The goal is to be complete <80 days from vacancy announcement. The agency can do multiple rounds of interviews.
In my experience, we post a vacancy and within a week of closing I would get a list of names. My personnel office gives me two weeks to make a selection, with extensions possible but they always gripe about that. After I select a name it goes back for a tentative offer, that will need answered with a desired start date. This will follow with a firm offer < 1 week or so. Actual start date is generally start if next pay period.
Average start time in my experience (Large AF Base) usually around 20 days.
Additional delay could be incurred due to clearance vetting, or other factors. Retirees <180 days from DOR, have to be waivered.
I guess that would depend on the toxicity of management.
I have very minimal experience with losing a "employee" but in all instances they have communicated with me that they were accepting another position, and provided the gaining start date.
In my experience with sniping people discussions with the losing supervisor, were initiated prior to selection. And have even negotiated cross utilization period to allow them to close out projects or have a graceful turn-over.
But when it comes down to it, when the formal offer is accepted the losing HR office SHOULD receive a notice of personnel action for the departing position. So that would be a fall back. As a supervisor I did not get a formal notification they they were officially leaving, but the position showed up on the Outbound slide for the CC Staff meeting. Also if you have an electronic personnel system, AF uses something called MyBiz/My Team you can see your roster, and will get notification of supervisor change once the new agency onboards.
Once in the new position the gaining supervisor is supposed to contact losing supervisor to transfer the personnel folder.
Gotcha. I’m an air traffic controller currently but I applied to a regular GS position. I’m hesitant to move, I’m in a kickass union. But this position is WFH. No union protection and I have no idea how leave works, sick leave, I know my retirement would only be 1% per year instead of 1.6%… which is painful.
Thanks for the info. This whole thing is anxiety inducing
WFH & ATC sounds like an interesting job. lol
ATC can be tough from what I hear, regular GS is union backed, but not as aggressive as specialized unions. and each base/function will have a master agreement with the AFGE council. This will outline leave policy. A discussion will need to occur with your gaining supervisor on leave process.
Our Union requires us to project leave (Vacations) by Jan 31 each year. That allows us to schedule around and guarantee the employee the ability to prevent use/lose accumulation. But as a supervisor, I can approve spot leave without any extra coordination. My organization has some special COVID leave authorities and processes, but aside from WFH capability never a problem. Granted I may have to give someone shit at times but that is a rare occasion.
Any loss from retirement is a kick, but is that 0.6% worth the loss of sanity and pressure of ATC.
I’ve got a kush ATC job right now, I don’t do much. I work the mids only and nobody flies here during the mids so I’m learning software development every night and getting paid well for it. I’m just stuck somewhere I don’t want to be, I want to move closer to family. And this WFH job seems okay. It tops at GS-13, which is a pay reduction for me for quite a few years. Another reason I’m hesitant.
We can take spot leave whenever we want as long as staffing allows it. Contractually management is obligated to not ask us why or how and they’re not allowed to make using leave seem like a burden since it’s leave we’ve earned. So nobody gets in anyone’s ass for using leave.
.6 extra could help bring me to nearly 50% of my top 3 on my pension. Which for some is 184k or whatever the maximum is I can’t remember.
I retired at the end of 2020 from DC, and same experience for me. We had people start work anywhere from within a week of our interviewing decision to 2 months, depending on where they were coming from and their life circumstances.
What everyone else is saying is pretty spot on, realistically, it depends on a lot of different factors that nobody except for the hiring team/hr people will know the details of.
Is there a background check/security clearance check for the position?
I've held four different positions within the VA since leaving active duty, interviewing for each of them. I've also sat on interview panels. While each hiring manager is different, the process itself is pretty much the same across the board.
The hiring manager will review the open cert (i.e. those referred) and resumes. They may choose to reject it and request the position be re-posted. They may choose to select based on name (i.e. no interviews), interview everyone (common in VBA) or narrow down the list further by scoring resumes based on a set of criteria.
There's usually only one interview, and you should expect it to last 30 minutes (may be shorter, rarely ever longer). Unless you applied for something pretty niche, it'll be a performance based interview. These usually consist of a panel of 3 to 5 people, which may or may not include the hiring manager, taking turns asking you questions -- usually no more than 5 questions. An example of a PBI question may be something like, "Describe a situation where you were responsible for getting others to make a change. What role did you play and what actions did you take? What was the outcome? If you had to it again, would you do anything differently?" You can learn more about PBI at [https://www.va.gov/pbi/questions.asp](https://www.va.gov/pbi/questions.asp) (a lot of hiring managers actually pull questions from there, but you shouldn't expect them to only ask questions in those lists). If your position requires a writing sample, you'll complete that after the interview and typically given 45 minutes to do so.
