How soon to apply for another Fed job

[Anonymous]

DH has been a Federal employee for almost 11 years. He was at Dept of Defense for 10 years and took a job at Dept of Interior this spring. He really hates it and is frustrated by the staff he has to manage who have been there for a long time and aren't likely to leave anytime soon. Is it too soon to apply for another Fed job? What should he say in interviews? Is it bad to apply for a job in the same agency? As soon as he took this job, he was actually called to interview for another position within the agency but declined. In hindsight that one would have been better as it didn't require him to supervise anyone. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Short answer, no, not too early to apply for another job. It can take quite a while to find a good fit. I would caution about jumping too quickly into semething new. One quick job move can be explained, I think. Multiple quick job moves starts to look like a pattern, so I'd say look for a new job but be really, really sure it is a better fit before moving on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH has been a Federal employee for almost 11 years. He was at Dept of Defense for 10 years and took a job at Dept of Interior this spring. He really hates it and is frustrated by the staff he has to manage who have been there for a long time and aren't likely to leave anytime soon. Is it too soon to apply for another Fed job? What should he say in interviews? Is it bad to apply for a job in the same agency? As soon as he took this job, he was actually called to interview for another position within the agency but declined. In hindsight that one would have been better as it didn't require him to supervise anyone. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I've heard from HR types that they don't like seeing jobs on people's resumes that are less than 1 year.

[Anonymous]

I was at DoD for over 12 years before leaving for another agency. I applied to another job there after 9 months and started exactly a year after I came to the agency in the first place. Since it was a promotion, it wan't poorly viewed. But, even so, I think he should start looking even just at laterals. With 10 years at one place, a few months elsewhere is understandable. People get it when you don't like something. You know within a couple of months.

[Anonymous]

He can move whenever he wants to.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, good to know. He is shocked at how poorly managed things are compared to DoD and is very frustrated. Good to know it won't look bad to try and make a switch so soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH has been a Federal employee for almost 11 years. He was at Dept of Defense for 10 years and took a job at Dept of Interior this spring. He really hates it and is frustrated by the staff he has to manage who have been there for a long time and aren't likely to leave anytime soon. Is it too soon to apply for another Fed job? What should he say in interviews? Is it bad to apply for a job in the same agency? As soon as he took this job, he was actually called to interview for another position within the agency but declined. In hindsight that one would have been better as it didn't require him to supervise anyone. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I've heard from HR types that they don't like seeing jobs on people's resumes that are less than 1 year.

I'm not a hiring manager, or in HR, but I have been in the position of having heavy influence over hiring contractors. I am the queen of hating short stints on resumes. A year here, a year there....since I'm in a technology field, managers told me that they thought it was normal to switch in IT every year. It's not. A candidate with 10 years or so experience should have at least one 3/4 year stint on their resume before I'd even consider interviewing them. Unless the stints were contracts under ONE company. If they have 2 stints of 1 year, a 2 year, and a 6 year or so, that looks better to me. I'm starting to get anxious about people with 3 years, 3 years, 3 years, 3 years. I can see a pattern with people like that where they don't seem to be that great of hires. You can tell that this is mostly personal experience-based. That means that every single person looking at your resume will come in with their own bias. So, you can't really go by that. You just need to do for yourself what you think you need to do. If you're really unhappy, get the hell out.