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October 02, 2009
Lesson #1 for Government Applications: Apply Early!
With the state of the current economy and the change in presidential administration (and increase in government hiring going along with it), government jobs have become more highly desirable than usual. The CSO has always advocated submitting employment applications sooner rather than later, but this adage has never been more true than it is for federal government applications this year.
Government agencies have been overwhelmed with applications for all opportunities and, just this week, the CSO received notification that two agencies have closed their applications early. As an example, we recently received an email from someone in-the-know regarding one agency’s decision. The email is paraphrased below:
The Department of Health & Human Services Office of General Counsel - Children, Families and Aging Division has been inundated with student applications -- not only for spring but looking ahead to summer (deadline for summer would have been December 31st). As a result, they have closed applications and removed their published job postings. The Federal Trade Commission recently took similar action.
These actions indicate that some federal employers may be unprepared to handle the large number of applications they will receive this year, due to reduced hiring in the private sector. They may also be surprised by the number of students willing to commit this early in the year for a summer position. Which leads to a matter of professionalism that students should remember: they are as honor-bound by a commitment to a government employer as they would be when accepting a job offer from a law firm.
The Government Honors and Internship Handbook is the clearinghouse of information for a large number of hiring opportunities within the federal government, and is available in electronic format via the CSO’s Blackboard Course as well as in hard copy in the CSO Resource Room.
Programming Note: If you are seeking government employment, be sure to attend the session presented by Nancy Fink on October 9th. Ms. Fink will discuss how to navigate the federal process for jobs through the http://www.usajobs.gov/ website, how to decipher federal applications, how to develop your KSA responses, and how to create your federal resume. Get tips and tools to master the application process. 12PM in A59. RSVP is required. RSVP by signing up in the Career Services Office.
Posted by hdd5 at October 2, 2009 09:39 AM