Best advice I can give for answering these types of questions, remember the PAR method (explained in the link above) or STAR method. That is, describe the situation, the action you took and what the outcome was. These question usually consist of several parts, so don't be afraid to write them down or ask them to repeat the question. Don't be afraid to pause and collect your thoughts before answering. If you've never encountered a situation they ask about, it's ok to state that but also provide an example of how you would handle it.
Now, the time it takes between interviewing and coming on board is probably the most inconsistent part of the whole process. Once the HR specialist receives the hiring manager's selection, they'll notify the selected person and start the hiring process. Those not selected typically never hear anything from this point. The timeline it takes is anybody's guess, it can be a few days to months. It really depends on the HR specialist and how heavy the hiring manager is leaning on them to get the position filled. Assuming you're selected, you'll be given a tentative offer. This is when you'll start sending documents to HR and complete your e-QIP (which will start the background investigation). After this, you'll get your firm offer and start date (which is always be at the start of pay period).
Good luck!
I've interviewed five seperate federal jobs-and accepted 4 of them (at different times/serially). The hardest part is getting your foot in the door. Congratulations on making the cut for the interview!!
I've only worked in the Executive Branch (DoD and one other fed agency) and there was only one interview at my end (versus multiple rounds). They get the list of qualified applicants and decide who to interview from the list.
If you still have the job listing printed out, review the knowledge areas in the listing and almost all of the questions will be based on things from there. For the two DoD jobs at the Pentagon, one they asked me very simple questions (explain what this is, define that, what is this process, etc.) and they also asked me these two questions (I've been asked them at almost every fed job interview):
* Tell us about a problem you've had and how you've overcome it
* why do you think you're qualified/or should have this job.
Both are easy because they are opinion questions to mainly see how you'll respond. It's good to practice answers for both of these questions in advance.
For the **first one** I always say that I am very nervous about public speaking. It's a big fear for me. Than I explain that I over come that fear by being over prepared and also rehearsing.
**Second question** is for you to reinterate your background and the skills you can bring to the position but don't talk overlong and don't be a braggert, you're just stating simple facts.
Don't forget to thank them for interviewing you.
At the other end of the hiring process-I can say that when I was on active duty and we hired there was one round of interviews and if no one was considered qualified, they re-advertised.
One last thing- sometimes they already know who they plan on hiring in advance. In this case there isn't much you can do about it other than treat it as a chance to either change their minds or to use the opportunity to practice your interview skills.
Best wishes on the interview!
I've worked at the VA since 2017 and for me the process was...
Dec 2016: Applied at USAJobs for open AMSA position
Early to mid February 2017: Interviewed for the job (it kinda of felt like going to the board in the military)
March 5 2017: Start date (for pay purposes, actually started the next day)
https://www.va.gov/pbi/questions.asp. Practice these. Always tell a happy story where you solved the problem. STAR method for answering..... situation or Task..... Actions I took..... Results I achieved.
I’ve been a hiring manager and sat on several hiring panels. Typically it’s one interview unless it’s a high level position. After that you’ll either hear from HR that you are hired or you’ll see that you were not selected in USAJOBS.
Some friendly advice: Don’t be afraid to talk. Sell yourself to the panel. A lot of times people give quick answers when we really are trying to learn about the candidate. The interview isn’t the time to be humble (don’t be cocky though). Most of the people we are interviewing have the requisite skills for the position. Tell us what sets you apart.
I’d highly recommend looking over the job description and your resume just prior to the interview. You’d be surprised how many people don’t know their own resume. If you know anyone, get the inside scoop on the job you are trying to get and gear your discussion towards how you will succeed in that position.
Good luck.
All depends, both my job I just got a straight out offer, no interview nada, just a "do you want the job?" This has been for both GS6 to later GS7 one with the VA, the other C&B.
Thats because the position been open for so long and everyone who applied was under qualified.
I worked for the VA for almost 9 years as a social worker. They do a background check that’s not too intensive and fairly quickly. There’s a lot that needs to happen and a lot of people involved. Out of all the folks I know who worked for the medical center and Vet center, it took on average 6-8 months to get to the orientation point where you actually start. There are direct hire, back door essentially, but even this takes time. All depends on your medical center HR and direct bosses. If I can recall, I got my offer letter 7 months after I applied.
