Federal Jobs: Easy to Spot, Hard to Get

From the Wall Street Journal | Oct 26, 2009

The federal government's "help wanted" sign is up. The problem, applicants are finding, is getting in the door.

More than a quarter-million federal workers are expected to be hired
in the next three years, which makes the government attractive to job
seekers at a time of 9.8% unemployment and shrinking private payrolls.
But the government, it turns out, isn't very good at hiring. Its
screening process has been making it hard for applicants, particularly
young ones with less work experience and fewer government contacts, to
move into federal jobs.

Getty Images

Transportation Security Administration recruiter Linda Garwood, left, at the Baltimore Convention Center in September.

And
internships, often a direct route to employment in the private sector,
rarely yield full-time government positions. Only 7% of government
interns are hired, compared with more than 50% in the private sector,
according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit watchdog
group.

USAJobs.gov, the government's primary vehicle for listing open
positions and receiving applications, is known for its lengthy
application process -- and for not responding to most applicants,
according to public-policy organizations and the applicants themselves.

Officials acknowledge that in the past, many applicants haven't
received a reply, but said they are in the process of ensuring that
each applicant is notified, repeatedly, about the status of the
application.

"Things may be working OK now for the agencies...but an entire
generation is due to retire," said Steven Erickson, 25 years old, who
has been searching for a government job for 10 months. He likened the
hiring process to "throwing resumes into an abyss."

Of course, a lot of job seekers feel that way these days, as
employers report sifting through hordes of overqualified applicants for
the few available jobs.

But a dearth of jobs isn't the government's problem. It's finding a
quick and fair way to wade through the resumes. In the past six months,
each job posting (which may actually be multiple jobs, such as the same
job in various locations) on USAJobs drew about 170 applications -- up
from about 25 in 2007.

On Sunday, more than 30,000 jobs were posted on USAJobs, the Web
site on which nearly every available government job must be posted. The
Partnership for Public Service estimates that the government will need
to add as many as 273,000 workers in the next three years -- 41% higher
than in the prior two years.

The Office of Personnel Management, which runs USAJobs, has said it
is trying to ease the bottlenecks. "Now is the time we must recruit and
hire the best," OPM Director John Berry said at a conference in July.
"To achieve this, we are going to fix hiring and recruitment so that it
is fair, simple and fast, and only based on merit."

Under a heavy workload, the OPM has started experimenting with how
to improve the time it takes to hire. Traditionally, most positions
were listed on USAJobs for up to 10 days, then hiring managers would
evaluate the applicants for an undefined amount of time and make an
offer. Once an offer was made, the government allotted 45 business
days, or nine weeks, to fill the position.

A new hiring model that hasn't been fully implemented aims to fill a
vacancy within 80 calendar days, about 11 weeks, after a job is posted.
Government officials wouldn't quantify the average time from posting to
hiring under the old model, but said the 80-day model should be faster.

Knowledge,
skills and abilities essays -- a fixture of the USAJobs application
process -- were often criticized for being too onerous, reaching up to
three pages per application, and sometimes asking for highly specific
government skills. Now the essays have been eliminated for positions
that don't require extensive writing skills.

With a government internship, volunteer work and a master's degree
in public policy under his belt, Mr. Erickson has spent hours on
USAJobs, filling out separate applications for program analysis
positions in different agencies. His applications generally include
both multiple-choice questions and a variety of knowledge, skills and
abilities essays that usually need to be tailored specifically to each
application.

Standard essays for Mr. Erickson asked him about budgeting and
accountability. One application asked applicants to describe their
experience with statutes such as the "Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) Circular A-130" and "National Institute of Standards and
Technology guideline and standards."

The jobs Mr. Erickson looked at in the private sector asked for a
cover letter, résumé, and three writing samples. Until he can find a
job, he is waiting tables and working part-time with the National
Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

"Will the government ever be able to compete with a Goldman Sachs?
No," said Michael Smith, president of The Washington Center for
Internships and Academic Seminars, a nonprofit that helps place interns
in the public and private sectors and has helped coach government
agencies on best practices for turning government interns into
full-time employees. "But that doesn't mean the government isn't going
to make significant strides."

In the meantime, some people, such as Lowell Gruman Jr., 24, managed
to find a job working for the federal government indirectly, through
private contractors, and thus avoid the usual hiring process. Mr.
Gruman landed a job as an analyst with contractor National Interest
Security Co. working with the Department of Energy. Former schoolmates
passed Mr. Gruman's resume on to their supervisor when the position
opened up. "I think it absolutely does [help]," Mr. Gruman said. "It's
a matter of just having those friendships."

Write to Sara Murray at sara.murray@wsj.com