GovCentral

One of the best part of serving in the Military is playing with cool toys. Newsweek has compiled some of the best and strangest ones in a photo gallery they call, ahem, Weapons Porn. Gadget blog, Gizmodo, has picked a favorite. It's the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot aka the Care B.E.A.R. I think this would be appropriate to extract over-served interns during ...

Question: Washington, D.C.: Why does the government actively advertise jobs on their job site that are reserved for people within the agency? I am very tired of applying for jobs only to be told, months later, they have decided not to fill the position. I am told this is because the person they wanted to promote from within somehow didn't get ...

Just when you got those pesky knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) statements under your belt when applying to federal government jobs, a new trend has emerged: Self-assessment questions. Also called job-specific questions, self-assessment questions are found in increasing numbers of government agencies' applications. They will be new to some federal job seekers, but don't be put off. These questions are intended ...

While we're constantly working to improve our guide to the GS Pay Scale, it can still be a confusing system. We created this page in order to answer any specific questions you might have about the Pay Scale. Since many users seem to have similar question, we'll continue to post the questions we receive here, along with the best answers we ...

Earlier this year the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced it was moving with much vigor to scrap the part of the government hiring process that most individuals dread; the knowledge, skills and abilities, or KSAs, questionnaire. The KSAs are a series of questions that are answered in essay form by the applicant and then graded by reviewers. Obviously, the higher ...

As a companion to the new Getting Hired as a First Timer guide, these interactive quizzes have been designed to help you gauge whether or not you have learned enough to start aggressively applying for government jobs. 1: Am I Ready to Apply for Government Jobs? Many job seekers do not receive any feedback on their resume before using it to ...

Sit in front of laptop. Lie on couch. Eat pickles for lunch. Back to laptop. Feel sorry for self. Feel sick of self. Tear hair out in frustration. And ... back to couch. If this is your 9-to-5 routine, you're probably like 14 million other Americans: unemployed. And in addition to the frustration of looking for work, you might find yourself ...

I remember my first job interview after leaving the military. It was for a financial advisor position with an exclusive financial services firm and I was extremely excited. But, I had a problem - I didn't have a bit of financial consulting experience. The firm flew me to San Francisco and put me up at the Ritz Carlton Hotel (not bad ...

Federal applicants are familiar with employers' requests to include a separate knowledge, skills and abilities narrative (KSA) in their applications. Now, some vacancy announcements are requiring KSAs within the text of the resume. Knowing the best way to incorporate this information into your resume could be key to landing your next job. Take the case of one Air Force applicant. He ...

If you’re in a rush to get hired (and what job seeker isn’t?), attend federal job fairs. Why? Because many federal employers recruit at job fairs via fast-track hiring procedures, which may even include on-the-spot offers. What’s more, many of the jobs and internships that are filled at job fairs are never advertised anywhere else. Federal employers frequently participate in several ...

How are Federal Government resumes different then your usual job resume? We've got the answers for you. _Monster member twilliams 406 asks_: I have a private-sector resume that I think looks pretty good; can I keep anything from it when I write my federal resume, or is it better to start from scratch? _The Federal Career Coach responds_: You might be ...

Federal internships can be a great way to start a career in government. But before you get an internship, you have to find it, which in some ways can be trickier than finding a job. The big difference between job hunting and looking for an internship is that internships are “excepted” positions, not “competitive” positions. What that means is instead of ...

Before you apply for a federal job, you have to learn a new language: Government-speak. For a quick lesson, we turned to Monster Federal Career Coach and Gov't/Public Service Careers message board expert Kathryn Troutman. Start with the announcement title, because in government, even fairly straightforward jobs are given confusing titles. For example, I just read an announcement for a "contact ...

Submitting a job application is an emotional investment. You spend hours reviewing your resume and KSA essay to make sure everything is worded correctly and accurately describes just how awesome you are. After you send it, you just know that the hiring manager is going to think your application is a masterpiece of accomplishment. Surely this application must be included into ...

As usual, contingent hiring is expected to be a bellwether for the broader labor economy. “We expect to see improvement for temporary workers before we see it anywhere else,” says Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “But that’s not happening yet. We’re still seeing declines in temp help services, though they’re much smaller declines.” As the economy sputters ...

Anti-government sentiment has been prevalent across the country, fueled in part by the acrimonious health-care debate, anger over the Wall Street and auto industry bailouts, anxiety over high unemployment rates, and worry over increased spending and ballooning budget deficits. These feelings of distrust and resentment, seen in public opinion polls, vocal town hall meetings this past summer and during various demonstrations, ...

It is a dangerous world out there, where threats -- both manmade and natural -- are predictably unpredictable. We cannot always find answers in an off-the-shelf toolbox. That is the thinking here in the Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology Directorate, where we spend a small portion of our research and development (R&D) budget on high-risk, high-payoff ideas. [photo:115463] Each ...

Another convenient stereotype attached to all things related to the Federal Government is the notion that somehow, all those billions of dollars spent annually still result in technology that is "behind the curve". Several years ago, DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, sponsored the DARPA Urban Challenge, to spur college students, inventors, and industry to develop autonomous robotic vehicles for ...

When the Office of Management and Budget's Peter Orszag put out a memo in June saying "the Federal hiring process needs to be reformed. The current process is lengthy and encumbered by burdensome requirements and outdated technology systems," DHS was listening. Read the OMB memo here Homeland Security is well on its way to hiring as many as 1,000 cybersecurity experts, ...

Before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, most U.S. airport security was aimed at making sure people didn't bring guns on board or try to hijack aircraft to Cuba or Libya. These were serious concerns because they had happened before. Editor's Note: Mike's column today is part of FederalNewsRadio's special report, 5 Fallacies of Government? All this week we examine commonly held beliefs ...