Not getting SES Interviews

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, we can’t see your application materials so we don’t know what it says exactly.

I wasn't complaining, just sharing back intel.

I think any feedback you get is valuable but really, often the hiring is very subjective. I still personally think you might have issues if your supervisory experience isn’t clear, but maybe your ECQ made it more clear than it appeared on this thread. The fact is that it’s hard to get into the SES, and many qualified people don’t get there…..and some unqualified people manage to get there.

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04/19/2023 09:03

Subject: Not getting SES Interviews

quote

Anonymous

1.) what field are you in?
2.) you need supervisory experience in the federal government. You’re not going to get an SES position without it. You’ve never handled HR issues, hiring, managing in the federal government. You need it.

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04/19/2023 19:02

Subject: Not getting SES Interviews

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:1.) what field are you in?
2.) you need supervisory experience in the federal government. You’re not going to get an SES position without it. You’ve never handled HR issues, hiring, managing in the federal government. You need it.

1) I’ll just say Physical Sciences.
2) This is false. I know of a few very prominent SESers in my field who were non supervisory 15s prior to being SES and had no official federal supervisory duties, but like me, led scientific research teams. Maybe it’s not as heavy a requirement in science agencies?

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04/19/2023 19:17

Subject: Not getting SES Interviews

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1.) what field are you in?
2.) you need supervisory experience in the federal government. You’re not going to get an SES position without it. You’ve never handled HR issues, hiring, managing in the federal government. You need it.

1) I’ll just say Physical Sciences.
2) This is false. I know of a few very prominent SESers in my field who were non supervisory 15s prior to being SES and had no official federal supervisory duties, but like me, led scientific research teams. Maybe it’s not as heavy a requirement in science agencies?

You can definitely find people for whom that’s true and it would definitely be more common in scientific and technical agencies, but it is still more commonly preferred. My FIL was an SES and apparently assumed my husband couldn’t get there because he doesn’t have a PhD. That was probably true at the agency he worked. Now, my husband is an SL, at a related but separate agency (both DoD) in a financial field.

The fact is that these jobs are hard to get. I’m not an SES and I honestly have no ambition to be one, but having worked with many over the years, it’s a cultivated trajectory (and sometimes just luck). Do you have a mentor?