Conversations / Live Q&A

Good Morning, Good Morning!  WHEW!!!! Its been hot outside but I hope you are staying cool because we have a real cool show today for you. Today I have as my special guest Jennifer Close from the Partnership for Publich Service. Jennifer runs the the Partnership's career fair that they will be holding on July 14th.  Let me give you a bit more information about her:

Jennifer Close is an Associate Manager for the Education and Outreach team at the Partnership for Public Service. The Partnership is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to revitalizing the federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works. In this capacity, she is responsible for coordinating  a number of programs designed to promote public service to students on college and university campuses, including the Annenberg Speakers Bureau and the Call to Serve webinar workshop series.

I want to thank Jennifer Close for coming on the show today. We truly appreciate it.

Jennifer will be taking questions from me as well as you on the Public Service Career Fair. Well without any further delay let me get to answering your questions. If you have any questions related to the federal job search, writing federal resumes and KSAs, getting a security clearance, military transition and more please send your questions in. I will respond to as many people as possible. Also if anyone has any comments, advice or a good tip they want to share please do not hesitate to do so.

Thank you so very much for stopping by the show. You are truly appreciated. ENJOY!!!

Jennifer, welcome to the show, tell us about the Career Fair the Partnership for Public Service is holding next week.

Jennifer, who will be the various agencies in attendance and what kind of positions will they be hiring for?

If you are looking for a Federal Position and still having a hard time or if you have an agency that you are interested in and you are not finding a good number of permanent positions you may want to consider looking at other ways to get your foot in the door. You might want to begin looking at Temporary positions within the Federal Government. Each year the Federal Government hires temporary workers to fill positions where they feel they do not need a permanent employee.  These temporary jobs can be seasonal or they can last up to a certain time period. Most positions that I see that fall under the "Temporary Employment" category usually will last from anywhere between several months to 4 years. With Temporary employment situations many agencies are looking to hire people quickly and get them started. Many people think Temporary employment means that its the lowest level positions but this is not the case. A number of positions are filled temporarily and they range from Secretary to Census Worker to IT Specialist to Compliance Specialist to Child Development Program Technician to Mechanic to Management and Program Analyst and many more.

When agencies put out a vacancy announcement that they are looking for Temporary Workers/Employees many times they are looking to hire very quickly to fill those positions. Case in point when the Census Bureau needed to hire large amounts of workers to take the new Census or when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) needed to hire a large amount of workers (Compliance Specialists and others) to work with the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).

To find these Temporary employment jobs I recommend that you do a couple keyword searches in USAJOBS, AVUECentral.com, and Indeed.com. Type in the following Keywords:

NTE or Not To Exceed
Term
Temp or Temporary

You can do these keyword searches together but sometimes I like to do them separately to see what comes up under each. You should find a good number of positions. Sometimes it will say NTE, TERM, TEMP in the actual title other times you will see it inside the job description.

Now you need to understand that these positions are temporary and they will not usually be converted to into a full time position. I do not want you to think that you can get one of these jobs and then someone is going to take care of you without you doing anything and they will keep you even though the term limit is up. The position can be renewed but its not guaranteed. What you have to remember is that this is a door opener if you decide to use it this way. Once inside an agency you get to know the people in the agency, you get to work on projects, you get to meet hiring managers, you get to meet and know the HR staff, you get to make a name for yourself, you get to get the inside track on hiring within the agency, and much more. I have seen people who are in temporary positions use it as a way to get into a permanent position within an agency and keep moving up the ladder. So as you are doing your Federal Job Search do not discount the temporary positions. You may use them to get some stability while you are doing a search for something more permanent or you may use it as door opener for other agencies.

Jennifer, I talk to many people about career fairs and many job seekers get frustrated when they go to a fair and they stand in line for long periods of time and the agency tells them to go to the website.  Will your fair be different and what advice do you have for jobseekers when this happens?

Jennifer, what number of people in your experience actually come away with an actual interview from your career fair or career fairs like your?

Here are some articles of interest that I think you should check out:

FEATURES: Hiring Simplified
By Elizabeth Newell, Government Executive, July 1, 2010       
Cutting red tape for job applicants and involving managers in the hunt for mission-critical skills could be more complex than meets the eye.
http://www.govexec.com/features/0710-01/0710-01s1.htm

Hiring challenges weigh most on federal managers
By Elizabeth Newell, Government Executive, July 6, 2010       
Federal managers say the hiring process is their most pressing human capital challenge, according to a recent survey by the Government Business Council.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=45632

White House Salaries are Released in the report to Congress
Since 1995, the White House has been required to deliver a report to Congress listing the title and salary of every White House Office employee.  Consistent with President Obama's commitment to transparency, this report is being publicly disclosed on our website as it is transmitted to Congress.  In addition, this report also contains the title and salary details of administration officials who work at the Office of Policy Development, including the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council -- along with White House Office employees.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/annual-records/2010

Pentagon continues to grapple with language shortfalls
By Katherine McIntire Peters, Government Executive Magazine, June 30, 2010       
Foreign language training of troops is critical to U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, yet five years after releasing its Defense Language Transformation Roadmap
Pentagon officials still can't reliably identify language and regional proficiency requirements, auditors at the Government Accountability Office said.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=45595&sid=59

A GOOD FAQ SECTION FROM OPM

Office of Personnel Management's FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Section
OPM has developed a FAQ section that is pretty helpful in answering many questions about Federal Employment and related topics. I cant say that it answers every single question you might have but its a good starting point to try to find out information. You can find it by following this link:
http://www.opm.gov/faqs/

Jennifer, who do you recommend attend this career fair. Are agencies looking for just students or recents grads or are you they looking for seasoned and experienced professionals? Who should come?

