AUSA/USAO hiring Forum

[Anonymous User]

Thank you both anons! I've been told that the offer letter is ready to go but that the office is just waiting for approval for budgeting from the executive office budget department.

I am in the same boat. Do you or anybody else know how long this executive office budget department approval should take?

[Anonymous User]

How long does the security clearance process take? Also, after you pass the clearance, how much ability do you have to negotiate your start date?

I'm going to be moving myself and family for this job. I just received an offer today and it says not to quit or sell your house until you pass the clearance.

I do need to sell my current house before moving and buying a new home, my partner needs to look for a new job too, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Process can vary. 8-12 weeks isn’t uncommon, I think? And while I think offices want you there, they do understand that if they tell you not to sell your house until you pass the clearance, they have to give you some time to actually make that happen. So they should be reasonably understanding about negotiating the start date. (Hard to be more specific since it can vary depending on who you’re dealing with.)

My only advice is the obvious - start lining up as much as you can now, talk to a realtor about what you do before you get the go signal, etc. Have your wife start looking for jobs. Unless you have any serious reason for concern, you will pass; your office just can’t officially commit to anything till you do.

[Anonymous User]

How long does the security clearance process take? Also, after you pass the clearance, how much ability do you have to negotiate your start date?

I'm going to be moving myself and family for this job. I just received an offer today and it says not to quit or sell your house until you pass the clearance.

I do need to sell my current house before moving and buying a new home, my partner needs to look for a new job too, etc.

Mine took about 3 months back in 2020. But I also have a foreign spouse from an adversarial country and plenty of family/foreign contacts overseas, so that may have caused delays.

[Anonymous User]

interim clearance took me about 4 months; I just got mine recently.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard back about 2nd round interviews for D. MD?

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard back about 2nd round interviews for D. MD?

I don't know how helpful this data point will be, but I had a little over a week between my first interview and being invited for a second round.

[Anonymous User]

Can you give us an idea of what the first round for DMD was like? What kind of background do you have going into it?

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard from the WDPA in the last month? It's a smaller office but I figured I'd ask. They had both a criminal and civil posting in the spring and now an appellate.

[Anonymous User]

Can you give us an idea of what the first round for DMD was like? What kind of background do you have going into it?

Different anon who recently went through the process. I came from DC biglaw.

The first round was a pretty large panel of AUSAs, and from what I could tell, it was a pretty varied group going by seniority (both experienced and more junior prosecutors). No section supervisors, as I recall. Questions were pretty normal: Why federal prosecution? Why here? Tell us about your writing sample. How do you feel about transitioning from never being in court to actually having to talk to judges, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Just got first round invite to SDFL - any body have any insight?

[Anonymous User]

I've already accepted an tentative offer with an office but just got an interview invite with SDNY. Do I take the interview? Will it ruffle feathers? All things equal I'd obviously rather be at SDNY but don't want to end up with nothing. Anyone know how common this is?

[Anonymous User]

If it's EDNY the offices seem like they are in cahoots

[Anonymous User]

I would really appreciate some advice and, if warranted, reassurance.

I received an offer letter in January. The USAO was willing to wait for me to finish my current position (i.e., fellowship, clerkship, etc.). I submitted my HR forms in January, and completed my EQIP and fingerprints in March. Though I periodically checked in with HR for an update, and to let them know my formal end date in my current position, it has been radio silence, with the exception that HR indicated I’d have a mid-August start date.

Late June, I learned that HR had not submitted my fingerprints to the Executive Office in D.C.; at their request, I got re-printed. Then, two weeks ago, I learned that D.C. needed me to resubmit all of my paperwork again because HR had not submitted my forms on time. Resubmission was necessary before the investigatory arm could initiate an investigation. It has been, as noted, two weeks. HR has not indicated my start date; there is no indication that an investigation has been initiated (i.e., no one has been contacted, for instance). All I have is a letter that says, “don’t quit your job, don’t move across the country,” etc. my job is up and, owing to HR’s representation that I would have a mid-August start date, I have arranged housing and am moving to this post. By the looks of it, I’ll be living off of my very meager savings for a while.

What do I do? Is this normal? Is it unreasonable for me to be slightly upset about all of this?

[Anonymous User]

I feel really bad that you're going through this! Sounds like HR messed up. However, you probably shouldn't have moved given that you didn't finish your background preclearance yet. At the end of the day, you deserve to be frustrated, but it doesn't sound like the end if the world unless you're in a tough spot financially. It might not be the worst idea to enroll in doordash or whatever until you get your final offer and start date - unless of course you have serious things in your background that might result in a no-offer. I personally recieved my offer at a time similar to yours (contingent offer in April/May), no known mess-ups by HR that I'm aware of, and I still don't have my preclearance or an estimated start date from HR.

