Filtering
The USA Jobs Website is fairly easy to search but there are a lot of filters you can use to help focus the search. When you navigate to the USA Jobs site the first image you see is a search bar:
Type in the keywords for a job you may be suited for or leave it blank to see all jobs available in the Location. You can look through but we can probably focus the search a little more to help filter out jobs you might not be eligible for.
There are a lot that are self explanatory but here is a brief description of of the more common eligibilities.
Open to the Public – This is pretty self-explanatory but there are a few notes. One is that this is subject to Veterans Preference. If a veteran applies to an announcement and is referred, they must be selected over non-veterans. Veterans Preference will be another topic in the future.
Competitive Service – Jobs that are open to current or former competitive service employees. This means that you hold or have held a career-competitive appointment. It cannot show that you are Excepted Service or Indefinite on your SF-50.
Internal to an Agency – This job is only open to current competitive employees of the agency listed in the announcement.
Students – Usually means for those seeking an Intern position while still in University. This is usually seasonal and you will be working for the summer only.
Recent Graduates – Open to College graduates who are up to 24 months from their graduation date at the time of the close of the announcement. For veterans it can be up to six years if they were completing military service obligations.
These are the eligibilities that I have seen the most of in the past but there are more. Please leave a comment on what you want to hear more about in future posts.
Filtering Pay
If you want to search for different salaries, just below the various eligibilities is a filter for pay. The default is shown in the image above but you can drag to have a minimum salary or a maximum salary.
You can also choose to search by Grade. I would recommend using this filter if you are a current Competitive Service Employee. This is because you already know what you qualify for. You need 52 weeks of specialized experience at the next lower grade level to qualify for the GS level advertised in the position.
You can also search using the Department and Agency you are looking to join which is fairly straightforward.
Series
This is mostly if you are looking for a specific position that you might be suited for or if you are a current competitive service employee who already knows what series your job is under. A list of various series can be found here.
That’s all I have for now in this series of posts on using USA Jobs and how to help yourself get referred for a position. Please let me know of any topics you might want to bring up for a future post!