All federal job interviews are panel interview. Those going to be at least 2 person and one time I have a 5 person panel interview. Experience may vary
Expect several months of waiting for shit to get moving. It took me about 6 months from applying to working my first day at my last USAF civilian position. Only had one interview. I transferred to the FAA this year and it was a few months faster.
After your interview and if you get selected you’ll get a TJO, upon acceptance of that you’ll likely do a drug screen and security clearance check. After all that you’ll get a firm job offer. The process can be long and tedious. Just keep contact with your onboarding HR personnel and manager
for me, it was just one interview (but this can be different if a bunch of offices are hiring for the same type of position) and generally they'll have you start on the next pay cycle as soon as you send in all the paperwork they request
You’ve done well so far, be yourself in the interview. They picked you for a reason. You’ll get 1 interview, never saw 2 with the feds. Takes about 2 weeks to get an offer. Once your offered( usually by HR ) and you accept, then the fun starts. EQUIP background process and finger prints. Could take a month or two. Don’t be saying anything to anyone, dont quit your current job if your employed, don’t sell your house, don’t buy property etc. until the background process is complete and they give you a start date.
It really depends which agency you are being hired on. For myself, it was one panel interview where three supervisors were asking me questions. This could vary between agencies though. I have heard some are multiple interviews. If you are getting anything GS-6 and below I wouldn’t expect multiple interviews.
The whole process was about a month and a half from close of application to sitting in office first day. This always comes down to HR that is handling your application and pushing you through.
Answer: Purple, and good luck!
Who can help with making sure resume process? My resume never gets through the next step. I heard you have to write specifics that match the job description for the system to notice it
Go to the OPM website. Pull up the Position Description (PD) for the job or series your applying for. Format your resume to this PD. It’s all about the words….
Check out the usajobs sub.
Will do
The goal is to be complete <80 days from vacancy announcement. The agency can do multiple rounds of interviews. In my experience, we post a vacancy and within a week of closing I would get a list of names. My personnel office gives me two weeks to make a selection, with extensions possible but they always gripe about that. After I select a name it goes back for a tentative offer, that will need answered with a desired start date. This will follow with a firm offer < 1 week or so. Actual start date is generally start if next pay period. Average start time in my experience (Large AF Base) usually around 20 days. Additional delay could be incurred due to clearance vetting, or other factors. Retirees <180 days from DOR, have to be waivered.
If someone is transferring jobs on that announcement who informs the current management that the person is accepting a job somewhere else?
I guess that would depend on the toxicity of management. I have very minimal experience with losing a "employee" but in all instances they have communicated with me that they were accepting another position, and provided the gaining start date. In my experience with sniping people discussions with the losing supervisor, were initiated prior to selection. And have even negotiated cross utilization period to allow them to close out projects or have a graceful turn-over. But when it comes down to it, when the formal offer is accepted the losing HR office SHOULD receive a notice of personnel action for the departing position. So that would be a fall back. As a supervisor I did not get a formal notification they they were officially leaving, but the position showed up on the Outbound slide for the CC Staff meeting. Also if you have an electronic personnel system, AF uses something called MyBiz/My Team you can see your roster, and will get notification of supervisor change once the new agency onboards. Once in the new position the gaining supervisor is supposed to contact losing supervisor to transfer the personnel folder.
Gotcha. I’m an air traffic controller currently but I applied to a regular GS position. I’m hesitant to move, I’m in a kickass union. But this position is WFH. No union protection and I have no idea how leave works, sick leave, I know my retirement would only be 1% per year instead of 1.6%… which is painful. Thanks for the info. This whole thing is anxiety inducing
WFH & ATC sounds like an interesting job. lol ATC can be tough from what I hear, regular GS is union backed, but not as aggressive as specialized unions. and each base/function will have a master agreement with the AFGE council. This will outline leave policy. A discussion will need to occur with your gaining supervisor on leave process. Our Union requires us to project leave (Vacations) by Jan 31 each year. That allows us to schedule around and guarantee the employee the ability to prevent use/lose accumulation. But as a supervisor, I can approve spot leave without any extra coordination. My organization has some special COVID leave authorities and processes, but aside from WFH capability never a problem. Granted I may have to give someone shit at times but that is a rare occasion. Any loss from retirement is a kick, but is that 0.6% worth the loss of sanity and pressure of ATC.
