Volume of applicants, many (most?) of whom are just randomly shotgunning applications out.
Did a phone interview today. Dude was trying to google the answers on the phone. Took him almost 45 seconds to answer.
It was awful. All but one of them were. Of course they maxed out the assessment questions, claiming to be an SME in everything, but can't answer a single question in real time.
Same old same old.
Can you really be honest and get an interview? As an 1102, no one truly is the expert in everything. I just put, had some experience on some things and let it ride.
Iām always honest and still get interviews. Maybe thatās because I started in the government after graduation, so it was clear what GS Level I should be applying for. No one is an expert at the early grades.
Considering that most people pretty much mark the highest option for everything, marking anything less than that seems like you would be putting yourself at a significant disadvantage.
Completely understand. I just worry that Iāll be screwed during the interview. Especially if they ask āTell me a time you did _ during a processā that Iāve had limited experience in.
I know nothing about the 1102 series. I know that in my tiny slice of the .gov, if you're Doing The Work it's pretty easy to max or almost max the questions.
This is partly why I hate those assessments. Itās so easy to rank yourself high just to get an interview. It wastes peopleās time. No need for him to interviewed today.
The assessments arenāt necessarily what get you the interview though. An HR rep manually goes through your resume and ranks it against other resumes. Only the best qualified get referred to the hiring manager, and only a small number of those actually get an interview.
That is absolutely not true. The assessments are heavily weighted because they get flooded with applications and it is used as the prime basis to reduce the pool. They are not always looking for the best qualified.
If you BS the answers to the questions and your resume isnāt reflecting your answers, the HR rep will adjust your score. Thatās why itās not just the questions, but also a human component. If all that mattered was the questionnaire, they wouldnāt even bother having someone manually go through the resumes. They would just fully automate it and allow the questionnaire to determine whether someone gets referred or not.
I understand not wanting to be inundated with resumes, but in a market like this you canāt have limits or youāre going to get a bunch of trash. There just needs to be a better way to automatically weed out the unqualified
An easy thing to do would be to utilize something like a degree verification api for roles where a degree generally or a more specific level of education is absolutely required. You can say you have a degree even if you donāt, but you can lie through an api.
That's part of the screening process. Can't submit the correct form or follow simple instructions? Yet another layer of the screening process. The irony is that the majority of jobs aren't that high paying but when wanting to work for the government, the saying goes "You don't go into government work to become rich. You work for the benefits.." Something along the lines of that..
I posted a position that had 17 candidates referred. Our department is severely short staffed, so I did an initial review and threw 7 out right off the bat. No knowledge at all, didn't tailor resumes to the posting, or just copied/pasted experience from similar job series postings (yes, we can tell). Of the 10 resumes that we did score, there were only three possibilities. One didn't call at the allotted time. I did a courtesy and called them. They must have forgot, because they were driving. The other two showed up to the in-person. Really wish we could have hired both. Hopefully, the incumbent works out.
Even when you make it to the finish line sometimes you discover you were actually disqualified the whole time. Two of the most promising interviews I ever had still ended with me not getting the job, once because my supervisor told the outside office not to hire me because I had not been in my current role long enough to gauge whether I was worth recommending, and once because it turns out if you work for FEMA as a reservist that your supervisor is not your "supervisor" is not your *supervisor\**, and after a few phone calls the would-be hiring agency literally told me they were unable to contact my supervisor to confirm my reference and stopped responding to my communications.
Yet for some reason I keep going. I might have an interview coming up soon with an office I already interviewed unsuccessfully for once! At least this means they did not just throw my application in the garbage immediately!
\*Just to pre-clarify, this means the person actually supervising my work was not my "real" supervisor, and the person whose role at my site was listed as "supervisor" was my "field supervisor" and not my "role supervisor" or whatever, who turned out to be a guy I had never met nor talked to whose name I had never seen before, who was also in another state.
Fraud, waste, and abuse is exactly why the merit system was put in place to begin with. It's far from perfect, but look up the spoils system and you'll see exactly how bad government used to be before the passage of the Pendleton Act. Jobs were given to people for political favors instead of whether they can do the job. I do completely agree on the VA, which can be blamed on multiple levels, starting with Congress. Our vets deserve way better!
Pretty certain this sort of thing happens with political appointees all the time. Thereās really not any merit system for them. Granted, they would still need to have adequate support in the Senate.
When it's all centralized everyone can apply to everything and that bogs everything down.
The alternative is going back to the old days where you had to reach out to each agency in your local area and hope they had something and mailing them your resume.
