Anonymous wrote:OP here and I took a break to regain my strength. I’m not sure how the CR has affected hiring but I’ve noticed far fewer announcements for jobs I feel are a good fit. Either hiring has slowed or I’m pre-rejecting because my confidence is shaken. I just hired a resume writer to critique my resume and help me get past the referral stage. Hopefully that will motivate me to keep trying.

Most agencies have had hiring frozen due to the CRs. Which sucks, because I suspect we will not get anything but CRs for the next year.

Have you looked at contract jobs? I have been a contractor based full time in a fed office for about 4 years. They would like to bring me in house but it would be a pay cut so I prefer to keep things the way they are. I know lots of people who have made the transition this way though.

OP here and I took a break to regain my strength. I’m not sure how the CR has affected hiring but I’ve noticed far fewer announcements for jobs I feel are a good fit. Either hiring has slowed or I’m pre-rejecting because my confidence is shaken. I just hired a resume writer to critique my resume and help me get past the referral stage. Hopefully that will motivate me to keep trying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are getting referred very often. How dis you feel about the interview you had?

I felt great and was excited about it but the panel clearly didn’t feel I was a good fit. In fact, they reposted the vacancy a month later, which really shook my confidence. But it looks like the team has been trying to fill this position for a year and it’s a huge monster of a job. I was disappointed at first but now I’m relieved. It was a GS14 supervisory advancement position involving recruitment, team management, contract oversight, executive budgeting, and raising $10-15M/year.

Consider yourself lucky. That sounds like a terrible job. Wouldn't do that for GS15 pay.

+ 1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are getting referred very often. How dis you feel about the interview you had?

I felt great and was excited about it but the panel clearly didn’t feel I was a good fit. In fact, they reposted the vacancy a month later, which really shook my confidence. But it looks like the team has been trying to fill this position for a year and it’s a huge monster of a job. I was disappointed at first but now I’m relieved. It was a GS14 supervisory advancement position involving recruitment, team management, contract oversight, executive budgeting, and raising $10-15M/year.

Consider yourself lucky. That sounds like a terrible job. Wouldn't do that for GS15 pay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 52 years old and recently became a Fed GS-14 step 5 without any Fed experience.  I applied for over 100 Fed jobs without a single interview and it was depressing.  I ran into a former college classmate who is a CIO of a federal agency and I got hired three months after the background check.  It would be almost impossible for me to get hired without the help of my CIO friend.  That being said, I took an early buyout from my previous job with 12 months paid in salary and vetted stock options to join the fed.  The key is to know someone on the inside.

That is super weird. Never heard of anything like this. We have to get our hiring options from whomever makes the cert through HR -- they do all the vetting and selecting and we have no input in pushing for the "inside man".

Must very by agency, wonder which agency is so sketch?

they know the CIO. it was probably a direct hire position, like many tech/cyber security positions.

^This.  
It is very common in the Fed with technology and cyber positions and I work at three different agencies where I got hired when my boss left his position in the private sector to become Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at an agency in the Fed and I joined him three months later.  I left the Fed after two years to go back to the private sector.  Three years later, he went to another agency and I joined him there.   I then left after two years to go back into the private sector and he also left that agency to join another agency as Chief Technology Officer (CTO).  I joined the Fed agency last year as a GS15  where my former boss is now the CTO and it was a very quick process.  I would have zero shot if he wasn't the CTO there.  It is not what you know but who know you matters the most.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think attorneys may as well not respond to these posts, re: hiring for fed jobs. It's just such a different, specific hiring situation.

And wives of attorneys even less so.

YES!

OP here, and if I could get in the back door through a referral, I would. I’m trying to come through the front door, and while no one has released the hounds on me, I feel like they’re looking through the peep hole and deciding they don’t want what I’m selling. It’s discouraging.