Deb's absolutely right!  

Here's the deal.  A candidate for a job may drive
him/herself crazy with angst from the moment they find
out there's a job available.  Once they've agonized
about every dotted I, crossed T, and matched KSA, and
put the thing in the mail, they then begin to obsess
about how long it's taking.  

Trust me, it takes as long as it takes for as long as
it needs until the candidate is hired for the job. 
Even after the interview, it could take days/weeks, to
get through the system.  The hiring supervisor may not
have the last word, and the subsequent screening may
take longer than it did to get an interview.  There
are just too many factors to consider.  

It sounds callous to say so, and it's not intended
that way, but RELAX.  If you're a ball of nerves about
the job, the person you are hurting the most is
yourself.

Additionally, time is a relative thing.  In my
childhood, days lasted forever, and weeks were eons. 
Now, in my later years, if I blink my eyes, I'm saying
Happy New Year all over again (it's amazing how much
faster the clock turns the older you get).  

Keep yourself busy so that you're not preoccupied with
worrying about whether you will or won't get an
interview, and try to have several irons in the fire. 
For many, getting a job at the Smithsonian is like
being given the Hope Diamond.  Can you imagine how
many aspire for the same diamond and how many can be
actually successful?

About those "awful" HR departments.  In a perfect
world, you'd get a thanks, but no thanks anytime you
apply for a position and aren't going to get it.  But
those kinds of letters say:

"Thanks for your application, unfortunately . . . blah
. . . blah . . . Your application will be kept on file
for 90 days and blah . . . blah . . . blah."

While you're waiting for the Rose Queen who got the
job to get bumped off so that you can get the crown,
chances are, if you didn't get it first go round, the
Hope Diamond is still going to be out of reach, only
you have a piece of paper that lulled you into a false
sense of hope. And, in this litigious society,
employers have to be especially careful what they
communicate to you.

Apply, and assume you're not going to get the job. 
Start from that frame of reference.  Consider
enhancing any skills you need to along the way so that
you are in a continued state of job readiness, and
apply for other jobs.  It's a numbers game.

My personal pet peeve, however, as one who has
screened resumes and set up interviews in times past,
is the candidate who wimps out when you've called them
and says I have a class or some other reason when the
time is made to see if they're a hire.  You say no
when the opportunity is presented, and you shouldn't
expect another opportunity.  Unless you're uniquely
qualified, there's no reason. A lot more diamond
miners out there where you came from.

I know it's frustrating.  It wasn't that long ago I
was in the job market, too.  Just don't eat yourself
up alive worrying about a job you may or may not get.
You're more valuable than that.  

Keep applying.  Maybe you'll have several offers, and
they'll have to do things to lure you!




--- Deb Fuller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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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