Jennifer, where can they find information on the career fair online?

I am going to let Jennifer take some of your questions and I will do the same.

Jennifer, beyond the career fair what other programs does the Partnership for Public Service have that can help Federal Job Seekers?

Jennifer, will agencies at the career fair be accepting resumes. What is your advice on resumes? How many should people bring? Should they target resumes to various agencies? What advice do you have on this?

Thank you for having me on your show today; I really enjoyed chatting with you and the audience!

I hope to see many of you at the Career Fair on July 14. If you'd like to sign up or find more information, visit the Partnership for Public Service's Career Fair Web site at makingthedifference.org/careerfair.

Good luck to you all with your federal job searches!

any people who are afraid to apply for federal employment (even between agencies) because of credit issues. Is there policy written that eliminates applicants for government jobs if they have "poor credit"? Does the policy apply to all agencies?

Finances - Debt
Relevance to Security

Common sense and experience tell us that financial difficulties may increase temptation to commit illegal or unethical acts as a means of gaining funds to meet financial obligations. Many persons encounter financial problems through no fault of their own. For others, financial problems appear to be part of a general tendency toward irresponsibility and poor judgment, and that is a security concern. From a security perspective, the cause of debt and how one deals with financial obligations are considerably more important than the amount of debt.

It is important to remember that many financially motivated crimes are committed out of simple greed, not need, and that most people with financial difficulties are not inclined to commit illegal acts at all.
Potentially Disqualifying Conditions
Extract from the Guideline

(a) inability or unwillingness to satisfy debts; 

(b) indebtedness caused by frivolous or irresponsible spending and the absence of any evidence of willingness or intent to pay the debt or establish a realistic plan to pay the debt.

(c) a history of not meeting financial obligations;

(d) deceptive or illegal financial practices such as embezzlement, employee theft, check fraud, income tax evasion, expense account fraud, filing  deceptive loan statements, and other intentional financial breaches of trust;

(e) consistent spending beyond one’s means, which may be indicated by excessive indebtedness, significant negative cash flow, high debt-to-income ratio, and/or other financial analysis;

(f) financial problems that are linked to drug abuse, alcoholism, gambling
problems, or other issues of security concern;

(g) failure to file annual Federal, state, or local income tax returns as
required or the fraudulent filing of the same;

Now that you have read this let me show you the mitigating circumstances:

Mitigating Conditions
Extract from the Guideline
 
(a) the behavior happened so long ago, was so infrequent, or occurred under  such circumstances that it is unlikely to recur and does not cast doubt on the individual’s current reliability, trustworthiness, or good judgment;

(b) the conditions that resulted in the financial problem were largely beyond the person's control (e.g., loss of employment, a business downturn, unexpected medical emergency, or a death, divorce or separation), and the individual acted responsibly under the circumstances;

(c) the person has received or is receiving counseling for the problem and/or there are clear indications that the problem is being resolved or is under control; (d) the individual initiated a good-faith effort to repay overdue creditors or otherwise resolve debts;

(e) the individual has a reasonable basis to dispute the legitimacy of the  past-due debt which is the cause of the problem and provides documented proof to substantiate the basis of the dispute or provides evidence of actions to resolve the issue;

As you see the key is to show that you are now responsible. If you do have credit issues work on resolving them now. Get credit counseling and begin paying off your debts as quickly as possible. Even if you are paying little amounts a month on a plan you worked out with your debtors this will help. I have helped a lot of people with these issues so the key is to show that you are doing the right thing and trying to correct any bad behavior you had in the past so that the Government can trust you.

For some positions your credit history will not be a factor but in others it will be. It just depends. One way to find out is to call the HR point of contact and see what kind of background check will be conducted and if your credit will be checked. This will let you know. No matter what do your best to get your financial house in order.

I hope this helps. Take care and I wish you much success.

Well my producer is telling me we need to wrap it up so I want to make sure I thank Jennifer Close from the Partnership for Public Service for all of her great advice and for telling us about the career fair they will be having this month. I have been to several and I will be at this one so if you see please say hello. It should be a great event.

Thanks Jennifer!!!

I also want to thank my producer Sakina for all of her hard work and assistance.  And most importantly I want to thank you for stopping by the show, submitting your questions, and participating. You are very much so appreciated.

We will be back in two weeks for another show.  I will also be bringing on more guests in the near future so if you have any suggestions on guests please let us know.  Until then please be careful, stay cool, and enjoy your summer and remember that I wish you much success in your career, work and life. 

Derrick T. Dortch