There are great internal systems in place to help federal employees that many do not know exist.
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USA Jobs is an official government website that lists jobs the United States government needs to be filled.
Current federal employees are actually welcome to apply to other jobs using the USA Jobs website.
There are special paths for federal employees who feel like a switch.
There are also options for former federal employees.
Depending on an individual’s eligibility, there is a large swath of hiring options.
The main thing to realize is that even if someone is already a federal employee, they may still be ineligible for certain federal jobs.
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Federal employees must understand what service they are a part of and what appointment type they are serving on at the time.
Understanding these things will help clarify which jobs each specific employee can apply for and be successfully approved.
No one wants to waste time applying for jobs when they don’t meet the eligibility.
As far as the federal hiring process is concerned, eligibility is when someone belongs to a part of a group of people that the agency wants to hire.
In this case, those groups are current or former federal employees.
These different eligibilities are the different hiring paths.
Eligibility does not pertain to work experience, skills, or other qualifications.
It’s important to check the eligibility requirements of each job announcement first because if someone does not meet those eligibility requirements, they will not be hired even if they have good qualifications.
In contrast, qualifications do include work experience, skills, education level, and overall field knowledge.
Hiring agencies look at an individual’s qualifications after they already pass the eligibility requirements.
There are three types of service that federal employees will fall under.
Services are what the federal government uses to categorize jobs with different options and benefits.
Competitive service includes job openings with agencies that abide by the United States Office of Personnel Management’s hiring rules and pay scales.
Under competitive service, a federal employee is eligible to apply for merit promotion jobs.
Expected service has job positions with agencies that have unique hiring rules, pay scales, and evaluation criteria.
This switch may be quite a jump for employees used to the standard regulations.
Under expected service, federal employees are not eligible to apply for merit promotion jobs unless their agency has an Interchange agreement.
However, federal employees can apply to jobs listed on the Open to the Public path and on the Federal Employees – Expected Service path.
Lastly, there is Senior executive service.
These are managerial, supervisor, and policy positions that match the classification above a General Schedule (GS) grade 15 or equivalent positions in the majority of Executive Branch Agencies.
Under the Senior executive service, federal employees are not eligible to apply for merit promotion jobs, but they can apply to jobs in the Open to the Public path or other jobs in the Senior Executive Service.
What is Merit Promotion?
Merit promotion is a really important consideration for these federal employee paths.
Merit promotion allows a current or former federal employee to apply for a job without competing with the public or with people with a Veterans’ Preference.
Merit promotion means that federal employees are only competing with other competitive service employees.
What is the Process of Transitioning Roles?
The process of changing roles or departments is different for everyone.
For federal employees who are staying in the same general field and service type, there are a lot fewer challenges.
However, in general, all departments have systems in place for managing such a transition.
As long as everything is followed properly, there is not too much hassle to transition roles.
Federal employees will probably find themselves in a new building with a few weeks of scheduled training to get them prepared for the new position.
Benefits of Staying Within the Federal System
There are many advantages to staying in federal service.
For one, the job transition is much easier because it is happening within an already familiar system.
It is also easier to manage retirement plans for federal employees who are already using the government-suggested plan for their workers.
Additionally, the federal government generally has very high job security for its workers and many want to retain that level of security.
Overall, federal employees who are tired of their current position should strongly consider using the Federal Employees path to find another job. It is a much smoother transition and there is a lot more built-in support for employees.