GovernmentExecutive.com

Return to Article: FEATURES The Perfect Candidate

• 11592
  

  Dear Moses:

  You were passed over 6 times because the job announcement was created with someone else in mind to fill it. We all know this. There is no such thing as fair and open job competition in the Government.

  Now, for your own sake, stop annoying HR by trying to make them accountable for shooting you down without even reading your application. I often wondered why, at my last DoD place of employment, that the HR Department seemed to be growing when they hadn't seriously hired for years. There are only so many college recruitment fairs to attend. I think their job is more to prevent people from getting hired, or making sure the only people that get the "good jobs" are "in the club." So, unless you enjoy this sort of no win situation complete with no respect, being lied to and endless head games, get out while you still can.

  'Enough said.'

  GovExec.com reader Posted August 13, 2005 8:49 AM
• 11455
  

  I came from DOD to the IRS 4 years ago and am a 16 yera plus federal employee. I have served major commands in the performing in the same job series.

  I have applied 6 times for promotion and all 6 times I have been passed over, because my work experence has not been with the IRS or our business unit does not interview.

  As of May I applied again for a promotion only to learn that the position was created for a GS 14 from an other business unit to return to his old jod as a GS 13 after being out of the loop for 4 years.

  Enough said.

  J. Moses Posted August 8, 2005 3:08 PM
• 11098
  

  Back in 1988, I worked as an onsite contractor at a naval engineering installation in Philadelphia. At the time I was a high school graduate with about 10 years' secretarial/administrative experience. When I applied for a job there, I was told the only thing "I qualified" for was A GS-4 secretary (if I could get it). At the time GS-4 paid about 1/3 less than what I was making as a contractor. I took a GS-4 position because I was thinking the "long term". Someone made me believe that in the long run, I would eventually get a worthwhile career with enough pay and benefits to make up for the Initial sacrifice.

  One year later, I applied for a GS-5 secretarial position and was told that I didn't qualify because of either "time in grade" or, as I was told by some GS-9 staffing "specialist" that "my experience outside the Philadelphia naval shipyard don't count". (sic) I was seriously considering leaving at that point since I couldn't afford to stay a GS-4 much longer and pay my bills.

  I earned a first degree at a community college and I was able to switch to a computer assistant position. In 1991 I got a trainee position to be a Technician. A few years later I made GS-11 technician.

  In 1998 I went back to school on my own time and earned an engineering degree. After the Command spent thousands of dollars in tuition (which I fought for), I graduated last year. The same personnel office told me that I would have to jump back down to a GS-7 engineer, because "my experience didn't count as engineering experience. And, Although, they wouldn't admit it, this would mean a permanent pay cut (in the form of lost COLAs) and no guarantees that I would move up again. I listened to all this b.s. from people that I would wager were not as qualified as the people they routinely shot down. I said to myself ... I took the plunge once...I'm not going through it again. So I got a better job in private industry and ended my civil service career.

  So, the management over where I used to work didn't care enough to find an equitable solution for me (and protect their investment). They were also incredibly arrogant, in that they see nothing wrong with how they made and applied their personnel decisions.

  I laugh every time I see these kinds of articles.

  GovExec.com reader Posted July 20, 2005 12:10 PM
• 10915
  

  My outside qualifications were far in excess of those of most of the people I have met in the last decade in the government. However, I had the wrong job classification from human resources and they could not or would not evaluate my outside experience correctly. I was one of two finalists for an SES spot at Agriculture (final decision went to a woman from Treasury with no lending experience when I had such experience in most of my jobs outside). At DoD I got hired into a 13 spot (they lied flat out about what the job involved) and then they kept changing the job so that it was generally meaningles until lately. Now I work on things that I have vast experience and education in but I continually am told I am wrong by people that have no idea what they are talking about! With pay for performance I will stop confronting the bosses when they are wrong and just say yes sir and implement what they want even though it is wrong!

  The managers and the personnel dept have no idea of how to hire or what to hire and they simply do it by the numbers and look for the correct words rather than the substance! I came to work for DoD to "give back" to the country and boy is that the wrong way to do it! These managers are among the worst I have ever seen and I would leave in a second but now I am too old to do it in the private sector. Not as with government, the private sector mainly wants to hire younger people with potential.

  qualified Posted July 12, 2005 7:26 AM
• 10867
  

  Reading the article helps those of us currently in non-policy setting positions to see that we are not voices in the wilderness. It is truly refreshing to see that there are many in federal recruitment policy offices who have recognized the inherent problems associated the rampant and systemic inbreeding [internal "we take care of our own (at the US taxpayer's expense)" hiring)] that is occurring in the mid to upper GS grades (e.g., 12-15) in the general admin series (0300 and 0500) within far, far too many federal organizations.

  Even when these positions are purportedly recruited "externally," meaning federal-wide (when all federal employees can apply/compete) and/or to all sources (when all US citizens can apply), agencies oftentimes concoct schemes, and especially those recruitments/outcomes within the largest federal agency - DoD - nearly 100% of the time merely current or prior DoD staff, be they DoD GS, or recently retired DoD active duty members, or DoD contractor staff are ever actually hired. To achieve this goal, under the guise of false and sham "external" "competitions" the agency merely uses and abuses agency-specific criteria in the rating or rating or interview process that essentially "weeds out" all other applicants from other federal agencies or from the private sector, and by doing so preposterously discounts and invalidates the experience, educational preparation and/or credentials that the "external" candidates possess.

  And to make one clarification cited in article concerning The Partnership for Public Service's assertion that government agencies in 2003 filled 15.3 percent of positions from GS-12 to GS-15 with "outside" hires, well the definition of "outside" hire is key. Many agencies cite and claim an "external" hire merely because that person was not, at the time of the hiring action, an employee within the hiring agency. But if analyzed more closely, the vast majority of these purported "external" hires were either (a) prior GS employees of the same hiring agency, recently retired or discharged active duty military members of the same hiring agency, or (c) prior contact employees of the same hiring agency. Is that a genuine "external" hire? I and legions of others think not. And yes, the agencies, and the US taxpayers simply deserve better than that!

  Michael J. Smith Posted July 8, 2005 3:22 PM