[Anonymous User]

I’m the anon from above. Thanks for the response! To be clear, I’m moving because my lease is up and the only thing keeping me in my present location is my one-year job, which ends . . . soon. I appreciate your perspective but it’s not feasible to stay where I’m currently at. Good luck with your own process!

[Anonymous User]

Different anon. I totally get why you made the plan to move and under your circumstances, I'm sure I would have done the same. Unfortunately, there's a reason why they tell you not to quit your job/move across country until you get cleared, because the USAO just can't guarantee when the process will actually conclude.

It is absolutely shitty that HR didn't submit the forms on time, though. When I first read your post I thought it was just a function of OARM (the hiring body that coordinates background checks) being swamped, which is definitely a thing that happens (life at the USAO can involve a lot of sending things into the void that is Main Justice and waiting forlornly to hear back). But HR not submitting things so that you had to *do them over* is different; not meeting Main Justice's deadlines and having to start over is very different from MJ being slow.

Cold comfort, I know, but IME that is *not* normal and someone screwed up. My experience with HR has been perfectly lovely (in a small office) to meh but fine (in a much bigger office), and what I mean by the latter is, the HR people weren't especially warm/friendly in the sense of going out of their way to make your life easier or answering questions, but they could certainly handle getting forms from someone, making sure they were complete, and sending them where they need to go on the required deadline.

Unfortunately the cliche about government employees being hard to fire is true, and while I've worked with a lot of really great people, it's not unusual to have at least somebody in the office who is remarkably not good at their job, but made it through their probation period and management decides it's easier to try to minimize the damage they can do than go through the palaver of getting rid of them.

All that said, missing deadlines like that is not normal (and I don't think it will be representative of your experience in the office), and it's reasonable to be upset about it, but I'm not sure there's much you can do. The preclearance is just this insurmountable barrier no one at the USAO can do anything about. Certainly make sure that HR knows you want the earliest start date you can possibly get, when it gets to that point. (The tentative offer letter I received when I started was poorly written and I read it as saying that the latest I could start was the beginning of December, but it turned out that they meant that was the earliest they expected to me start, or at least, HR read it that way.. Since I was coming from a clerkship and my spouse didn't have a job in the USAO town yet, I didn't want to go from early September to December without a paycheck, and ultimately they let me start the 3rd or 4th week in September, but I had to argue with them about it a little.)

[Anonymous User]

I recently interviewed for an AUSA position. My current clerkship goes into 2024. During the interview they expressed some concern about how far out that was. However, I had made it clear in my cover letter that I had a year left. I guess I'm confused as to why they would choose to interview me if they had that concern. I also know they plan to hire through the honors program, so I’m wondering if I should apply through the program if I don’t get invited back for a second interview?

[Anonymous User]

I recently interviewed for an AUSA position. My current clerkship goes into 2024. During the interview they expressed some concern about how far out that was. However, I had made it clear in my cover letter that I had a year left. I guess I'm confused as to why they would choose to interview me if they had that concern. I also know they plan to hire through the honors program, so I’m wondering if I should apply through the program if I don’t get invited back for a second interview?

The timeline is probably a concern but not a dealbreaker, or they may have wondered whether, if you’re applying now, there was some wiggle room or they misunderstood your cover letter.

Definitely apply again through Honors if they don’t invite you back, people often apply multiple times, including to the same office, before getting hired. If timeline is the issue, going through honors will eliminate that.

[Anonymous User]

I recently interviewed for an AUSA position. My current clerkship goes into 2024. During the interview they expressed some concern about how far out that was. However, I had made it clear in my cover letter that I had a year left. I guess I'm confused as to why they would choose to interview me if they had that concern. I also know they plan to hire through the honors program, so I’m wondering if I should apply through the program if I don’t get invited back for a second interview?

The timeline is probably a concern but not a dealbreaker, or they may have wondered whether, if you’re applying now, there was some wiggle room or they misunderstood your cover letter.

Definitely apply again through Honors if they don’t invite you back, people often apply multiple times, including to the same office, before getting hired. If timeline is the issue, going through honors will eliminate that.

Different poster here. If I’m wrapping up my clerkship in late 2024, when would I start applying for AUSA positions? (Assume that this would be outside of Honors.) When is too early?

[Anonymous User]

I recently interviewed for an AUSA position. My current clerkship goes into 2024. During the interview they expressed some concern about how far out that was. However, I had made it clear in my cover letter that I had a year left. I guess I'm confused as to why they would choose to interview me if they had that concern. I also know they plan to hire through the honors program, so I’m wondering if I should apply through the program if I don’t get invited back for a second interview?

