One of the best ways to really determine the right types of federal jobs for you is to search and research vacancy announcements. In the corporate world these are called job postings. The job descriptions detail the duties, skills, knowledge, abilities and accomplishments required.
We'll get into evaluating how the position fits you but first let's crack the code when reading job/vacancy announcements.
AGENCY: You’ll see the agency name and office of the job at the top of the announcement. That gives you some hints about the job when you know the mission of the agency and their customers.
JOB TITLE: Federal Job Titles don't always mean the same thing as they do in private sector job titles. For example a technical writer is typically known as someone that writes documents for technical systems, or software, and is related to technology or engineering.
In government, a technical writer will cover a number of topics, depending on the agency and mission. In many cases, the title will be familiar but because government has its own descriptions and titles some job titles may be deceiving.
GRADE: The grade info specifies the job series (what type of occupation class) and the level of the position as it relates to the government pay scales.
For example, GS-1701-09 is a GS position, classified in the 1700 series, According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) GS-1700 is the EDUCATION GROUP which includes positions that involve administering, managing, supervising, performing, or supporting education or training work when the paramount requirement of the position is knowledge of, or skill in, education, training, or instruction processes.
Series in this group are: GS-1701 - General Education and Training Series, GS-1702 - Education and Training Technician Series and so on.
SALARY RANGE: In the same example, GS-1709-09, the last two digits tell the position level which determines the salary range. For GS 9 level positions in that series (1700) the salary ranges from $$42,995-$55,846.
ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: This is the tracking number the government uses to uniquely identify each position
CLOSING DATE: There will often be a firm date but some jobs are also listed as “open continuously”. You may even find a closing date that is out a year or two. That means they are building the candidate database. You must meet your deadline for closing date.
JOB LOCATION: Some jobs are specific to one location, and often there are a number of locations where positions are available. Make sure you are willing to work in the geographic location specified. Some jobs have multiple locations and you will see several cities listed.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES: The announcement will tell you if KSAs are required. It is best to express the KSAs in both your resume and separate KSA statement if required. Due to federal hiring reform the ksa's are now often part of your resume. Make sure you are stating them IN your resume.
Next we are delving deeper into KSA's, showing you how to apply and how to get started. Check it out here http://federalcareers.org/part-ii-how-to-find-the-federal-job-thats-right-for-you/.
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