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applied for a job at SEC in april. sorta forgot i ever did. applied to a different job and saw my old app on usajobs. called to ask if my ding letter got lost in the mail. no, this is just how long it takes for them to think about it. JFC

if you think sometime in the next half decade you might possibly want a fed job, fire up usajobs now.

I don't think they ever "reject" you, you just don't get called up for an interview. Took me a little less than 6 weeks for interview request for a position I applied to last year...I think I had applied to some years before, and never heard anything back lol.

while that may be true that you never get rejected, the person i talked to was under the impression that they'd just put off interviewing due to changed circumstances. but-- who knows.

Current Fed attorney. It is surprisingly tedious and drawn out. At least in my agency the head of the whole agency has to sign off on all new attorney hires. But, yes, even if they want to fast track it, it still takes awhile.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that almost everything the federal government does is a lot slower than you would expect.

My federal timeline: apply in February --> interview in April --> offer in July --> start in November.

nevdash wrote:My federal timeline: apply in February --> interview in April --> offer in July --> start in November.

pretty sure that's what happens when things are going super well/fast

For those who ultimately succeeded in landing a federal job - how many applications did you have to send out before you heard anything? I am a current district clerk (and former private practice attorney) who is aggressively applying for these jobs - I have heard that most of the openings will get hundreds of applications - is this true?

We have had announcements with 200 application caps reach the cap within 1 day on usajobs. For a hiring timeline conversation its really important to not consider the federal government as this single entity. Agency hiring practices and timelines vary greatly.

bjohnsobf wrote:We have had announcements with 200 application caps reach the cap within 1 day on usajobs. For a hiring timeline conversation its really important to not consider the federal government as this single entity. Agency hiring practices and timelines vary greatly.

Yeah anywhere from 8 months to until you're a skeleton

I think a lot of it is budget related. Now that a new budget was just passed and agencies know how much money they have they are likely to start calling people from announcements and lists generated off usajobs months ago. Hiring under a CR is much more rare.

So much of it has to do with circumstances outside your control. For instance, if a current federal attorney is applying, he\she will likely get the nod over you regardless of qualifications. Keep applying, I got picked up on my first application, but it likely had little to nothing to do with my qualifications. Some people will win on their first lotto ticket too.

Rowinguy2009 wrote:For those who ultimately succeeded in landing a federal job - how many applications did you have to send out before you heard anything? I am a current district clerk (and former private practice attorney) who is aggressively applying for these jobs - I have heard that most of the openings will get hundreds of applications - is this true?

I only applied once to the agency I'm with and got hired out of school (never heard back from three other agencies), so I was really lucky. They could have easily hired someone with experience but wanted a new graduate. Also, each job does get a ton of applications. The cap is hit pretty quickly, even if the job requires a lot of experience.

My timeline was also kind of slow: apply in February --> Interview May --> Hire end of June

Rowinguy2009 wrote:For those who ultimately succeeded in landing a federal job - how many applications did you have to send out before you heard anything? I am a current district clerk (and former private practice attorney) who is aggressively applying for these jobs - I have heard that most of the openings will get hundreds of applications - is this true?

The only job out a handful I applied for that I got an interview invite was a position (financial economist with the Treasury) for which I had several years of very targeted experience and the right graduate degree. It's a drawn-out process, and it took a few weeks at least to even get the invite for the final assessment (first interview was over the phone). My understanding is that there is a scorecard/rubric that is very formulaic that they use to assess candidates, with limited discretion. You get "points" for specific self-reported skill sets and years of relevant experience, as well as education. I would imagine your grades/institutional prestige are also used to sort among the candidates who make the "passing grade," but if you don't hit that point threshold you're auto-filtered out.

kartelite wrote:

Rowinguy2009 wrote:For those who ultimately succeeded in landing a federal job - how many applications did you have to send out before you heard anything? I am a current district clerk (and former private practice attorney) who is aggressively applying for these jobs - I have heard that most of the openings will get hundreds of applications - is this true?

The only job out a handful I applied for that I got an interview invite was a position (financial economist with the Treasury) for which I had several years of very targeted experience and the right graduate degree. It's a drawn-out process, and it took a few weeks at least to even get the invite for the final assessment (first interview was over the phone). My understanding is that there is a scorecard/rubric that is very formulaic that they use to assess candidates, with limited discretion. You get "points" for specific self-reported skill sets and years of relevant experience, as well as education. I would imagine your grades/institutional prestige are also used to sort among the candidates who make the "passing grade," but if you don't hit that point threshold you're auto-filtered out.

This is true for a lot of agencies, as I understand it, but not all.

I'm taking the FSOT in Feb myself

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

kartelite wrote:

Rowinguy2009 wrote:For those who ultimately succeeded in landing a federal job - how many applications did you have to send out before you heard anything? I am a current district clerk (and former private practice attorney) who is aggressively applying for these jobs - I have heard that most of the openings will get hundreds of applications - is this true?

The only job out a handful I applied for that I got an interview invite was a position (financial economist with the Treasury) for which I had several years of very targeted experience and the right graduate degree. It's a drawn-out process, and it took a few weeks at least to even get the invite for the final assessment (first interview was over the phone). My understanding is that there is a scorecard/rubric that is very formulaic that they use to assess candidates, with limited discretion. You get "points" for specific self-reported skill sets and years of relevant experience, as well as education. I would imagine your grades/institutional prestige are also used to sort among the candidates who make the "passing grade," but if you don't hit that point threshold you're auto-filtered out.

This is true for a lot of agencies, as I understand it, but not all.

It's also much less common for excepted service positions like attorneys than for competitive service positions.

I once interviewed with a fed agency at a job fair. Interviewer verbally offered me the job on the spot, but said I needed to apply through the USA Jobs portal to complete the process. Filled out my online application the same day. 3 months and a dozen calls later, HR still hadn't managed to process my application despite repeated prodding from the interviewer. Then one Friday afternoon, I received an email saying I would need to report for duty Monday morning. I moved to DC that weekend.

It can vary a lot from office to office even within the same agency. There were times when I got interviews 6 mos after applying and times they called within 4 weeks, with rejections ranging in between.