Why USAJOBS is a Black Hole.

[00:00:00]You applied to a federal job months ago.

[00:00:02]You never heard anything back. Not even a rejection email. Seems like the government's too busy to even communicate with you. For some reason, they didn't want you, but who knows why.

[00:00:13]This is the experience most people have with USAjobs.gov. They describe it as a black hole.

[00:00:20]Your application, your resume, everything goes in and who knows where it comes out. It never comes out. We'll never see it again. We'll never get any closure. Now, does this happen with every single agency? There's over 100 federal agencies. The answer is no. There are some agencies that hire quicker and there's also agencies that hire a whole heck of a lot slower.

[00:00:41]Now, the average time to hire in the federal government, it's around 100 days.

[00:00:46]This administration put out an executive order last year that said the goal is 80 days. They want to get that 100 days.

[00:00:54]They want to drop it down 20%. Focus on 80 days.

[00:00:58]Is that going to happen?

[00:01:00]Probably not. In some cases it will, but it just takes too long. I mean, there's too many steps. When you're trying to hire, let's look at the whole process real quick. You have the job announcement.

[00:01:12]You have the review process. You have the referral process. You have the interviews because sometimes it can be more than one interview. Then after that, you have the offer. Do you want the offer? Are you entertaining other offers? Oh, you want a higher salary?

[00:01:25]You can do that. You want a step increase? Let's go get some approval.

[00:01:29]Let's figure that out. Then after that, you have the final job offer. Then you have the background check. The background check typically becomes The background check comes before the final offer, but you get the idea. There's a lot of steps to this process. I didn't even mention all of them. So, it's lengthy. It's lengthy by design. But, you do have some agencies that really push it to to not just 100 days. They double it up. They do 200, 300 days. And then on top of that, go ahead and sprinkle in your little hiring freezes and your your reduction in forces and all the other drama that gets injected to the process and makes it even slower.

[00:02:05]So, to to find out what's going on with the time to hire, you can go to OPM. They have a dashboard there, but all that shows us is government-wide and critical jobs. That's it. You can't really get really in detail with specific agencies.

[00:02:22]They should change that. That would be a great change. So, what you have to rely on is there are some OIG reports out there where during the investigation process, they make HR tell them. And that's what we're basing it off of.

[00:02:35]Largely OIG reports. So, the first slow agency is none other than the Department of Justice. And this is because of all their sub-agencies. The FBI, for example, takes over 200 days to hire.

[00:02:50]The DEA, another example, over 500 days. I tell you what, any job with the title of special agent, you you better buckle up cuz it's going to be over a year in most situations. Same thing with the CIA.

[00:03:06]Then if you look at immigration judges, that's a whole 'nother process, over 600 days.

[00:03:11]But if you're after a job that's in tech, admin, a support role, then you're probably looking closer to the government average, even in the DOJ. So, roughly around 100 100 days or so. The next slow agency is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Now, this one, there's an average time to hire of 148 days. And a lot of the hiring they're doing is more, I would say, complex, more technical. So, they have to go through they have to go through more steps and then they're also dealing with HR shortages like a lot of agencies out there. Then you have the IRS.

[00:03:49]That's 145 days time to hire. The exception to this is the seasonal positions cuz the IRS has gone really excited with their seasonal positions and you probably can get somebody on board a lot quicker than 140 days. If you check on USAjobs.gov under the event tab, you will see at least twice a month the IRS is trying to encourage people to sign up for their seasonal positions. Now, when it comes to fast-moving agencies, number one is the Department of Defense.

[00:04:21]Some people like to call it the Department of War.

[00:04:23]You know what I'm talking about. So, with them, they're the number one user of DHA, which is the direct hiring authority.

[00:04:31]That is what enables them to hire quicker.

[00:04:34]Now, if your job involves anything around intelligence or top secret SCI type work, if it's a job that requires a top secret SCI polygraph, the rest of it, then yeah, you're going to be waiting a whole lot longer. But, for many of their positions, if it's only a secret clearance or maybe a public trust, you should be able to get in a lot faster, especially when they leverage DHA.

[00:05:00]You look at the Department of Air Force, which is a component under DOD, they they're reporting like 65-day time to hire. Now, how are they measuring it?

[00:05:08]Because that's another thing. Not every agency is measuring time to hire the same way, but the Air Force says in some situations they have 65 days when it comes to their time to hire. Now, overall, the DOD holistically beats the federal government average of 100 days.