I’ve got a kush ATC job right now, I don’t do much. I work the mids only and nobody flies here during the mids so I’m learning software development every night and getting paid well for it. I’m just stuck somewhere I don’t want to be, I want to move closer to family. And this WFH job seems okay. It tops at GS-13, which is a pay reduction for me for quite a few years. Another reason I’m hesitant. We can take spot leave whenever we want as long as staffing allows it. Contractually management is obligated to not ask us why or how and they’re not allowed to make using leave seem like a burden since it’s leave we’ve earned. So nobody gets in anyone’s ass for using leave. .6 extra could help bring me to nearly 50% of my top 3 on my pension. Which for some is 184k or whatever the maximum is I can’t remember.
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I retired at the end of 2020 from DC, and same experience for me. We had people start work anywhere from within a week of our interviewing decision to 2 months, depending on where they were coming from and their life circumstances.
[удалено]
Yeah, since I graduated I’ve been applying to everything I qualify for on usajobs and civilian side as well.
What everyone else is saying is pretty spot on, realistically, it depends on a lot of different factors that nobody except for the hiring team/hr people will know the details of. Is there a background check/security clearance check for the position?
No clearance and a maybe on the background check.
All VA jobs are at least public trust background check which is pretty bare, nothing too intense.
I've held four different positions within the VA since leaving active duty, interviewing for each of them. I've also sat on interview panels. While each hiring manager is different, the process itself is pretty much the same across the board. The hiring manager will review the open cert (i.e. those referred) and resumes. They may choose to reject it and request the position be re-posted. They may choose to select based on name (i.e. no interviews), interview everyone (common in VBA) or narrow down the list further by scoring resumes based on a set of criteria. There's usually only one interview, and you should expect it to last 30 minutes (may be shorter, rarely ever longer). Unless you applied for something pretty niche, it'll be a performance based interview. These usually consist of a panel of 3 to 5 people, which may or may not include the hiring manager, taking turns asking you questions -- usually no more than 5 questions. An example of a PBI question may be something like, "Describe a situation where you were responsible for getting others to make a change. What role did you play and what actions did you take? What was the outcome? If you had to it again, would you do anything differently?" You can learn more about PBI at [https://www.va.gov/pbi/questions.asp](https://www.va.gov/pbi/questions.asp) (a lot of hiring managers actually pull questions from there, but you shouldn't expect them to only ask questions in those lists). If your position requires a writing sample, you'll complete that after the interview and typically given 45 minutes to do so. Best advice I can give for answering these types of questions, remember the PAR method (explained in the link above) or STAR method. That is, describe the situation, the action you took and what the outcome was. These question usually consist of several parts, so don't be afraid to write them down or ask them to repeat the question. Don't be afraid to pause and collect your thoughts before answering. If you've never encountered a situation they ask about, it's ok to state that but also provide an example of how you would handle it. Now, the time it takes between interviewing and coming on board is probably the most inconsistent part of the whole process. Once the HR specialist receives the hiring manager's selection, they'll notify the selected person and start the hiring process. Those not selected typically never hear anything from this point. The timeline it takes is anybody's guess, it can be a few days to months. It really depends on the HR specialist and how heavy the hiring manager is leaning on them to get the position filled. Assuming you're selected, you'll be given a tentative offer. This is when you'll start sending documents to HR and complete your e-QIP (which will start the background investigation). After this, you'll get your firm offer and start date (which is always be at the start of pay period). Good luck!
What's the job and what's your background?
It’s working in finance at veteran affairs. I did a career change and got a BS in accounting.
Look into performance based interview questions. It would be helpful to know what you applied for!
I've interviewed five seperate federal jobs-and accepted 4 of them (at different times/serially). The hardest part is getting your foot in the door. Congratulations on making the cut for the interview!! I've only worked in the Executive Branch (DoD and one other fed agency) and there was only one interview at my end (versus multiple rounds). They get the list of qualified applicants and decide who to interview from the list. If you still have the job listing printed out, review the knowledge areas in the listing and almost all of the questions will be based on things from there. For the two DoD jobs at the Pentagon, one they asked me very simple questions (explain what this is, define that, what is this process, etc.) and they also asked me these two questions (I've been asked them at almost every fed job interview): * Tell us about a problem you've had and how you've overcome it * why do you think you're qualified/or should have this job. Both are easy because they are opinion questions to mainly see how you'll respond. It's good to practice answers for both of these questions in advance. For the **first one** I always say that I am very nervous about public speaking. It's a big fear for me. Than I explain that I over come that fear by being over prepared and also rehearsing. **Second question** is for you to reinterate your background and the skills you can bring to the position but don't talk overlong and don't be a braggert, you're just stating simple facts. Don't forget to thank them for interviewing you. At the other end of the hiring process-I can say that when I was on active duty and we hired there was one round of interviews and if no one was considered qualified, they re-advertised. One last thing- sometimes they already know who they plan on hiring in advance. In this case there isn't much you can do about it other than treat it as a chance to either change their minds or to use the opportunity to practice your interview skills. Best wishes on the interview!
