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Federal Government Jobs

 

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     There are 2 classes of jobs in the Federal Government:

  1. Competitive Civil Service (covered by fair and equal treatment civil service laws)
  2. Excepted Service (individual organizations determine requirements, jobs may be subject to veteran’s preference)

     The US Office of Personnel Management runs a site called USAJobs (http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/).  Start your search here as a number of jobs for various agencies can be found in this database. 

     If you are a student or recent grad you may want to check out the US Office of Personnel Management student jobs page (http://www.studentjobs.gov) which will provide additional information about internships and other student-focused opportunities. 

USAJobs Site

The USAJobs “Working for America” site contains pages of information about federal government employment including:

  • Resume Builder – Create a resume that is acceptable for applying for most Federal jobs.  You set up an account providing your last name, your social security number and a password.  Then you build a resume entering fields containing personal information, work experience, education, and other qualifications.  Your resume is saved in the USAJOBS database so you can use it to respond to individual vacancy announcements.
  • Explore Career Interests – Questionnaires that help you match interests to jobs.  Cross reference of government job titles to private sector job titles (http://career.usajobs.opm.gov/).

Finding and Applying for a Federal Job via USAJOBS

The USAJOBS site outlines a 3-step process:

1. Obtain information about jobs of interest using the internet (http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/a.htm) or phone (478-757-3000 or TDD 478-744-2299).  Online job search categories include:

You can also search by agency, series (job codes), student jobs, or seasonal jobs.

2. Obtain a copy of the vacancy announcement.  For internet searches, a link is provided in the job description to the vacancy announcement where specific information about the job, deadlines for applying, requirements, location, salary, etc. can be found.

3. Read the vacancy announcement CAREFULLY for application instructions.  For some agencies you will apply using the resume builder or a resume your previously saved online.  For other positions you will be asked to submit a resume or federal application form.  Each agency has different application procedures that must be followed.  The standard Federal application form is the Optional Application for Federal Employment, OF-612 (http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/OF612.htm).  Other forms can be found at http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/forms.htm.

Agency Employment Links

Below is a listing of specific government agencies and links to their employment pages. 

Agencies/Offices

Web Site

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

http://www.uscourts.gov/employment/vacancies.html

U.S. Air Force

http://ww2.afpc.randolph.af.mil/resweb

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

http://www.usace.army.mil/working.html

Bureau of Prisons

http://www.bop.gov/recruit.html

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

http://cms.hhs.gov/careers

Central Intelligence Agency

http://www.cia.gov/cia/employment/ciaeindex.htm

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

http://www.cpsc.gov/about/personnel.html

U.S. Court of Federal Claims

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/employment.htm

Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency

http://www.csosa.gov

Defense Finance and Accounting Service

http://www.dfas.mil/people

Defense Commissary Agency

http://www.commissaries.com/inside_deca/jobs_with_deca.htm

Defense Contract Audit Agency

http://www.dcaa.mil/webjobs/index.htm

Defense Intelligence Agency

http://www.dia.mil/Careers/index.html

Defense Supply Center, Richmond

http://www.hr.dla.mil/default.htm

U.S. Department of Agriculture

http://www.usda.gov/services.html

U.S. Department of Commerce

http://www.jobs.doc.gov

U.S. Department of Defense

http://dod.jobsearch.org

U.S. Department of Defense, Communications-Electronics Command

http://www.monmouth.army.mil/cecom/pandt/jobopport/cecom_overview.htm

Department of Defense, Office of the Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service