[00:05:25]The thing about DOD is when they're extending you the tentative job offer, they're already starting the background check. So, they've become very efficient. The same thing is when it comes to the interview. So, in some interviews with DOD, and now keep in mind DOD is enormous. It's the largest federal agency, so it's not like this everywhere in DOD, but in some offices, they will have an interview like before you even interview, they want to check your references. And you're like, "What are you talking about? Check my references. I'm not even I haven't been interviewed. How do you know you even want me?" So, they're trying to reduce the time. So, they have if they're interviewing 10 people, they're checking references on all 10 people. That way, when they select an individual, they can skip that process cuz they've already done it and they can move forward with the background check and the rest of it.

[00:06:12]And unlike a lot of other agencies, they have a lot of resources. So, they could do these background checks quicker than, let's say, other agencies. And they can give you an interim, depending on your job, depending on the clearance level on what you will be doing. But, it's not uncommon to hand out interim clearances after a quick investigation while you're waiting for your secret or top secret to actually come through. So, after the DoD, you have the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration. And this is mainly when it comes to aviation and transportation roles. So, they have a streamlined process. They use DHA as well. That leads to faster timelines on average when it when everything is going right. An agency is heavily using DHA and share certification and talent pools, then you're looking at it could be 40 to 7-day 40 to 70 days. That's how quick it can be, perfect situation, everything goes right. So, while you cannot eliminate the black hole effect on USAJOBS.gov and really how the entire federal hiring process feels, there are a few things that can increase the probability of you getting that job offer. So, while you can't completely eliminate the black hole effect or the feeling that you get when you get on USAJOBS.gov or really the entire federal hiring process, there are things that you can do to increase the probability of you getting referred, interviewed, and hired and you actually getting a federal job.

[00:07:37]And the first one, I would say, is to focus on your resume cuz the chances are it's not optimized right now. You only have two pages these days. Two pages, and that means the first page is even more valuable than it has ever been. You want to quantify, you want to ensure that the resume is speaking towards the specialized experience in that job announcement at a minimum. You need to go through there and improve it. The second thing that you need to do is probably, now this is up to you now, target DHA, the direct hiring authority.

[00:08:11]This is because number one, it eliminates veterans preference. So, if you're a non-vet, this is going to help you out. Second off, an agency cannot just raise their hand and get DHA. They have to prove it. It has to be a valid reason. There's not enough talent in an area or they have a critical shortage. So, you know that the job is for real. It's not something they're just throwing out there and maybe they'll cancel it, you know, tomorrow.

[00:08:40]It is a real vacancy that they need filled. You need to leverage the special hiring authorities. So, what I'm talking about is I'm talking about veterans. If you're a veteran, use that. Schedule A.

[00:08:52]If you're Schedule A, make sure you use that. Military spouse. If you happen to fall into that category, use that.

[00:08:58]Recent graduate. Go ahead and use that.

[00:09:01]Use what is there to give yourself that additional leverage to get in. Now, there's other ways that you could do it as well, especially if you're a military veteran or if you're a disabled American, you can go through a coordinator and you can compete for jobs that might not even be on USAjobs.gov.

[00:09:15]But, you have to unders- you have to understand those special hiring authorities and how to use them. Then, after that, I would say you have to open your mouth. You have to network. Now, networking is more important in the private sector, but it still has a place in the public sector.

[00:09:29]If you become a known quantity, if you become a known individual, then it's going to make it easy for you, especially if you're trying to use those hiring coordinators. You can go on LinkedIn, become more familiar with LinkedIn, how to use their filters to find certain individuals that it is worth building a relationship with. It is worth dialoguing with, to communicate with, because of that can open up opportunities as well. There are times that it doesn't matter who you know, and it doesn't matter what your resume looks like at all.

[00:10:02]It does not matter one single bit, because the job that you're planning to apply to, or the job that you have already applied to, it was never intended to be filled by an outsider. And you, right now, you're an outsider.

[00:10:16]So, regardless of what you do, you will never You will never get an interview, you'll never get the job offer. And that whole That whole thing is illegal. That process is illegal. But, if you want to know why it still happens, and you want to know more about it, I want you to check this video out next. Stay updated by signing up to the free newsletter down below. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in the next one.