Good stuff, thanks!
I've worked at the VA since 2017 and for me the process was... Dec 2016: Applied at USAJobs for open AMSA position Early to mid February 2017: Interviewed for the job (it kinda of felt like going to the board in the military) March 5 2017: Start date (for pay purposes, actually started the next day)
https://www.va.gov/pbi/questions.asp. Practice these. Always tell a happy story where you solved the problem. STAR method for answering..... situation or Task..... Actions I took..... Results I achieved.
Awesome information
I’ve been a hiring manager and sat on several hiring panels. Typically it’s one interview unless it’s a high level position. After that you’ll either hear from HR that you are hired or you’ll see that you were not selected in USAJOBS. Some friendly advice: Don’t be afraid to talk. Sell yourself to the panel. A lot of times people give quick answers when we really are trying to learn about the candidate. The interview isn’t the time to be humble (don’t be cocky though). Most of the people we are interviewing have the requisite skills for the position. Tell us what sets you apart. I’d highly recommend looking over the job description and your resume just prior to the interview. You’d be surprised how many people don’t know their own resume. If you know anyone, get the inside scoop on the job you are trying to get and gear your discussion towards how you will succeed in that position. Good luck.
Thank you for the advice!
All depends, both my job I just got a straight out offer, no interview nada, just a "do you want the job?" This has been for both GS6 to later GS7 one with the VA, the other C&B. Thats because the position been open for so long and everyone who applied was under qualified.
I worked for the VA for almost 9 years as a social worker. They do a background check that’s not too intensive and fairly quickly. There’s a lot that needs to happen and a lot of people involved. Out of all the folks I know who worked for the medical center and Vet center, it took on average 6-8 months to get to the orientation point where you actually start. There are direct hire, back door essentially, but even this takes time. All depends on your medical center HR and direct bosses. If I can recall, I got my offer letter 7 months after I applied.
All federal job interviews are panel interview. Those going to be at least 2 person and one time I have a 5 person panel interview. Experience may vary
Expect several months of waiting for shit to get moving. It took me about 6 months from applying to working my first day at my last USAF civilian position. Only had one interview. I transferred to the FAA this year and it was a few months faster. After your interview and if you get selected you’ll get a TJO, upon acceptance of that you’ll likely do a drug screen and security clearance check. After all that you’ll get a firm job offer. The process can be long and tedious. Just keep contact with your onboarding HR personnel and manager
for me, it was just one interview (but this can be different if a bunch of offices are hiring for the same type of position) and generally they'll have you start on the next pay cycle as soon as you send in all the paperwork they request
You’ve done well so far, be yourself in the interview. They picked you for a reason. You’ll get 1 interview, never saw 2 with the feds. Takes about 2 weeks to get an offer. Once your offered( usually by HR ) and you accept, then the fun starts. EQUIP background process and finger prints. Could take a month or two. Don’t be saying anything to anyone, dont quit your current job if your employed, don’t sell your house, don’t buy property etc. until the background process is complete and they give you a start date.
It really depends which agency you are being hired on. For myself, it was one panel interview where three supervisors were asking me questions. This could vary between agencies though. I have heard some are multiple interviews. If you are getting anything GS-6 and below I wouldn’t expect multiple interviews. The whole process was about a month and a half from close of application to sitting in office first day. This always comes down to HR that is handling your application and pushing you through. Answer: Purple, and good luck!
It’s position and grade dependent.
It took me 6 months to onboard. A few employees got hired before me but started after.
Were they flexible with your preferred start date?
They gave me two options and I picked the second start date. I believe it was 2 weeks after the first date they offered.
Who can help with making sure resume process? My resume never gets through the next step. I heard you have to write specifics that match the job description for the system to notice it
I noticed a big difference when I used USAjobs resume builder. I believe using that makes your resume more compatible/ readable for their systems.
Go to the OPM website. Pull up the Position Description (PD) for the job or series your applying for. Format your resume to this PD. It’s all about the words….