http://www.dodig.osd.mil/JOBS/INDEX.HTML

U.S. Department of Education

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OM/edjobs.html

U.S. Department of Energy

http://www.energy.gov/careers/index.html

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

http://www.hud.gov/jobs/index.cfm

U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Colorado State Office

http://www.co.blm.gov/humanrs/recruit.htm

U.S. Department of Interior

http://www.doi.gov/hrm/employ3.html

U.S. Department of Justice

http://www.usdoj.gov/06employment/index.html

U.S. Department of Labor

http://www.dol.gov/oasam/doljobs/main.htm

U.S. Department of the Navy

http://www.donhr.navy.mil/Jobs/default.asp

U.S. Department of State

http://www.careers.state.gov

U.S. Department of Transportation

http://www.dot.gov/jobs_and_education.html

U.S. Department of the Treasury

http://www.treas.gov/jobs

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

http://www.va.gov/jobs/search.htm

Environmental Protection Agency

http://www.epa.gov/epapages/epahome/jobs.htm

Federal Bureau of Investigation

http://www.fbi.gov/employment/employ.htm

Federal Communications Commission

http://www.fcc.gov/jobs

Federal Highway Administration

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/vacancy/index.htm

Federal Emergency Management Agency

http://www.fema.gov/career/index.jsp

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

http://www.ferc.gov/About/employmentopps.htm

Federal Reserve

http://www.federalreserve.gov/careers/default.cfm

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

http://hr.fws.gov/employment.htm

Forest Service  

http://www.fs.fed.us/fsjobs

General Accounting Office

http://www.gao.gov/jobopp.htm

General Services Administration

http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/content/offerings_content.jsp?contentOID=115903&contentType=1004

Health and Human Services

http://www.hhs.gov/jobs/hhsjobs.html

Health Resources and Services Administration

http://www.hrsa.gov/jobs/jobs.htm

U.S. House of Representatives

http://www.house.gov/cao-hr

Immigration and Naturalization Service

http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/workfor/index.htm

Indian Health Service

http://www.ihs.gov/GeneralWeb/HelpCenter/CustomerServices/jobs.asp

Internal Revenue Service  

http://www.jobs.irs.gov

International Boundary and Water Commission

http://www.ibwc.state.gov/HRO/Jobs.htm

Agency for International Development

http://www.usaid.gov/about/employment

International Finance Corporation

http://www.ifc.org/careers/index.html

International Monetary Fund

http://www.imf.org/external/np/adm/rec/job/joboppo.htm

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/hr/employment/jobposts.html

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

http://www.miga.org/screens/careers/careers.htm

NASA JOBS

http://www.nasajobs.nasa.gov

National Archives and Records Administration

http://www.archives.gov/careers/index.html

National Highway Transportation Safety Administration

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/announce/jobs

National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/external/emptrain.htm

National Park Service

http://www.nps.gov/personnel

National Science Foundation

http://www.nsf.gov/oirm/hrm/jobs/start.htm

National Security Agency

http://www.nsa.gov/programs/employ/index.html

Naval Research Laboratory

http://www.nrl.navy.mil/content.php?P=WORKING

Naval Sea Systems Command

http://people.navsea.navy.mil/jobs/jobs.htm

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

http://www.nrc.gov/who-we-are/employment.html

Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Manpower and Reserve Affairs

http://cpol.army.mil/employ/index.html

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

http://www.usajobs.opm.gov

Pan American Health Organization

http://pahoapl.paho.org/pahoexternalenglish/ASEPage_JobListMenu.asp

Peace Corps

http://www.peacecorps.gov/employment/index.cfm

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

http://www.pbgc.gov/about/jobopps.htm

Postal Rates Commission

http://prc.gov/employment/employ.htm

Postal Service

http://www.usps.com/employment

U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

http://www.usphs.gov/html/jobs.html

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

http://www.sec.gov/jobs.shtml

U.S. Supreme Court

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/publicinfo/career/career.html

Tennessee Valley Authority

http://natasha.tva.gov/employment/currentjobs.htm

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

http://arc.publicdebt.treas.gov/fs/fstigtavacsum.htm

U.S. Mission to the United Nations

http://www.usun-vienna.usia.co.at/employ.html

United Nations Children’s Fund

http://www.unicef.org/employ/index.html

United Nations Development Program

http://www.undp.org/undp_jobs/index.html

United Nations Population Fund

http://www.unfpa.org/about/employment/employment.htm

World Bank

http://lnweb28.worldbank.org/hrs/careers.nsf


Career Outlook Information

http://www.bls.gov/emp/home.htm#outlook

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections has detailed information on various occupations which includes:

Postal Employment

http://www.usps.com/employment

At this site you will find information about Postal Service employment including employment requirements, compensation, benefits, and career development.