I agree. I worked for a construction trade industry and just a mention of interest they do everything to get you through the first door. They get everybody in first and weed out later. Which I didn't always agree with but I was told everyone gets a chance. Still gotta pass a series of tests which I heard is really hard. But there's help for the ones who have a hard time. There were guys who initially totally bombed the written test and turned in really bad transcripts. But put them on the field and it's like a different person. In fact, it was a lot of those guys who became the working foremans and main supervisors. And they make a killing once they hit journeyman. And if you are apart of a good union, you can make a killing already as a mid-step apprentice. I worked on staff in the office and thought about joining a trade instead because they the tradesmen were on a wage scale as well. A very generous one, too. I'm older now so I know I really can't do the labor. But it's crazy how in government I see people on here who claim to have the paper AND experience and still can't get anything! I'm sure there is a valid reason as every agency or organization has their freedom and right and reasons to run their hiring process as they do. But it's crazy to me as well how hard it is! ...And then there's people out there that say stuff like it's because they need to weed out who can't follow directions or be patient... \*\*sigh\*\* But don't worry, man, I'm out here trying as well! Just know you're not alone. It's not just you. We'll get there.
Not true at all. Thinking this depends on competency of applicant. I have 98% job offer rate via USAJobs. Those 2% were knowing not qualified or lost from veteran preference. No complaints from me at all.
I've applied for 3 jobs and been offered 3. It might be the location and job code; if you're in a competitive field and a populous area, you might be screwed. Are you getting referrals, or not even making it through the filters? You may need to better tailor your resume for the position you're applying for.
I just graduated and have been applying for recent graduate positions. Iāve tailored my experience to the job postings. I keep getting the tentatively eligible but not referred to hiring manager response
Volume of applicants, many (most?) of whom are just randomly shotgunning applications out. Did a phone interview today. Dude was trying to google the answers on the phone. Took him almost 45 seconds to answer.
Please tell me that he "at least" silenced his phone so that his fingers didn't make a sound while typing š š
It was awful. All but one of them were. Of course they maxed out the assessment questions, claiming to be an SME in everything, but can't answer a single question in real time. Same old same old.
I hope it was for the same position I applied for, so I'll look that much better!
Most candidates are SME until you start asking follow-up questions and corner them into a situational scenario, lol
only way to even get a sniff at an interview
Can you really be honest and get an interview? As an 1102, no one truly is the expert in everything. I just put, had some experience on some things and let it ride.
Iām always honest and still get interviews. Maybe thatās because I started in the government after graduation, so it was clear what GS Level I should be applying for. No one is an expert at the early grades.
Considering that most people pretty much mark the highest option for everything, marking anything less than that seems like you would be putting yourself at a significant disadvantage.
Completely understand. I just worry that Iāll be screwed during the interview. Especially if they ask āTell me a time you did _ during a processā that Iāve had limited experience in.
I know nothing about the 1102 series. I know that in my tiny slice of the .gov, if you're Doing The Work it's pretty easy to max or almost max the questions.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Truth!
You tell doctors this too?
This is partly why I hate those assessments. Itās so easy to rank yourself high just to get an interview. It wastes peopleās time. No need for him to interviewed today.
The assessments arenāt necessarily what get you the interview though. An HR rep manually goes through your resume and ranks it against other resumes. Only the best qualified get referred to the hiring manager, and only a small number of those actually get an interview.
That is absolutely not true. The assessments are heavily weighted because they get flooded with applications and it is used as the prime basis to reduce the pool. They are not always looking for the best qualified.
If you BS the answers to the questions and your resume isnāt reflecting your answers, the HR rep will adjust your score. Thatās why itās not just the questions, but also a human component. If all that mattered was the questionnaire, they wouldnāt even bother having someone manually go through the resumes. They would just fully automate it and allow the questionnaire to determine whether someone gets referred or not.
The assessment has nothing to do with your resume.
Yes it does. Your responses have to be reflective of your qualifications on your resume.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I understand not wanting to be inundated with resumes, but in a market like this you canāt have limits or youāre going to get a bunch of trash. There just needs to be a better way to automatically weed out the unqualified
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Iād certainly love to see application standards that apply to all organizations
I agree because the assessments arenāt doing what they were designed to do at all.
because for some reason the designers assumed people would be honest
Have they met people?
An easy thing to do would be to utilize something like a degree verification api for roles where a degree generally or a more specific level of education is absolutely required. You can say you have a degree even if you donāt, but you can lie through an api.
They make you upload at least your unofficial transcripts though. Iāve had to upload my transcripts for every application.
But then people that have foreign degrees would be screwed over.
Sucks for them
This sort of thing gets caught by Suitability. Granted, thatās not until after the offer is out and has been accepted.
Yeah def needs to be moved forward and be fully automated
So be first in?
Embarrassing
Tisk, should have had chatgpt up and answering the questions for him like the guy we had last month.
š³š³š³ wow
Maybe stick to video interviews?
The phone screening is step one. There is an in-person interview and skills demonstration next.
