I know I’m qualified, and my local post office REALLY wants me to work with them. And I was even selected as an RCA last time, but the only reason I didn’t take the job is because I didn’t have a minivan. (I have a car, not a minivan).
However, even though the LOCAL post office told me that I would be a great fit for the ARC position, the HR in Washington DC denied my application and I didn’t even get an email notifying me about it.
So I sent another application, and I decided to call HR in Washington DC. They seem kinda rude, and they flat out told me, “Hiring you is not their descision to make.”, which seems like BS to me because the LOCAL post office knows all about me, and the people in Washington DC know NOTHING about me.
What’s the secret? How do I penetrate this HR Bureaucracy?
Federal job applications are different from regular ones. You have several hurdles to meet before getting hired that just don’t exist in the regular workforce.
The biggest hurdle is the resume. You have to list every job you’ve had, while also demonstrating the job requirements they posted on usajobs.gov, while also keeping it under two pages long.
When you apply for a federal job, your resume isn’t getting sent straight to the office you wanna join. It’s getting sent to OPM personnel who look it over to see if you meet the stated requirements. If the job listing says three years experience handling packages, your resume must have three years of package handling demonstrated in it. It doesn’t have to be exact, (Amazon packages or receiving shipping at McDonalds every week is fine) but it does need to be worded in such a way that a stranger could tell that you have three years of package handling under your belt. Because it is a stranger who is checking for that.
Once it passes review and your resume meets the listed requirements, then it gets forwarded to the local hr, which is still not the office you’re applying for, where they’ll give it a look to do some points comparison on all the resumes they get to see who they’ll interview. After that, if you’re on the top of the pile, they’ll give you a call for an interview.
- Don’t use the usajobs resume builder as anything other than a rough draft sketch tool. It has historically been very badly programed and caused resumes sent with it to be so ugly they cant be read by a human.
- Used to be a federal resume only needed your entire work history. Now it needs that, and also must be under two pages long. (Verify this on the usajobs website specifically, it might change/I might be missread here)
- the current admin has fucked up federal hiring in a major way. It’s entirely possible the only reason you haven’t been hired this year is trumps fault, and you would have got hired any other year.
There’s a lot of great resources at reddit (I know!), because a lot of federal employees still hang out over there. It’s worth a look at the various subreddits to see what the latest info is.
It can be a long process, but first, there are some general requirements for all federal government jobs:
- are you at least 16 or 18 if you dont have a high school diploma?
- have a criminal history (even minor stuff can be an issue)
- are you in the US on a visa (i.e. not a permanent resident or citizen)?
- if you are driving, is your driving history clean, DUI can be disqualifying for example?
- if they consider you male, have you enrolled in selective service?
Those are ones I can think of.
After the basics, did you supply all job history? And you must apply for a specific opening, so for the specific job posting you are applying for, do you meet every single requirement and mentioned that in your application. Even things that sound irrelevant, if they are on a list, they have to be checked off in this kind of strict bureaucracy environment.
There is a whole process. Testing, multiple rounds. Even for temp seasonal positions.
I mean… I already completed the application test, and I won’t have to take it again…
Did you have anyone in a hiring position review your resume? Resume writing is an entire skill, and often, they need to be tailored to the organization where you are applying to work.
There are a number of other factors, depending on who you talked to; do they have positions available? Is there a hiring freeze? Does the person you are talking with know the job requirements?
If you really know the office, there is almost certainly someone local with hiring authority, whose job it is to interface with the headquarters. You will need to apply through the HQ Human Resources system, but they may have some authority to pull your resume from the applicant pool, but generally, these are competitive positions and they are not allowed to directly hire.
If they have contract opportunities, though, you should figure out who the vendor is and apply through the company’s website instead.
What’s the secret? How do I penetrate this HR Bureaucracy?
$TRUMP coin
Otherwise you need to work through the bureaucracy. If you can’t make it through the application process there is no way you’ll stand living in it every day. It’s not contained to HR.
u/DaGeek247 has the real advice tho