Listing of available jobs is found at http://www.usps.com/employment/jobs.htm.  A number of positions require taking a postal exam.  Descriptions of different and how to apply are at the following sites:

  • Corporate (management, administrative, professional, technical):

http://www.usps.com/employment/corp.htm

Postal exams include Test 460 for rural carrier associates and Entrance Battery 470 for distribution, delivery, and processing positions.  You must score 70 points out of a possible 100, with veterans getting preference with an additional 5 or 10 points added to their score.  More information about these exams can be found at http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub60a/intro.html.

Senior Executive Service

http://www.opm.gov/ses/

The Senior Executive Service includes top level federal managerial jobs administered by the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM).  These jobs are listed on USAJOBS.  A resume or Form OF-612 will need to be submitted.  You may also need to submit an Executive Core Qualification (ECQ) testament which describes your leadership competencies.  Your application will be reviewed by a Qualifications Review Board (QRB) to determine if your skills meet ECQ requirements.  More details on requirements can be found at http://www.opm.gov/ses/kjememo2.html.

FAQs

http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/b.htm

An extensive list of various topics about Federal employment.  If you do not see any information about a particular type of job above, try this link.

Credits

The material on this page was summarized and extracted from various Federal government web sites, with the bulk of it extracted from the US Office of Personnel site (http://www.usajobs.opm.gov).  The table of Agency Employment sites is a simplification and compilation of tables found on the student employment page (http://www.studentjobs.gov) under Agency Information Gateway (http://www.studentjobs.gov/Agency.htm).

Massachusetts State Employment

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Human Resources Division has a site with information about employment in Massachusetts State government (http://www.state.ma.us/hrd).  They maintain a listing of current openings in a database called Commonwealth Employment Opportunities (CEO) (http://ceo.hrd.state.ma.us/ceo.nsf/ceo_homepage_frm?openform).  Here you can search for jobs by occupation, title, agency, or location.  You can look at each individual announcement for the job description, salary, deadline to apply, and other details.  

Massachusetts Civil Service Positions

Some positions are classified as Civil Service Continuous Testing Vacancies (ConTest) and will require taking a civil service test to apply. Exams include those for public safety positions, police, fire department, and a number of non-public safety positions.  Further information on civil service employment, forms, information on taking the civil service exam can be found on the civil service page of the Human Resources Division site (http://www.state.ma.us/hrd/employment/civilservice.htm).

State Agencies

http://www.state.ma.us/massgov.htm

There are numerous state agencies, authorities, and departments in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  A listing of various agencies and links to their sites can be found at http://www.state.ma.us/massgov.htm.  Some sites have their own job listings, others list using the COE. 

Agency Employment Links

Below is a listing of specific government agencies and links to their employment pages. 

Agencies/Offices

Web Site

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission

http://www.berkshireplanning.org/2/6

Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization

http://www.ctps.org/bostonmpo/mpo/job.htm

Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority

http://www.capecodtransit.org

Central Artery Employment (Big Dig)

