USAJOBS, need help?

[Former HM3(FMF)G.]

I've been applying for GS jobs this past month on USAJOBS and I keep getting a response back after the closing date saying "You were not referred to this job because you were not best qualified for this position". I know that my KSA's and education are in good standing. I also have over 30% disability through the VA, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, and the Armed Forces Service Medal for extra points. Am I missing something here or does this system just suck?

Need help with this, it's bugging the hell out of me!

Thanks,

MEUDOCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC.

[Defensor]

The KSA's are screened for key words. You may have to adjust your wording and go into great detail describing your experience. A co-worker's wife does this for a living and she said you can have the same qualifications as the next guy but if you don't have the key words in there you will not be considered. Check a public library, they have books in there dealing with writing KSA's and gaining Federal employment, usually in with the public service testing books.

[BKK]

What does this have to do with Professional Development or Education?

[Sharky]

Writing KSA's for a government job falls within professional development/education.

[B 2/75]

Don't post your job description as a KSA. You have to use bullet statements of achievement that relate to how you review policy statements for compliance with statutory and regulatory guidelines, or how you direct and provide agency oversight to the planning operations of six employees...

And remember that the USAjobs is a numbers game. Don't be intimidated by seeing 50 apps returned with similar statements. Eventually some will start to squeak by the lil ol ladies in tennis shoes that have been screening your your apps. Work on the resume continually, polishing it and fleshing it out with CONTENT.

Good luck. The ride is a bitch, at first. Being a newbie sucks, and be happy that you're in the internet age. It really must have been a bitch in the pre-net days.

[Former HM3(FMF)G.]

Thanks guys,

This helps me out allot and I'm going to the public library for the books. My mother inlaw is a GS-12 and she says that my experience and education should land me something around GS-7 if not higher in mngt or the health care field. She's going to look into this also because she knows that the system sucks!

Thanks for the help,

MEUDOC

[JumpinJunkie]

Theses websites might help you out:

http://www.bop.gov/jobs/KSA_2005.pdf Has a great example and lists all the action verbs they look for.

http://www.ourpublicservice.org/usr_doc/KSA_Project_Draft_4.doc

[B 2/75]

Years ago my father had what amounted to the FED's official directory of KSA buzz words. Sort of a dictionary of the KSAs and buzz words to look for, sorted by GS level. If you wanted a GS9 position in a particular series, look it up and bingo... all the hot buttons you ever wanted. He says he lent it out and didn't get it back. This BoP guide is the closest thing I've found so far... thanks, JJ.

[CDRODA396]

Those above posts saying that the key words are the key are dead on...the first cut is done strictly by computer with the key words loaded into it...all is does is scan resumix resumes that self-nominated and spit out the ones with the requisite number of hits as refered to the hiring official for consideration.

Then you hit the next obstacle...90% (my guess at the number, NOT an official stat by any means) of the time the hiring official already has someone in mind, if that person makes the first cut, its easy to go through a "check the block interview process," and hire that person. If you are applying for positions near where you are, if you get refered, I recommend going by, tracking down the hiring official, say you just wanted to put a face to the resume, answer any initial questions they may have, hand a hard copy of your "up to date" resume to them and say you look forward to hearing from them in the future...not many people are going to bother and it will leave an impression.

Good Luck....if you so a search, I have some pretty frustrated posts on here from my job search about 10-12 months ago. It will end...just seem like forever!

[B 2/75]

CDRODA, from your experience if the hiring authority starts to call bosses and references, how close are you to being tapped? Will they do this for multiple candidates?

[low country]

CDRODA, from your experience if the hiring authority starts to call bosses and references, how close are you to being tapped? Will they do this for multiple candidates?

Hope this is what you were referring to. In my experience, the background investigation (BI) is the last thing to be completed in the hiring process. Other than the medical, everything else in the hiring process is on the applicants dime ie travel to interview, lodging expenses, getting resume together, time off from work etc....

The BI is when the agency kicks in the money and these are rather costly. Generally, the BI is only conducted on person's they are interested in hiring. Again, from my experience, once the background is initiated, it generally means the person will be hired unless there some problem.

Hope this helps.

[B 2/75]

Fingers crossed... looking at heading over to a spot about a hundred miles north of Gunpoint's AO.