The timeline is probably a concern but not a dealbreaker, or they may have wondered whether, if you’re applying now, there was some wiggle room or they misunderstood your cover letter.

Definitely apply again through Honors if they don’t invite you back, people often apply multiple times, including to the same office, before getting hired. If timeline is the issue, going through honors will eliminate that.

Different poster here. If I’m wrapping up my clerkship in late 2024, when would I start applying for AUSA positions? (Assume that this would be outside of Honors.) When is too early?

Depends on where you're applying. Many offices only hire when they have an advertised opening and won't consider applications outside of that process. In that case, I think the safe thing to do is apply to any opening that comes up while you're clerking, since you don't know when another opening will arise. You may be too early, but it's worth a shot because you don't know how quickly they'll move, and if you apply and make a good impression, it could help your candidacy in a future application.

(You could also try reaching out to the HR contact for the opening to find out if they think they'd consider someone who couldn't start until date X, but you may just get told to send your app in and see what happens.)

Offices that take applications at any time are also sort of hard to predict, because taking applications at any time doesn't mean they'll necessarily hire at any time - they might review your app and/or interview you and then sit on your app until they're ready to hire at some undetermined time. But if by late 2024 you mean September, I guess I'd say start in maybe Feb/March? The preclearance can take as long as 16 weeks, and of course you have to allow time for the application process to play out.

If you have any connections who know anything about hiring at a specific office that takes rolling applications, this would be a great thing to raise with them. (I've only worked in offices that don't do rolling apps.)

[Anonymous User]

I recently interviewed for an AUSA position. My current clerkship goes into 2024. During the interview they expressed some concern about how far out that was. However, I had made it clear in my cover letter that I had a year left. I guess I'm confused as to why they would choose to interview me if they had that concern. I also know they plan to hire through the honors program, so I’m wondering if I should apply through the program if I don’t get invited back for a second interview?

The timeline is probably a concern but not a dealbreaker, or they may have wondered whether, if you’re applying now, there was some wiggle room or they misunderstood your cover letter.

Definitely apply again through Honors if they don’t invite you back, people often apply multiple times, including to the same office, before getting hired. If timeline is the issue, going through honors will eliminate that.

Different poster here. If I’m wrapping up my clerkship in late 2024, when would I start applying for AUSA positions? (Assume that this would be outside of Honors.) When is too early?

Depends on where you're applying. Many offices only hire when they have an advertised opening and won't consider applications outside of that process. In that case, I think the safe thing to do is apply to any opening that comes up while you're clerking, since you don't know when another opening will arise. You may be too early, but it's worth a shot because you don't know how quickly they'll move, and if you apply and make a good impression, it could help your candidacy in a future application.

(You could also try reaching out to the HR contact for the opening to find out if they think they'd consider someone who couldn't start until date X, but you may just get told to send your app in and see what happens.)

Offices that take applications at any time are also sort of hard to predict, because taking applications at any time doesn't mean they'll necessarily hire at any time - they might review your app and/or interview you and then sit on your app until they're ready to hire at some undetermined time. But if by late 2024 you mean September, I guess I'd say start in maybe Feb/March? The preclearance can take as long as 16 weeks, and of course you have to allow time for the application process to play out.

If you have any connections who know anything about hiring at a specific office that takes rolling applications, this would be a great thing to raise with them. (I've only worked in offices that don't do rolling apps.)

Thanks for the advice. This clears up my ignorance on the general timeline. I wrap up my clerkship in October/November, so I have a long time before I will need to start applying.

[Anonymous User]

I submitted my e-qip about 2 weeks ago. Also submitted a bunch of forms and got fingerprinted.

Do I just hang out until 6 - 20 weeks when they tell me I passed/or need more info?

Is there any tasks or anything else I should be expecting in the interim and what would be the timeline for that?

[Anonymous User]

I submitted my e-qip about 2 weeks ago. Also submitted a bunch of forms and got fingerprinted.

Do I just hang out until 6 - 20 weeks when they tell me I passed/or need more info?

Is there any tasks or anything else I should be expecting in the interim and what would be the timeline for that?

You just pretty much hang out and wait. You’ll get drug tested at some point if you haven’t already, but the point of that is to be short-notice so difficult to predict the timing. Otherwise that’s pretty much it.

Depending on what you already filled out, there will probably be some more forms close to when you start, like direct deposit and so on. But mostly just make peace with waiting and not hearing anything for a while.

[Anonymous User]

I was recently invited to interview at Office A. I applied to Office B (office I would prefer to work at for personal reasons) and that posting closed about a month and a half ago. On USA Jobs, the Office B posting is still listed as Reviewing Applications/Received. Is there any harm in reaching out to the HR contact at Office B to express continued interest? Should I mention the interview with the other office? Office B is in a major metro area on the west coast if it matters.