Hi Everyone, Thanks for the helpful advice, put in digest form here.
Consistent theme - be honest but spin towards the exact phrase or word use in the announcement. Do the math for questions seeking a quantitative answer. Some redundancy, but most repeat responses were taken out of the couple dozen replies. Alice :) I don't think it would be acceptable for you to rename the course. If given the opportunity, you can describe the course, but it would be dishonest for you change its name. (I do not intend to 'rename' a course so much as to characterize the actual content as taught. So, I have used this in my transcript description. "Bio 570 Evolution" from the schools catalog, and then put "=> Avian examples used exclusively = ornithology". Some job description want the applicant to have 12 semester hours of ichthyology, ornithology or some other taxon specific coursework. I did not have those types of classes offered at either school I attended for my undergraduate or graduate degree. Alice) I can't recommend a service, but using the exact same terms that the job description uses is a tip I've heard many times. Also, don't restrict your searches to DOI. With your background, you could look for similar work within USDA, FDA, USAID and other agencies, which would provide you with a leg up in government. Also double check websites. For internships specifically, most are entirely on the website of the agency, and never get posted on USAJOBS. I think you just have to grin, bear it, and do what we all do, and fill out the forms to the best of your ability. You should not lie about your background of course, but it's always best to "talk up" what you have done on all items you describe because for some reason USAJOBS will not score you as highly if you provide generic representations of your experience. Again, this is something we all have to do in life, it's not a fun process. I am not personally aware of a service that does your resume for you for USAJOBS. Course titles can be misleading. The thing to remember is that you are initially dealing with a regional HR person, not someone from your desired unit. Practice some wordsmithing when describing your transcript. I don't know of a "service" that will prepare your resume for you . . . . . .Another issue you may be having is that there is an influx of veterans returning from war who get hiring preference over civilians who have not served. My HR person at a National Park says they all mostly hate the resume builder on USAJOBS.gov so don't use it, as it is difficult for a real human to read. Let your official transcript or a plain paper official transcript do your talking for you when it comes to the classes you've taken. It is all your experience that matters to a DOI hiring official. Be absolutely certain to list the HOURS, estimated hours, or approximate hours a week you have done the job experience you are listing. Do not make the HR person do the math to arrive at an estimate of how much experience you have in say bird-banding. The KSA's are critical!!!!! Copy and paste the one's from the questionnaire that you TRULY have experience in, and then paste them into your resume--and it doesn't matter if it makes your resume 5-25 pages long. A federal government resume is not limited to 2 pages, unlike in the business world. An HR person must find your qualifications in your resume as documented, they will not guess or make conjectures about your probable exposure. Be sure to reword the KSA's to consistently be in the past tense: KSA in questionnaire says-- manages crew of 5-10 staff schedule with days off requests and vacation days managed to allow for adequate facility coverage. YOUR KSA reworded says--diplomatically supervised seasoned staff of 6-12 (if that's true) with a view of fair dispersal of requested leaves of absence while allowing full and exemplary facility coverage. You can check out free guides from the library for help with your KSA's---they are ultimately more important than your classes. And don't forget that all of your documented volunteer work is valuable to the federal government as long as you can extrapolate the relevant work experience to the job for which you are applying. "Supervised Sunday School children for 2 years," becomes "guided preschool -10 years-of-age children in themed education activities for approximately 100 hours per year from 2010-2012 = 200 hrs total." I have worked with the DOI in the past and my supervisor said that USAJOBS is just a screen.Its just a robot filtering thousands of applicants down to a mere 3 individuals. It looks for key words and other things us mere mortals will never comprehend. Trying contacting the hiring manager directly expressing your interest and send them your resume saying you are applying, or have applied on the USAJOB website. Usually on the job description page you can find one or two people connected to the job. (try contacting the Biologist as well as the HR recruiter...sometimes they are one and the same, but rarely) Unfortunately the federal hiring process is a pain to deal with. Your resume is rated based on keywords, so it is very important to include a short description of the courses you have completed. Try to cram as much information you can about yourself on your resume while including keywords (use those science writing skills). Furthermore, use the same exact words they use to describe the position in the vacancy notice. Here is the official guide from usajobs: (link removed) A quick search in google will also yield a number of websites with tips. You have to play their game, tell them what they want to hear, all while being truthful. Unfortunately, most people fudge a little bit on their answers and considering how vague and sometimes unrelated to they are to the position, I understand why. Since you have a M.S. you are qualified for a GS-9, but it is quite hard to obtain a GS-9 position straight out of grad school without prior federal or other experience. If you would be willing to take the position, apply for GS-7 positions and even apply for seasonal jobs. Once you have a position with a certain federal agency, you will be ranked much higher on job applications in the future and it will much easier to get another job with the same agency. Don't be afraid to call personnel from the place you are applying to get them familiar with your name. If you name gets through HR it will show up on a list and you may be more likely to get an interview if they are familiar with you. In the nationally advertised jobs, you may be able to select locations you know are hiring if you look for job postings on other websites that post vacancy announcements,(link removed) often has them. I hope this helps
