for.

You're right: WG (Wage Grade) jobs are trade (skilled and unskilled). GS (General Schedule) are for professional and administrative positions.

[1duder]

I'll have to dig out those sf-50's when I get home.
I looked but not much for jobs, I think 4 0856's and a few WG's.
Just have to look now and then.

About two days ago someone contacted me for a contract proposal with satcom positions there in CS and also a help desk position. I was very happy to see those emails come in. I changed some of my settings on Indeed and Careerbuilder to CS to see what comes up. Still my wife is resisting the move. I'll start looking hard after new years, our contract here is due for a big axe March.