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Adam Smith
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Maryland, USA
Jan 1970
time: 00:26
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Gepap:
Because of a settlement of recent court case alleging racial discrimination (Somebody v. LaChance), Civil Service hiring announcements at the entry level (GS-5, 7) are very generic. The announcement for an economist, say, is supposed to be written so it will apply to absolutely anybody with a BA in economics. The application is something like 16 pages long and asks 156 questions (not kidding) about your background and experience. Many of these questions are just plain irrelevant. You fill out the questionaire, a computer grades them, and sends the top three or five applications for consideration. This generic treatment results in generic candidates, and often not a very good fit.
There are three ways to work around this, which, hopefully, will result in both a better fit and a better chance of distinguishing yourself from the herd.
First, if you ever worked for the federal governemnt before, see if you can claim Civil Service "status". IIRC, you have "status" if you worked for the federal governement before on a full time basis and were not terminated for cause. If you have "status" you can skip much of the application process for new hires, and go into a pool of existing government employees. Muuuuuch easier that way.
Second, if you are not going the "status" route, pay special attention to the "Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities" (KSA's) section of the announcement. If the hiring officer knows what they are doing, or needs any particular type of skill, they will provide as much detail as they can get away with in the KSA's. At lower levels applicants are not allowed to write anything in response to individual KSA's. What you can do, however, is address the KSA's in a specially tailored version of your resume. If the KSA's mention knowledge of Latin American politics, this is the place to mention an internship at an embassy, for example. You are asked to attach a resume as part of the application. It is intended to be used to check your answers to the 156 questions, but you can stick the KSA responses in there. (Best not to mention it is in response to the KSA's though; they will think you are trying to game the system, which you are.)
The resumes will be read by fairly low level personnel types who have been specially selected to do this because they do not know anything about the position, and therefore are considered completely unbiased. You want to keep the responses short, simple, and use catch phrases to describe your experience. They will have a set of phrases to look for which match the KSA's, and that is how you can set yourself apart.
[True story about my experience: I applied for a statistican position, and answered the KSA's as if I was an economist (which I am of course). I bombed. I reapplied for the position, and the only change I made was to change the economics terms in my application eg "price dispersion" to their statistical equivalent eg "sample variation". They told me I had the highest score ever on their applications.]
Third, try also to apply for a higher level position. Entry level just out of college is GS-5. But, if you have "superior academic standing" as an undergraduate you can also apply for the position at the GS-7 level. Not many applicants know this. "Superior academic standing" can be demonstrated by graduating in the upper third of your class, sufficiently high grade point average, membership in a national scholastic honorary society (eg Phi Beta Kappa, or whatever it is in political science), or a year of experience (part-time experience can be converted to full-time equivalent). Work toward a masters degree will often let you apply for a GS-9 position. Applying for a higher level position is not just about starting salary. The higher you go, the more prospective federal government employers are allowed to request and take into account specific experience. This helps you stand out from the generic process at the GS-5 level, and also helps ensure a better fit between requirements, abilities, and interests.
Hope this helps. Feel free to respond here or PM me with further questions.
PS: This descriptin applies to Civil Service positions. I do not know if the Library of Congress hires under the Civil Serivce System. Most federal agencies are under Civil Service.
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15-03-2003 22:01
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