Help for Your Federal Job Search

According to a March 2023 Axios/Generation Lab survey of college students around the country, 6% want to work for the federal government. In fact, the federal government ranked as the second most desirable employer among young Republicans and Democrats alike. So, how will Gen Z turn these federal employment dreams into reality?

In order to be successful, Gen Z needs to understand the process for searching and applying for opportunities via USAJobs.gov. Thankfully, there are already many freely available resources are on this subject, such as:

• U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) webpage for job seekers

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: How to get a Federal Job and Federal Work Part 1

Are the resources listed above and others like them good enough? Maybe, but maybe not. Let’s take a closer look at why these resources might not be sufficient.

As with any job search, you need to figure out a few things before you begin. If you haven't already, start by answering these three questions*:

1. Where do I want to live?

2. What type of work do I want to do? (What work am I qualified to do?)

3. Which U.S. Government agency do I want to work for?

*Note that the ranking order of these questions will look different for different people.

Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these three questions to better understand how Federal Ferret can help you with your federal job search.

Location

If you dream of working for the federal government, yet live or want to live in rural America, you may think you’re out of luck. But did you know that only approximately 15% of federal jobs are based in the Washington, D.C. metro area? Of course, many of the remaining federal jobs are found in other cities across the country, so finding a rural federal job matching your other criteria (i.e., job title and employing agency) is still likely to be challenging.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) manages workspaces for more than one million federal workers. Take a look at the GSA's Inventory of Owned and Leased Properties to find the closest federal worksite to your desired location.

Did you know: In May 2023, GSA had 7,668 active property leases across the USA!

You may know that USAJobs.gov allows job searchers to filter opportunities within a user-specified radius of a particular location. This is a great feature yet it has a serious limitation, which is that job searchers can only do two things: view and apply for the jobs available today or configure an email notification from USAJobs when new jobs that match the search criteria are posted. Job searchers cannot see the federal job vacancy history for a particular location. Why does that matter? Well, if you’re a biologist looking for a Pathways internship opportunity at Tumacacori National Historic Site, it is in your best interest to know how frequently these opportunities come along so you can identify a realistic dream job. Let’s say this region of Arizona is where you want to find a federal job. You can then use information about hiring frequency to evaluate whether it’s time to consider other U.S. Government employers, and/or whether you are interested in and qualified to apply for a different occupational specialty. If you are looking for a federal job in a particular location, Federal Ferret’s resources can help you understand the past so you can plan for the future.

Vocation

Per OPM:

“Qualifications include your work experience (years, type of work), skills, education level and your overall knowledge of a particular field of study. Like any other employer, the Federal Government expects its employees to be well qualified for the jobs they hold. [OPM] publishes qualification standards to help ensure Federal employees can successfully and safely perform the work of the position. Whatever your background has been, it is likely that you are basically qualified for many different jobs, and highly qualified for some. It will depend on the specific job opportunity you are applying for and the requirements stated in the job announcement. Read the job announcement carefully, especially the qualifications and eligibility sections.”

Every U.S. Government job is assigned a four-digit occupational series number within an occupational group and family. These groups and families are broadly divided among “white collar” (23 job groups ranging from physical sciences to information technology) and “trade, craft, or labor” (36 job families ranging from plumbing and pipefitting to food preparation and serving). The federal government has workers in about 350 different occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Feeling lost? Here's a good starting point: Federal occupations by college major.

Once you determine which occupational series is a match for your qualifications and interests, you can plug that into the USAJobs.gov search bar. And yet, not surprisingly, not every job series will have active vacancy announcements at the time of your USAJobs search. You might find zero results.

For peace of mind that your job search is headed in the right direction, don’t you want to know which federal agencies hire for a particular occupational series, and when those federal agencies have traditionally hired in the past? With access to past job announcements like Federal Ferret can provide, you can understand the scope and frequency of federal job opportunities you might expect to see within an occupational series. Federal Ferret’s resources can help you understand the past so you can plan for the future.

Employer

Since you’re still reading it’s clear you want to work for Uncle Sam. But there are oh-so-many federal departments and agencies (see "A-Z index of U.S. government departments and agencies" for the full list). You will want to think about which one is the best fit for your interests, goals, and qualifications. Once you decide, you can plug that agency or department name into the search bar on USAJobs.gov. Here again, you will only see jobs available today, which is great if the job you want to do in the location where you want to work is accepting applications. But what if you’re looking for something really specific?

There are thousands of federal jobs that are super niche. Let’s say you’re an engineer by training and you know beyond a doubt that your dream job is to work as an investigator at the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). CSB is a small federal agency that doesn’t hire very often compared to larger federal agencies. Sure, you can set up a job search notification and receive an email from USAJobs when a matching vacancy announcement goes up on the site. But wouldn’t it be nice to know how long you might be waiting for a shot at your dream job? Might that influence what other opportunities you seek out in the interim? I think so, and if you do too, I’d love to work with you.

Wrapping up:

Regardless whether you identify with Gen Z or a different generation, if you are on the hunt for a federal job you may find the existing federal job search resources lacking. Federal Ferret’s insight and first-of-its-kind database of past federal job announcements can help you understand the past so you can plan for the future.