There must be a job opportunity announcement (JOA) in order to apply for a Federal job. A Federal application consists of submitting a resume, usually completing an assessment and may require additional information such as: transcripts, SF-50s from government employees and/or DD 214.
Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind while applying for jobs:
1. Find a job opportunity announcement that matches your skills and interests by using the search jobs function (http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/).
· Search by occupation, agency name, location, announcement number
· Click Search for Jobs
2. After finding a job of interest, it is very important that you carefully review the "Qualifications and Evaluations" section of the job opportunity announcement to see if you qualify for the job.
3. After you carefully review the "Qualifications and Evaluations" section, review the How to Apply" section of the job opportunity announcement.
When applicants do not follow the instructions provided in the "How to Apply" section of the job opportunity announcement, the application will be considered incomplete and they are not considered for the job.
4. After following these initial steps, you are now ready to apply for a Federal government job.
When you apply for a position, we recommend that you print out the job opportunity announcement, so that you will have the information to refer to when checking on your status after the closing date. When an agency's job opportunity announcement is closed, it is removed from USAJOBS®. We do not provide copies of closed job opportunity announcements. You can also save the job opportunity announcement as an HTML Web page. To save, you must view the job opportunity announcement on your screen. Then, go to "File", "Save As", select "Web Page, complete" and click "Save".
You can also log into "My Account" and create a "Saved Search" that will notify you by email when jobs meeting your qualifications have been added to the system.