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WASHINGTON - The economic downturn has forced private industry and state and local government to shed jobs, but one major employer in the country is hiring: The federal government.
While the nation's 11 million unemployed and the millions more who fear losing their jobs may feel Washington should streamline too, economists say a strong federal work force is key to economic recovery.
The federal government hires a whole lot of its workforce out of the recent pool of college grads in the Washington DC area. Those are the people who can actually circumvent the black hole of the USA Jobs website by networking and actually going to the agencies involved.
Nearly all of those jobs require a minimum of a BA degree, and many require years of experience and post graduate degrees. The Federal government also requires excellent credit scores for its candidates. Anybody unemployed and behind on the bills, or god forbid with a foreclosure on their record, will not be hired.
No displaced workers in today's lay-off economy will be getting those government jobs.
No displaced workers in today's lay-off economy will be getting those government jobs.
Don't they have age quotas, too?
Has anyone ever tried applying for a federal job (). We have a VA hospital nearby and I could not even understand the instructions to apply for an admin. job (Note: I have a BA in English, MS in Education so I 'should' understand complex directions...)
Note that it takes anywhere from 6 to 12 months (and sometimes longer) to go from submitting a resume/application on usajobs.gov to actually stepping foot into the building to work. Basically those that have been recently hired are people who applied way back last year BEFORE all the massive layoffs and hiring freeze throughout the private sectors! The MSNBC article failed to include that tidbit of highly relevant information.
By the way, "Networking" in the federal government works for those at the higher GS levels (13/14/15) where advanced degrees like PhDs and MDs are required. The young college students (BSs and BAs) you mentioned are competing with all the GS 5/7/9 candidates in the populace, they're very rarely competitive enough against those with more experiences in the rating system. The government has such strict lines dividing the duties and influences of the hiring manager and HR that networking is typically fruitless for these mid level positions.
Another thing that the MSNBC article failed to mention is that a lot of federal agencies have self-imposed hiring freezes (whether it's outright no new hires or freeze via attrition) right now due to the current Continuing Resolution because they still do not know what their Fiscal Year 2009 operating budget is. Yet another important information that affects the slant of the article.
Last edited by psychofan; 02-06-2009 at 09:31 AM..
They also forgot to mention, that they favor hires by points - foreigners, widows, veterans, woman and race. I know a guy, very good looking, affable personality, talented - actuallly he works for company that contracts to the Federal gov't. He knows the right folks on the inside and test great, been solicited by Federal employers and friends in the gov't to apply since college to all Federal jobs in his area of expertise - he's about 38 now. And has yet to get an interview. He says you either have to be born into the Federal gov't (aka politicans), bribe the right people or have all the EOE qualifications to even be considered.
Not being discouraged, I applied for a contracts clerk position, called my Dad, former military, and told him if anyone calls we've got American Indian in our blood. He laughed and said that would be hard to prove since our first relatives in this Country, came from Ireland and were deserters in some Canadian war that I never knew happened at the turn of the last century and that's how they ended up in the US. He said our family is too traceable, plus you have to bring a certification of your hertigage. I said, oh come on, someone had to have dabbled - knowing my dad, love him to death, but he's player. He said nope, they all married 1st generation Europeon women and btw... you're not illegitimate.
And what really pissed me off, was we've had earthquakes here in middle America and the head of the local Earthquake Agency was being quoted in the news (a FEMA subsidary) and he's from Iraq. Now that didn't **** me off initially, I thought ok, he must have some unique talent that predicts earthquakes by gases, animal position, sonic waves, whatever, and/or saved someone special in Iraq to get such a great job. I then looked up his agency online and every single one of his reports is from a foreign country, his assistant is from Iraq - not a big deal to me at the time. But then I read all of his immediate reports are from Iraq or Turkey. This agency is located near Arkansas, not a Billy Bob Thornton name in the bunch.
Oh forgot to mention, there's a lot of forums on the net about how to apply for Federal jobs. I came across one where the soap opera of the thread was a women from Portugal who applied for an IRS position. A lot of camaraderie amongst the posters and everyone, along with those born and bred US applicants, were encouraging each other during the waiting process. Yep, you guess it - she got the job and I don't know what happend with the others because their post simply dropped off. She also admitted she fibbed on the application (was wondering if she'd get caught), had no working experience in accounting, just schooling, plus her english writing skills were somewhat strained. (No problem here, if they give me the same consideration.) I'm sure she's a very nice lady and all... but geez, at some point hire an American please.
Wow, there's so much misinformation being posted in this thread, it's hard to know where to start. Guess I'll have to go post-by-post:
Azoria: My office was in Virginia and we've hired people as far away as Seattle. Besides, there are federal government jobs throughout the country. And the Federal government doesn't care about your personal finances unless you're applying for a position that requires a security clearance. Most jobs don't require that.
GypsySoul: No there aren't age quotas. But yes, the directions for applying to a federal government job are mind-boggling.
Psychofan: You are right about the Continuing Resolution and how that affects hiring for the next few months. But the federal government hiring process (while certainly slow) does not take 6-12 months (unless you need a security clearance). I've been offered positions at 3 different federal agencies and the process never took more than 1-2 months.
Run12Run: The Federal government does give a point preference to veterans (and in some special cases to the mother and spouses of veterans). That's it. But they still have to be qualified for the position to get hired. As I mentioned before, I've been offered positions in 3 different agencies. And I'm a white male. And not a veteran.
