On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:22:58 -0500, Paige <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I agree that HR is understaffed and overworked, but they could be more
> polite.  Each time I call to find out the status of my application, I get a
> somewhat rude "It hasn't been long enough" statement even though the post
> ending might have been 2 months before.

2 months. Sha. That's nothing. I once got a call from the NSA about my
application that I had submitted to them a year ago. I think it took a
year for my second SI application to go through as well.

The thing with applying for any federal job is you submit your
application and then forget about it. It's not a place to go looking
for a job if you need one right away.

The other thing about the SI is that it has the Federal side and the
Trust Fund or private money side. About 2/3rds of the positions are
Federal and you have to go through all the Federal red tape to get
hired. The Trust Fund side uses the same application procedure but has
more leeway in hiring. Thus if you NETWORK over there you might be
able to start working in a Trust position before you formally apply
for the job.

Secondly, even though the SF-171 is not a required form any more,
resumes are just as much as a pain in the a@# as the old SF-171. In
fact, you might as well just do an SF-171, especially if you have a
computer program that lets you plunk in all the info. In the "old
days", I literally had to type out my info and paste it onto the form
and then xerox it over to make it look nice as there were no computer
programs and I didn't want to have to constantly retype the same page
over and over again.

Like other people have said, if you want to apply at the SI, you have
to learn to play the Federal resume game. Get a bunch of good books on
building your Federal resume or go to a course on how to apply for
Federal jobs. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard, just
tedious. The rule for Federal applications is that more is more. Don't
leave anything out and make sure everything is in the correct format.
my federal applications could get up to 20 pages after I put in all my
part-time work and volunteer jobs which all counted as experience. The
more "points" you can get, the more likely you're application will get
sent to the person actually doing the hiring and not the HR screeners.

Good luck!!

Deb

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