Do you think USAJOBS website is a joke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A Fed here...

True story: I once reviewed a resume for a GS-13 position. This person did not even graduate from college yet. His only "job" was Burger King. How did he get through HR screening? He basically copied and pasted the whole job announcement into his "resume" and stated that he is applied in reference to the announcement below... Kinda like eBay listings with a bunch of bogus keywords. In this case he hits every one of them.

USAJOBS HR is utterly useless.

This made it past an HR screen?? The process really is a joke

[Anonymous]

The entire process is a joke. Even if you get a job, the whole process will take at least 9 months start to finish, and you'll get almost no information along the way. Only in America.

[Anonymous]

Another true story from inside. Had a detailee in the office apply for an opening. Somehow she had gotten a copy of the position description for the job and submitted that as her work experience. Sailed right through and was on one of the certs. ANYTHING can make it through the system, which is why hiring manager hate the system as well!

[Anonymous]

I'm a vet and it took me a year before I got my first interview and job.
My husband is a vet, took him over a year to get an interview, but they couldn't offer the job due to a hiring freeze and then offered it to him 9 months later, when he had gotten a job elsewhere. He tried again this past year, there were 13,000 applicants for 80 positions. They interviewed thousands over the phone, made cuts, second interview (in person) for 800, then widdled it down to about 300 for a one day assessment, then the final 80 were selected and offered a job. My husband got one of the jobs. Several went to current federal employees. Not many went to vets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently applied for a job I was very highly qualified for, and had inside connections.

There were 300+ applicants, 100 of whom apparently rated themselves as a 5/5 on every single qualification in the multiple choice questionnaire, basically saying they regularly supervised others doing tasks that were ridiculously diverse and very obscure. Even the hiring manager thought it was pretty unlikely such people existed in such quantities, especially considering it was a mid-level position. Of those, HR reviewers (who had little understanding of what would actually make a good candidate for the particular position) sent a handful of the 100 perfect scoring resumes to the agency. My resume didn't even make the 100 cut, since, while I was generous with the questionnaire, I didn't blatantly lie. So yeah, I think the process is a bit of a joke.

I haven't applied for a fed job in awhile, but isn't there some disclaimer about consequences for being caught lying on those questionnaires? Is that all BS?

I helped my sister apply to jobs for new grads. 75% of the questions were specific to the government. Things such as "supervised others on the government tracking system" or years of experience with government equipment. Insane. How do they expect 22 year olds to have supervised people before? Obviously HR idiots make the questions. My sister was wanted by the agency hiring also so she was exactly what they were looking for.

Take the age out of it, some people have not been in a supervisory role for a variety of reasons. Some organizations don't believe in creating a career ladder.

The times I have applied, I have been honest on the multiple choice portion as well. I think that USA Jobs uses some program to find keywords that rarely exist for most people. That is pure laziness. Not everything can be explained on a resume, especially when a resume is supposed to be 2 pages at most.

For federal jobs, the longer the resume the better.

True. My resume is 7 pages long.
Look at the duties, the job series, and look on OPM what the job series requires for the grade your applying. That and the description you have to have very similiar experiences in your resume. Find the KSAs for the position, and ensure all the key words are in your resume. That way your resume will actually make it to the hiring manager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh and USA Jobs needs to be more specific on telework and family friendly. My coworker got hired into a "telework friendly" job posting on USA Jobs. Once hired she was told:
-work is from 9:30-6 daily. Absolutely no exceptions or you'll be taking annual leave. (didn't work with people's daycare schedules or carpools, so this was the #1 reason for leaving)
-no telework, even on snow days
-you must walk into the boss's office and sign in on paper daily and during lunch break

She left ASAP as did everyone else. That job posting is currently posted on USA Jobs right now Good luck applying for that.

Which agency? I think my friend worked in that office. (Past tense of course).

[Anonymous]

I have a similar broken promise regarding telework agreement.

I once had a co-worker asking for a blackberry as he traveled extensively for work and need to keep up with emails. Was told he wasn't important enough and high enough (grade-wise) to qualify for a blackberry. From that point on, he stopped answering any call to his private cellphone (alert roster/exercise be damned)...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a similar broken promise regarding telework agreement.

I once had a co-worker asking for a blackberry as he traveled extensively for work and need to keep up with emails. Was told he wasn't important enough and high enough (grade-wise) to qualify for a blackberry. From that point on, he stopped answering any call to his private cellphone (alert roster/exercise be damned)...

I don't blame him, good for him for standing up for himself.

[Anonymous]

Me and two of my coworkers were hired by USAJobs. We all have STEM degrees, though.

My process took from September (applying) to November (offer). Then 4 months for a background check/clearance.

[Anonymous]

Telework is a joke at my agency anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Me and two of my coworkers were hired by USAJobs. We all have STEM degrees, though.

My process took from September (applying) to November (offer). Then 4 months for a background check/clearance.

But no instruction in grammar?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Me and two of my coworkers were hired by USAJobs. We all have STEM degrees, though.

My process took from September (applying) to November (offer). Then 4 months for a background check/clearance.

But no instruction in grammar?

Nope, you should know people with STEM degrees can't form sentences. Actually, I am too lazy to think about grammar and just type what I want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Me and two of my coworkers were hired by USAJobs. We all have STEM degrees, though.

My process took from September (applying) to November (offer). Then 4 months for a background check/clearance.

But no instruction in grammar?

Have you seen the job announcements with grammatical errors? I'm like, how can you submit a job posting that looks like it was written by a 5th grader and be proud of that? I've wanted to the call the contact person and say "you need to take some English classes."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Me and two of my coworkers were hired by USAJobs. We all have STEM degrees, though.

My process took from September (applying) to November (offer). Then 4 months for a background check/clearance.

So you have a liberal arts degree?

[Anonymous]

^^STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. PP probably has a B.S. degree.