[Bearcat06]

As everyone said, KSA (for the most part) are screened by a computer and they are looking for key words.

It took me over 2 years to get my current position and I am trying to leave it and go to a higher paying one.......and keep getting rejected for jobs that I am more than qualified for because I am not using the right key words.

As CDR said, if your resume makes it through and is refered, try like hell to find out who it got sent to and make contact with them.......I have done this in the past and it at least got me an interview.....

Good luck...

[SnakeEat]

As everyone said, KSA (for the most part) are screened by a computer and they are looking for key words.

It took me over 2 years to get my current position and I am trying to leave it and go to a higher paying one.......and keep getting rejected for jobs that I am more than qualified for because I am not using the right key words.

As CDR said, if your resume makes it through and is refered, try like hell to find out who it got sent to and make contact with them.......I have done this in the past and it at least got me an interview.....

Good luck...

What he said!

It took me two years to break into the GS system. I did it by accessing the key words for similar positions into my resumix. Let go of all of the stuff that means so much to us; they could care less if you're HALO qualified.

I've been a GS for the past 3 years; it's the most corrupt system in existence. If you're applying for positions that are only open for a week to 10 days, they're going through the motions (they know who they want already) -don't lose heart, keep refining your resumix and keep applying.

It's easier to obtain a GS position if you're already a contractor there; get your feet in the door and get known.

CPOL adds positions after midnight EST daily; keep checking and don't lose heart buddy.

[Former HM3(FMF)G.]

Damn, all of ya boys have been around the block on this one. This info is great and I'm already making the changes on my resume. I have allot of experience in contracts and quartly budgets, it looks like my KSA's are a liitle off. I just joined this site and I've already benefited from it, keep it up!

Doc

[Tracy]

It ain't all wine and roses: I'm a contractor in a GS-13 duty position. I TRAIN GS-13s in my skill set. I have a dual-major BS degree and two graduate certificates that directly relate to my duty position. I will finish a third graduate certificate in a skill that is my job. 20 years experience.

Opening announcement comes in for my office. The GS-14 boss tells me to apply ASAP. I go through the full steps and.... not qualified. My boss appeals the decision and.... not qualified.

Who is qualified? A supermarket manager with 10 years in the produce department, no security clearence and no experience in the career field.

WTF?

[CDRODA396]

Opening announcement comes in for my office. The GS-14 boss tells me to apply ASAP. I go through the full steps and.... not qualified. My boss appeals the decision and.... not qualified.

Who is qualified? A supermarket manager with 10 years in the produce department, no security clearence and no experience in the career field.

WTF?

Sorry to hear about your woes...I know the feeling. I once applied for the VERY JOB I HELD while on Active Duty that was being rolled over...I literally wrote the manual and didnt make the cut!

The problem is not your qualifications, its the dumb fuck at the office of personnel management, or wherever the frick they wrote the KSA's/job description and input for the initial screening. Additionally, they will ask someone if there are additional skills they want to add...for my job they added "organizational skills" since its staff officer type stuff.

Someone told me to take the entire job desciption/KSA's and cut and paste them into your resume, shrink the text to 1, and change the font color to white and you are guaranteed to make the first cut...I tried it, couldnt get the font color to change to white!:D No really!

Writing the Resumix Resume is an art/skill in itself. SnakeEat is spot on, if HALO isnt a KSA, its wasted text on your resume, cut and paste much of the job description, KSA's as possible without misrepresenting or lying. And if you want a GS position keep the faith, it is a BS System, it is being revamped to some degree, but once in, it gets easier and it does have the same long term security as the military...just takes some head pounding to get it!

B 2/75, from what I know, if they are actually calling references, they are at the point where they are confirming you are what you claim, and are looking for anything that might help them decide on the final picks for interviews...another step closer!

[Denny]

Doc

Retired USN and have worked for VA for 11 years I have first hand knowledge of the system. Not an expert but who is. Your KSA must "match" the items listed in the job description. Use the same terminology as it was written by some HR person. We just went through 30 applications to hire a new police officer and DID not hire the most qualified but the BEST qualified. PM me and I will go into details.

[sarc88]

Don't want to beat a dead horse, but do need to make a very clear point.

