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This week, I invited my senior writer, Ned Lynch, who specializes in consulting on and writing Senior Executive Service application packages, to write about how to develop a career strategy for becoming an SESer. Last week, I gave you an overview of what materials should be in the SES package. But getting to the point where you are qualified for an SES position takes a career strategy.

Here's what Ned had to say:

In charting your professional career course, you have decided that public service in the federal sector's elite corps - the Senior Executive Service - will be your next objective. How do you get from here to there?

Let's begin with, where is "there"? The law says that as much as 30 percent of the SES may come from positions outside of the government, but more than 95 percent of career senior execs have previous government experience. In concept, the leadership and managerial skills essential to these positions should encourage SESers to move between programs and agencies.

In practice, the overwhelming majority of successful SES applicants have previous experience in the agency and program that they will lead.

In short, if you want a position in the SES, it is best to be moving from a GS-15 position in the agency where the SES promotional opportunity has been announced. Moves up the SES ladder are usually done one rung at a time. A leap from SES-2 to SES-6 is a feat best associated with Evel Knievel.

There are ways to get to SES positions from outside of the government, but in most cases they are a steep climb. The noncareer SES, which by law is restricted to no more than 10 percent of the SES governmentwide and no more than 25 percent of the SES at any agency, provides opportunities for people who have developed their skills through political channels. Similarly, if you have an extensive career in public service (including other levels of government, academic institutions or professional associations having extensive interaction with agencies) competing for an SES opportunity is plausible.

You will not be competing alone, however, and the Executive Resources Boards at departments and agencies often have a wide selection of highly qualified candidates. In many agencies, it is not unusual to receive 10 to 12 applications rated "well qualified" from the 35 to 40 people who apply for each announcement. In many cases, several GS-15s from within the agency will compete for the position, along with other SES applicants who view this position as a promotional opportunity.

Writing Your Executive Core Qualifications

Even though SES positions are viewed primarily as promotional opportunities within the government, excellent performance at lower levels does not forecast the qualities to gain admission to the SES. The SES application process requires candidates to focus above their current level. It is not enough to be an outstanding GS-15 financial manager; the successful SES candidate will understand why the assistant secretary needs a particular focus in response to congressional inquiries about a budget justification. The Executive Core Qualifications should challenge candidates to demonstrate their previous success at thinking up the executive ladder.

First, the Office of Personnel Management requires that the ECQs be answered at the executive level. OPM wants to know how you directed, conceptualized, organized, and coordinated the resolution of significant problems. Above all, don't even think in the passive voice when describing your activities for an ECQ response. If you describe a situation as "I was asked" or "assigned" to develop a budget justification, the achievement, however successful, will not make it past the threshold.

Second, OPM favors operational experience over training. Finishing first in your class is wonderful anywhere, and the Senior Executive Course at the Federal Executive Institute provides a wonderful resume entry. However, even excellent training must be supported by effective operational leadership, where the candidate has applied principles taught at the FEI and other leadership programs.

Third, OPM favors broad experiences. Even if you have spent your entire career as a field manager in the air traffic control function of the FAA, a successful application to head the air traffic service will require other experiences, such as interagency coordination of significant science and engineering research, coordinating airport security activities with inspection services, developing interagency procedures and operations, or successful developmental assignments that diverged from routine responsibilities - for example, budget oversight or environmental community relations. Even for a vertical promotion in a stovepiped organization, OPM must see something beyond the normal chain of command.

These are the starting blocks, and there is some flexibility in developing statements that surpass the minimum standards. Recognize from the first, however, that this is a competitive selection, and other applicants will describe their achievements to surpass these standards. Adding to these competitive challenges, agencies have recently advertised career SES positions as open to "all sources," a procedure that could enable the "career conversions" of noncareer SES appointees to career positions. In seeking an SES position, the successful applicant will seek to show abilities to run the entire organization - and build the selecting official's confidence that this would be a fitting candidate to do so from a field of very talented, and well-connected, competitors.

The climb is not easy, but in the coming weeks we'll continue with helpful factors to strengthen your application.

Next week, Ned will write again about the new recommended format that OPM has developed for writing the ECQs: the new "CCAR Model." Ned has been doing federal resume consulting since 1993, and has nearly twenty years' experience in federal program and policy analysis and management (He's currently senior research director at the House Government Reform Civil Service Subcommittee, and has worked at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Interior Department, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency - in other words, he knows what he's talking about).

Kathryn Kraemer has been the president of The Resume Place, Inc. for 27 years. Kathryn helps people get promoted and change jobs. She is the pioneer designer of the new "federal resume." She wrote and published the first book on federal resume writing and is a popular resume writing workshop leader in government.

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