What Competition?

Doing research for a post about Pathways employment opportunities, I came across something that caught my eye. In the history of the U.S. Government's Pathways Program which began in July 2012, there are only 10 biologist vacancy announcements that had a single applicant. If you are the only applicant, it follows that your odds of getting a job offer should be almost certain so long as you meet the minimum qualifications and the vacancy announcement doesn't get cancelled.

So, how does a federal agency keep applicants away? And why would they want to do that anyway? The cynical answer to the second question is that the hiring manager knows who they want to hire before they advertise the role. Playing this out, there are a couple of tricks to keep applicants away. One is to limit the duration of the announcement. Another is to pick an obscure location. And my personal favorite: restrict applications to "Agency Employees Only."

You can see each at play in one Pathways biologist vacancy announcement at Tumacacori National Historic Site in 2017. The announcement was open from March 8 to March 14. The location was (unsurprisingly) Tumacacori, Arizona; population: 393. And applications were restricted to "[National Park Service] Employees Only." (!!!)

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has been clear: Federal agencies must publicly advertise Pathways Positions in the spirit of "fairness, transparency, and compliance with merit system principles."

And yet there is the story of Tumacacori, where only one person started a job application for a Pathways biologist opportunity in March 2017.

Federal Ferret Fans: Unless you clearly meet ALL the eligibility criteria, don't waste your time applying to vacancy announcements that go to great lengths to restrict the applicant field.