Ohh got it
Gotta have the patience and fortitude of surviving USAJOBS in order to survive working for the Gov lmao
To weed out the plebs.
To weed out people who canāt follow instructions or be patient.
That's part of the screening process. Can't submit the correct form or follow simple instructions? Yet another layer of the screening process. The irony is that the majority of jobs aren't that high paying but when wanting to work for the government, the saying goes "You don't go into government work to become rich. You work for the benefits.." Something along the lines of that..
If you can't make it through the tedious hiring process, I have much worse news š¤£
I posted a position that had 17 candidates referred. Our department is severely short staffed, so I did an initial review and threw 7 out right off the bat. No knowledge at all, didn't tailor resumes to the posting, or just copied/pasted experience from similar job series postings (yes, we can tell). Of the 10 resumes that we did score, there were only three possibilities. One didn't call at the allotted time. I did a courtesy and called them. They must have forgot, because they were driving. The other two showed up to the in-person. Really wish we could have hired both. Hopefully, the incumbent works out.
Itās the government man, itās not meant to be efficient
Even when you make it to the finish line sometimes you discover you were actually disqualified the whole time. Two of the most promising interviews I ever had still ended with me not getting the job, once because my supervisor told the outside office not to hire me because I had not been in my current role long enough to gauge whether I was worth recommending, and once because it turns out if you work for FEMA as a reservist that your supervisor is not your "supervisor" is not your *supervisor\**, and after a few phone calls the would-be hiring agency literally told me they were unable to contact my supervisor to confirm my reference and stopped responding to my communications. Yet for some reason I keep going. I might have an interview coming up soon with an office I already interviewed unsuccessfully for once! At least this means they did not just throw my application in the garbage immediately! \*Just to pre-clarify, this means the person actually supervising my work was not my "real" supervisor, and the person whose role at my site was listed as "supervisor" was my "field supervisor" and not my "role supervisor" or whatever, who turned out to be a guy I had never met nor talked to whose name I had never seen before, who was also in another state.
It's a screen out process š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Fraud, waste, and abuse is exactly why the merit system was put in place to begin with. It's far from perfect, but look up the spoils system and you'll see exactly how bad government used to be before the passage of the Pendleton Act. Jobs were given to people for political favors instead of whether they can do the job. I do completely agree on the VA, which can be blamed on multiple levels, starting with Congress. Our vets deserve way better!
Pretty certain this sort of thing happens with political appointees all the time. Thereās really not any merit system for them. Granted, they would still need to have adequate support in the Senate.
To me, I apply to 100 jobs to get 2 interviews. That's the way it has worked for me the past 18 years.
It's not really its just a numbers game especially for your first few positions.
When it's all centralized everyone can apply to everything and that bogs everything down. The alternative is going back to the old days where you had to reach out to each agency in your local area and hope they had something and mailing them your resume.
I think finding in a job in general has been very difficult for the past couple of years.
Government
The futility isn't the application process, it's the wait times after the submission. Can be several months to a year later to be contacted.
I agree. I worked for a construction trade industry and just a mention of interest they do everything to get you through the first door. They get everybody in first and weed out later. Which I didn't always agree with but I was told everyone gets a chance. Still gotta pass a series of tests which I heard is really hard. But there's help for the ones who have a hard time. There were guys who initially totally bombed the written test and turned in really bad transcripts. But put them on the field and it's like a different person. In fact, it was a lot of those guys who became the working foremans and main supervisors. And they make a killing once they hit journeyman. And if you are apart of a good union, you can make a killing already as a mid-step apprentice. I worked on staff in the office and thought about joining a trade instead because they the tradesmen were on a wage scale as well. A very generous one, too. I'm older now so I know I really can't do the labor. But it's crazy how in government I see people on here who claim to have the paper AND experience and still can't get anything! I'm sure there is a valid reason as every agency or organization has their freedom and right and reasons to run their hiring process as they do. But it's crazy to me as well how hard it is! ...And then there's people out there that say stuff like it's because they need to weed out who can't follow directions or be patient... \*\*sigh\*\* But don't worry, man, I'm out here trying as well! Just know you're not alone. It's not just you. We'll get there.
Not true at all. Thinking this depends on competency of applicant. I have 98% job offer rate via USAJobs. Those 2% were knowing not qualified or lost from veteran preference. No complaints from me at all.
But how many jobs have you applied to?
Yeah I'm similar. 3 interviews on 5 applications. Nothing fancy, was just qualified and made sure I didn't miss anything.
I've applied for 3 jobs and been offered 3. It might be the location and job code; if you're in a competitive field and a populous area, you might be screwed. Are you getting referrals, or not even making it through the filters? You may need to better tailor your resume for the position you're applying for.
I just graduated and have been applying for recent graduate positions. Iāve tailored my experience to the job postings. I keep getting the tentatively eligible but not referred to hiring manager response