Your FEMA story also makes no sense. FEMA doesn't have subsidiaries. They do have a regional office that serves the Southwest area including Arkansas. Here are the first names of the contacts for that office: Jack, Gary, Jim, Dan, Wayne, Earl and Reba.
But those people are employees of the State University. Those aren't Federal Government jobs and the Federal Government had no role in them being hired.
emh... good to hear that you've had 3 job offers. I should probably clarify - the jobs my friend and I applied for were for the Park Service. So that may be why its a bit extreme.
In addition, you're right it is the 'UALR Arkansas Earthquake Center', and within the site it indicates:
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The Arkansas Center for Earthquake Education and Technology Transfer is located on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in the Engineering Technology and Applied Science Building. The Center was founded in 1992 and operates under funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Graduate Institute of Technology.
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I don't want to split hairs, but having been exposed to a University research funding system, FEMA is a Federal Gov't Agency, and have a say in who man's these positions. At least for the upper echelon part of it.
Thanks for replying to my post - I'm brand new to forum. Its a great release at this moment in time - I only have a few days, if you know what I mean. And please do not hesitate to correct any misinformation I may inadvertently provide.
Last edited by run12run; 02-07-2009 at 03:15 PM..
Reason: take out code
Wow, there's so much misinformation being posted in this thread, it's hard to know where to start. Guess I'll have to go post-by-post:
Azoria: My office was in Virginia and we've hired people as far away as Seattle. Besides, there are federal government jobs throughout the country. And the Federal government doesn't care about your personal finances unless you're applying for a position that requires a security clearance. Most jobs don't require that.
GypsySoul: No there aren't age quotas. But yes, the directions for applying to a federal government job are mind-boggling.
Psychofan: You are right about the Continuing Resolution and how that affects hiring for the next few months. But the federal government hiring process (while certainly slow) does not take 6-12 months (unless you need a security clearance). I've been offered positions at 3 different federal agencies and the process never took more than 1-2 months.
Run12Run: The Federal government does give a point preference to veterans (and in some special cases to the mother and spouses of veterans). That's it. But they still have to be qualified for the position to get hired. As I mentioned before, I've been offered positions in 3 different agencies. And I'm a white male. And not a veteran.
Your FEMA story also makes no sense. FEMA doesn't have subsidiaries. They do have a regional office that serves the Southwest area including Arkansas. Here are the first names of the contacts for that office: Jack, Gary, Jim, Dan, Wayne, Earl and Reba.
But those people are employees of the State University. Those aren't Federal Government jobs and the Federal Government had no role in them being hired.
Having worked for the US government (albeit overseas) I report what I observed and experienced in the system. The government was extremely selective about who they hired (99% were beltway people) with degrees and advanced degrees largely in political science and law, and they did backround checks that left no molecule of DNA uninvestigated.
All of the younger people had come out of DC area universities and before they were hired had gone through batteries of checks, interviews, and testing that took ages in a very competitive field. Most of them come from universities with good connections to government jobs.
Get outta here. I maintain that today's displaced worker, your average American Joe Blow, has no chance of getting any of these government jobs.
Wow, there's so much misinformation being posted in this thread, it's hard to know where to start. Guess I'll have to go post-by-post:
Azoria: My office was in Virginia and we've hired people as far away as Seattle. Besides, there are federal government jobs throughout the country. And the Federal government doesn't care about your personal finances unless you're applying for a position that requires a security clearance. Most jobs don't require that.
GypsySoul: No there aren't age quotas. But yes, the directions for applying to a federal government job are mind-boggling.
Psychofan: You are right about the Continuing Resolution and how that affects hiring for the next few months. But the federal government hiring process (while certainly slow) does not take 6-12 months (unless you need a security clearance). I've been offered positions at 3 different federal agencies and the process never took more than 1-2 months.
Run12Run: The Federal government does give a point preference to veterans (and in some special cases to the mother and spouses of veterans). That's it. But they still have to be qualified for the position to get hired. As I mentioned before, I've been offered positions in 3 different agencies. And I'm a white male. And not a veteran.
Your FEMA story also makes no sense. FEMA doesn't have subsidiaries. They do have a regional office that serves the Southwest area including Arkansas. Here are the first names of the contacts for that office: Jack, Gary, Jim, Dan, Wayne, Earl and Reba.
But those people are employees of the State University. Those aren't Federal Government jobs and the Federal Government had no role in them being hired.
Not sure about what series or grade level of jobs you have had that you have been hired within 1-2 months or even when these jobs were obtained, BUT I'm referring to the GS13 job I have or was previously offered that took 6+ months to start from the application to EOD at both the FDA and the NIH. These did NOT even require a security clearance. And I KNOW for a fact that the delay was not due too any background checking because I was kept up to date on the paper chase and shuffle between OPM, HR, hiring manager, management analysts, and all their superiors. The other GS 5-15 positions that took 6-12 months were positions that I have witnessed first hand as a contractor while either at the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and Department of Health and Human Services all within the last 7 years. Remember all the various HSPDs is causing a HUGE backlog because ALL government applicants must undergo at a minimum a Public Trust background check.
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). We have a VA hospital nearby and I could not even understand the instructions to apply for an admin. job (Note: I have a BA in English, MS in Education so I 'should' understand complex directions...)
