When you read a government job announcement there is a lot of information to be absorbed. This information is not included by random, and unlike the private sector, is not very flexible.
It’s no surprise that federal hiring is full of rules and regulations and that is apparent when reading a job announcement. For starters, a job announcement for a government job begins with a required template.
This template includes all of the required regulations that apply to all federal positions. The template is also marked for the HR office to input the specifics about their position.
The specifics about a particular position are a mixture of the requirements of the position pulled from even more policy and regulation, and the duties of the position taken from the position description.
For every position there is what is known as a qualification standard. This is a verbatim listing of what is minimally required to hire someone into the particular position. Unlike the private sector, these requirements are not flexible, which is what makes applying for them somewhat frustrating.
When it comes to the requirements of the position you’ll see terms like Time-in-Grade and Specialized Experience. For most administrative types of positions these are all that is required. When it comes to professional positions there may be additional requirements, such as license or education.
First off, Time-in-Grade is a term that requires a person that already works for the federal government to have at least one year working at the next lower grade. Depending on the position, that next lower grade could have been one grade lower, or two. This requirement does not apply to those that do not currently work for the federal government, so if you are just trying to get your first government job don’t be nervous about this term.
Specialized experience is the next term that applies to all positions. This is usually represented using a phrase such as, “must have 1 year of experience at the next lower grade.” Following the statement is generally a list of examples of this experience. The list of examples is what a person would have to reflect in their resume to meet the specialized experience requirement.
As mentioned above, if you do not currently work for the federal government you will not be required to meet “next lower grade” but instead, just by matching the examples to your own experience in your resume you will meet this requirement.
When reviewing the government job announcement fully, you will see that just meeting the requirements of the position isn’t necessarily enough. You will also find a required documents section that will tell you what is required to show proof. Common required documents are the resume, SF-50, transcripts, license, etc. The resume is always required. It must follow the specific structure and contain experience that is specific to the job you are applying to.
The SF-50 is a document that federal employees receive every time there is a change to their personnel record. This document is required as proof to meet areas of consideration that are limited to current government employees and also to prove their Time-in-Grade.
Transcripts are required any time you are using education to qualify for a position. Whether it is to substitute for specialized experience or if it is required for the position.
The license would be required when possessing a particular license is part of meeting that job’s qualifications. This is generally in professional positions, such as nurse, social worker, physician, engineer, etc. Submitting a copy of this license is required as proof.
There are other fields and requirements that might be listed in a particular job announcement depending on the position. No two jobs are alike.
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