1) Many USAJOBS openings utilize an automated screening "search" system (RESUMIX, etc). As described earlier, the program searches for how many times the key words in the announcement appear in your resume. It then assigns you a raw score.

2) The computer program automatically adjusts the "cutting score" for each resume it scans. If it sees one, the cut will be low.....if it sees 100, the cut will raise, etc. If your resume matches the opening, chances are that the system will forward yours along to HR.

3) This is ALL DONE BEFORE A PAIR OF HUMAN EYES SEES YOUR RESUME!!! If you don't make the computerized score - and get the "auto response" - that means your resume probably didn't even make it to a human's desk.

4) There are always exceptions - not everyone uses automated systems like RESUMIX - but don't think that someone is reviewing every resume/application.

V/R
SARC88
HMCS (Ret)

[Denny]

All good advice on getting a government job.

[zebra305]

Agree 100 percent. I'm a GS FedCop now. Getting in for me was easy at an entry level (GS-5) job because my resume had all the right 'buzzzzz's'. Getting promoted took several tries until I figured out how to use the right wording, even if it sounded stupid and assinine. I cut and pasted, even resisting the temptation to correct grammatical errors (the first time I applied, I just used buzzwords and changed grammatical mistakes...WRONG). If you cut and paste, do it exactly as the thing reads. Misspellings and all.....because if the words are mispelled in the KSAs, chances are very high they will be loaded into the computer search program the same way.

Also, depending on the job, if you are being 'backgrounded', you made the cut and are being looked at; or, at least, your resume made it through the computer and is now sitting on someones desk, who may, or may not, have a clue about what it is he/she is hiring for. They may be an "Operations Specialist" whose job it is to cull through the resumes and contact the potential employees, do the backgrounds, etc. In our agency, it's a former officer who was a Lt, so he knows what to look for and how to do it. In others...that may not be the case.

Since I'm the guy that does the backgrounds for us, I know who is coming or who they are looking at. That having also been said, I've given thumbs down to folks on the background, who were hired regardless.

You are welcome to PM for more detail if you like. Hope that information isn't redundant and proves useful.

Good luck!

[Cuda]

I know this isn't true for all GS jobs. I was lucky to see the process for hiring a civilian for an instructor job in SWC, GS position. I always heard about the good ole boy system. Not so true. When it finally came down to the final candidates for the interview. Members of that committee were on the interview board.
They grilled them on their knowledge of the subject matter they were applying to teach. Entire interview was based on a point system. Good ole Boy system got a few to the interview stage. Very obvious bye the people who showed up. But it didn't matter who you once were. Best man got the job based on his score and skills. Imagine that, I was impressed.
One former CSMG was asked what are the three primary target indicators? He started babbling away about ANOC/O&I merging as one course for 15 minutes. Everyone just sat there with their mouth hanging open.

[SnakeEat]

I know this isn't true for all GS jobs. I was lucky to see the process for hiring a civilian for an instructor job in SWC, GS position. I always heard about the good ole boy system. Not so true. When it finally came down to the final candidates for the interview. Members of that committee were on the interview board.
They grilled them on their knowledge of the subject matter they were applying to teach. Entire interview was based on a point system. Good ole Boy system got a few to the interview stage. Very obvious bye the people who showed up. But it didn't matter who you once were. Best man got the job based on his score and skills. Imagine that, I was impressed.
One former CSMG was asked what are the three primary target indicators? He started babbling away about ANOC/O&I merging as one course for 15 minutes. Everyone just sat there with their mouth hanging open.

I'm gratified to hear that SWCS does it professionally. In the AMEDD, once they eliminate the stopper list because of typos, they tear apart the other resumes because they "just don't seem to fit what we were looking for" and then hire the guy/gal they wanted in the first place. It's the most corrupt system I've ever seen and they should charge them all under the RICO Statute (wow, I hope I didn't sound bitter).

[Just Another Guy]

It took over 18 months and I had some outstanding credentials for either FEMA/DOD etc. You are right about KSAs; I got to the point where I would cut&paste the KSA and use it in a sentence. Most limiting handicap I had was clearance had expired. Got on with DOD after a while due to my unque experience and skill sets. Keep up the fight!!!!