http://www.bigdig.com/thtml/jobs.htm

Central Mass Regional Planning Commission

http://www.cmrpc.org/jobs.htm

Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

http://www.state.ma.us/mcdhh/opportunities.htm

Commonwealth Corporation

http://www.commcorp.org/ContactUs/HR/default.htm#Job%20Posting

Convention Center Authority

http://www.mbta.com/insidethet/careeropps.asp

Courts System

http://www.state.ma.us/courts/admin/hr.html

Department of Correction

http://www.state.ma.us/doc/employ.htm

Department of Education

https://www.doemass.org/educators 

Department of Environmental Management

http://www.state.ma.us/dem/jobs.htm

Department of Environmental Protection

http://www.state.ma.us/dep/bas/hire.htm

Department of Fire Services

http://www.state.ma.us/dfs/hrd/index.htm

Department of Housing and Community Development

http://www.state.ma.us/dhcd/employment/default.htm

Department of Mental Health

http://www.state.ma.us/dmh/_Mainline/Jobs.htm

Department of  Public Health

http://www.state.ma.us/dph/dphjobs.htm

Department of Social Services

http://www.state.ma.us/dss/Employment/Employment.htm?TemplateName=ceo&CiRestriction=DEPARTMENT%2BOF%2BSOCIAL%2BSERVICES

Department of Telecommunications and Energy

http://www.state.ma.us/dpu/help.htm

Department of Transitional Assistance

http://www.state.ma.us/dta/dtatoday/employ/index.htm

Department of Youth Services

http://www.state.ma.us/dys/employment.html

Division of Capital Asset Management

http://www.state.ma.us/cam/employment/index.html

Division of Employment and Training

http://www.detma.org/services/workfordet2.htm

Division of Energy Resources

http://www.state.ma.us/doer/procurmt/procurmt.htm

Division of Medical Assistance

http://www.state.ma.us/dma/employment/emp_IDX.htm

Executive Office for Administration and Finance

http://www.state.ma.us/eoaf/agencies.htm

Executive Office of Environmental Affairs

http://www.state.ma.us/envir/employmentpage.htm

Housing Partnership

http://www.mhp.net/about/job_opps.php

Information Technology Division

http://www.state.ma.us/itd/jobs.htm

Judicial Nominating Council

http://www.state.ma.us/jnc

Library and Information Network

http://www.mlin.lib.ma.us/flash3.html

Mass Bay Transportation Authority

http://www.mbta.com/insidethet/careeropps.asp

MassDevelopment

http://www.massdevelopment.com/careers/index.aspx

Massport

http://www.massport.com/about/human.html

Merrimack Valley Planning Commission

http://www.mvpc.org

Metropolitan District Commission

http://www.state.ma.us/mdc/employ.htm

National Guard

http://www.state.ma.us/guard/Postings/positions.htm

Office of the Attorney General

http://www.ago.state.ma.us/about/hr.asp?head1=About+the+Office&head2=Human+Resources+%26+Job+Opportunities&section=2&parent=8

Office of Coastal Zone Management

http://www.state.ma.us/czm/jobsandgrants.htm

Office of Technical Assistance for Toxics Use Reduction

http://www.state.ma.us/ota/#employ

Pension Reserves Investment Mgmt Board

http://www.mapension.com/EmploymentOpps/EmployOpps.htm

Pioneer Valley Planning Commission

http://www.pvpc.org/html/home/jobs_index.html

Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC)

http://www.state.ma.us/perac/peracjob.htm

Rehabilitation Commission

http://www.state.ma.us/mrc/hr/employment.htm

Retirement Board

http://www.state.ma.us/perac/job.htm

Service Alliance

http://www.msalliance.org

State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance

http://www.somwba.state.ma.us/Content/about/jobs.aspx

State Police

http://www.state.ma.us/msp/recruiti.htm

Teachers’ Retirement Board

http://www.state.ma.us/mtrb/1news/1news.htm#MTRB%20operations

Technology Collaborative

http://www.mtpc.org/AgencyOverview/Employment.htm

Water Resources Authority

http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/org/html/humanres.htm

 

Credits

The material on this page was summarized and extracted from various Massachusetts state government web sites, with the bulk of it extracted from the agency page of the State of Massachusetts government website ( http://www.state.ma.us/massgov.htm).

The table of Agency Employment sites is an alphabetized list of government agencies, boards and authorities who maintain specific employment information for their agencies on their sites.