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Finding a job as a current student or recent graduate can feel extremely overwhelming.
It probably feels like every position demands multiple years of experience, which makes it hard for people to know how to get their foot in the door.
Fortunately, USAJOBS.gov is an excellent resource for students or recent graduates who want an internship or job.
Anyone who is a current student or recent graduate may be eligible for federal internships or official job positions through multiple student programs.
Most of these federal student and recent graduate resources fall under the Pathways Program.
This program offers federal internships and employment positions for current students, recent graduates, and people with advanced degrees.
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The Pathways Program has several sub-programs for different categories of individuals.
The Internship Program focuses on helping current students.
Applicants can be current students in high school, college, trade school, or other qualifying educational institutions.
The Internship Program provides paid opportunities for students to start working in federal agencies while in school.
This allows students to experience and understand the different federal career paths available to them.
Another program is the Post-Secondary Student Hiring Authority, which specializes in students pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Agencies using this program can offer positions that are time-limited for up to one year or more than one year, but not over four years.
Students are eligible for this program if they are a United States citizen or national and enrolled in or pursuing a bachelor’s or graduate degree as at least a half-time student.
The Pathways Recent Graduates Program is for students who graduated in the past two years from any qualifying educational organization or from a certificate program.
The Pathways Recent Graduates Program provides individuals with career development help through training programs and mentors.
Interested individuals must apply within two years of obtaining their degree or certificate, except for veterans who have up to six years.
There is a very similar program called the College Graduate Hiring Authority.
This program is also for people who completed a bachelor’s or graduate degree in the last two years, with veterans having up to six years of application time.
This hiring authority tries to get recent graduates permanent positions.
Another big resource is the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program.
This program is intended to serve individuals who just graduated with an advanced degree, like a master’s, Ph.D., or J.D.
To qualify, applicants must have completed an advanced degree from a qualifying educational institution or program in the last two years of the annual application opening date.
They must also expect to complete all advanced degree requirements, including the approved defense of any required thesis or dissertation, by August 31 of the next year.
Again, the next year is counted from the opening date of the annual application announcement.
Before worrying about what category or program they fall into, applicants should make an account with login.gov and then make another account with USAJOBS.gov.
On the USA JOBS website, they can add the Students or Recent Graduates hiring path to their profile.
Currently, as of June 1st, 2023, there are over 180 positions for students and over 190 positions for recent graduates.
The student positions will have a yellow book icon and the recent graduate jobs will have a yellow graduation cap icon.
These hiring paths will each have special systems in place to support students and recent graduates.
An example of a position available under the Students hiring path is a job as a Student Trainee (Premier College Intern Program) with the Air Force Civilian Career Training department. It starts at $44,740 per year.
For those applying under the Recent Graduates path, there is an opening as a Program Analyst (Cyber Operations) under Air Combat Command.
This job starts at $54,727 per year.
When applying for a job, the individual simply has to click on the listing and then click on the “Apply” button and fill out all the necessary information on the application.
As these programs are built around students, additional documentation will ask for the applicant’s transcript. Information on submitting the transcript using the USA JOBS portal can be found here.
A lot of times, students and recent graduates tend to feel a little lost in the world.
They are not always sure what their future should look like or what they want to do yet.
One of the best tips for students and recent graduates is to start exploring and applying without fear.
This is the best time to explore different options and even to travel the world while working.
There are many benefits to starting a federal career early.
To begin, students and recent graduates can get essential practical experience that they can add to a resume.
This federal employment experience will boost their credibility moving forward.
Additionally, federal jobs have a nice level of job security so applicants can have peace of mind when starting their careers.
Finally, federal government jobs have a lot of systems in place to support a long-term career path.
Being a student or recent graduate can be intimidating, but it’s also a time of great potential.
Starting off a career with a steady job in the federal government is an excellent way to build practical skills and grow earning potential.
There are plenty of jobs for students and also for recent graduates.