Caroline Pettit, center, an associate with the Partnership for Public Service, dispenses jobs advice to Jennifer Edwards, left, and Kelly Kochis, at a seminar for career counselors held at Brown University.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

Landing a job with the federal government can be a daunting proposition.

There are nearly 300 federal agencies within the government, and not all of them use the same hiring procedures. Resumes for federal jobs generally need to be far more detailed than resumes for nongovernmental jobs, and federal job-seekers must often write essays known as KSAs — the letters stand for Knowledge, Skills and Abilities.

Out to demystify the federal job process is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit called the Partnership for Public Service, which was formed to encourage college students to consider jobs with the federal government. Two staff members from the Partnership came to Brown University’s career-development center about a week ago to conduct a seminar for college career counselors on how to help their students apply for federal jobs.

“Federal opportunities have fallen off the radar screen for a lot of students in the last 10 years,” said Patrick Lennahan, a career counselor at the University of Rhode Island who was attending the seminar. “Part of that may be a lack of promotion. Plus, there have been so many opportunities in the private sector. Now that private companies are cutting back, the federal government stands out.”

According to the Partnership for Public Service, there are plenty of federal job opportunities out there. A report called Where the Jobs Are, available on the Web site www.makingthedifference.org, projects that the federal government will need to hire 193,000 employees in what it calls “mission critical” areas in the next two years. The top five jobs areas will be in security, protection and law enforcement, medicine and public health, engineering and science, accounting, budget and business, and program management and administration.

Data from the federal Office of Personnel Management show that, as of last March, the federal government employed almost 1.9 million people, with 6,457 in Rhode Island. That figure does not include uniformed personnel in the armed forces.

“We’re spreading the word that public service is desirable. We’d love to have more people interested,” said Chris VanDeWeert of the Partnership for Public Service. “I think if more college students knew about the opportunities, they’d do it. ...some students don’t want to apply because they think there’s too much paperwork and bureaucracy. But if people have the tools, that’s when they succeed.”

So VanDeWeert and Caroline Pettit, who ran the seminar together, set about to bring those tools to the college guidance counselors, who, in turn, could bring them to their students.

“It’s our responsibility stay on top of hiring trends, no matter what they are,” said Lennahan.

The salary for federal employees is governed by a GS (for General Schedule) pay scale. The higher the GS number, the higher the salary. College graduates usually start at either GS-5 or GS-7 for those with bachelor’s degrees, or GS-9 for those who have received a master’s degree. Salary varies slightly depending on location, with federal employees in expensive cities such as San Francisco or New York earning more than their counterparts in Atlanta. Starting salaries in Washington, D.C., for federal employees are $31,751 for a GS-5, $39,330 for a GS-7 and $48,108 for a GS-9.

VanDeWeert and Pettit took the college counselors on a guided tour of the main federal jobs Web site, www.USAJobs.gov, which lists almost all federal job openings, and pointed out the basic features. The Web site allows job searches by location, job category and salary range.

VanDeWeert also told the counselors about “a hidden trick” on the Web site, particularly useful for people who might be unsure about what jobs they’re looking for, a section called EI23 ( www.usajobs.gov/EI23.asp) that lists government job opportunities by college major, from accounting to zoology. Among the job possibilities for English majors, for example, are editorial assistants, public affairs specialists, technical writers and editors and program analysts.

VanDeWeert also broke down a typical vacancy announcement on the Web site, and giving the counselors a few tips on what to look for. If the vacancy period given for the job is very brief, he said, it could be a sign that the job is going to be filled from the inside. On the other hand, if it is quite long, say a year, it might be a sign that the federal agency plans to fill the job, but might not have the money in the budget.

Federal job-vacancy announcements include a list of “major duties” for each job. VanDeWeert advised the counselors to have students read them very carefully. If they don’t find them interesting, he said, students probably shouldn’t apply for the job. If they do find them appealing, then it’s smart to refer to the required duties as the application process proceeds.

The same holds true for other portions of the job-vacancy announcements, he said, such as sections on qualifications and how to apply for the job, particularly since the application procedures might differ from one federal agency to another.

VanDeWeert and Pettit then had all the counselors go to computers and find some job openings, in this case for graduating seniors majoring in accounting.

“This has been fabulous,” said Laura Joshi, who works at the Career Development Center at Brown. “Once you know how to navigate, you can find so many opportunities . . . a lot of students think it’s a hard sector to break in to, but it’s really not.” Some of the counselors did a little exploring of their own on the USAJobs Web site. Lennahan, for example, found a job opportunity for a theater major with the Department of the Army.

After the computer session, VanDeWeert gave an overview of the federal resume. While career counselors usually recommend that resumes for companies outside the government run no more than two pages — and often only one — the federal resume requires considerably more information.

When it comes to education, for example, the government wants to know your grade point average. When it comes to work experience, the federal resume requires a salary history and details on any job-related training, and asks for permission to contact supervisors. The USAJobs Web site has a section that allows applicants to build their resumes on line.

Next, Pettit turned to two methods the federal government uses to winnow down applicants — a questionnaire and the essay questions, or KSAs. “It’s the meat-and-potatoes of applying for a federal job,” she said.

The questionnaire tries to assess particular skills, which could range from specialized scientific knowledge to more general qualities, such as an ability to communicate effectively.

Applicants choose a range of answers from A, which essentially means total ignorance, to E, which means you’re a recognized expert. Pettit said the questionnaire can function as a reality check for applicants.

“It can be a good assessment of the job fit,” she said. “If you’re answering ‘A’ every time, then this job probably isn’t for you.” And she strongly advised against lying, because eventually you will be found out.

The KSAs are a little trickier. These are narrative essays, written in the first person, that demonstrate specific job skills or expertise. Pettit compared them to answering interview questions. She said applicants should think of the acronym CCAR (pronounced See-Car) when writing the essays. The letters stand for context, challenges, action, results.

Context describes the problem, challenges tells about the factors that made it difficult, action is what you did about it, results are what happened. The more specific you can be, Pettit said, the better. Don’t say, for example, that the funding proposal you wrote brought in more grant money. Say it brought in 38 percent more grant money than during the previous year.

In its job-application tips, the USAJobs Web site suggests using key words and phrases in the resume or essays, which can be taken from the position descriptions. Use the exact same language, Pettit said — “don’t go to the thesaurus.” That’s because some government agencies use computers that are programmed to look for particular keywords on applications.

The Web site also suggested that essays and resumes pay attention to time. Everyone is interested in people who can save time, manage time and meet deadlines, so anything you say that suggests you can work at the speed of light is probably a good idea.

Pettit split the career counselors’ class into teams, and had each one write a KSA focusing on the oral communications skills of a fictional job applicant named Abraham Lincoln, although this version of Abe Lincoln was never president of the United States. He did, however, work for the U.S. Consulate in Milan, Italy.

Among those at the sessions was Linda Ernst, assistant director of career services at Providence College. “I wanted to get all the information I could to help students navigate the federal job system,” she said. “More jobs are available in the federal government as fewer jobs are available in the private sector. So far, I don’t see a lot of students with a desire to be in the federal government, so it is up to us to suggest it.”

TOP JOBS

The Partnership for Public Service and American University have ranked federal agencies and departments for “employee satisfaction and engagement,” using survey data collected from 221,000 federal employees by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The results are available on a Web site called www.bestplacestowork.org. Here are last year’s top 10, with their overall scores:

• Nuclear Regulatory Commission — 76.2

•Government Accountability Office — 72.1

• Securities and Exchange Commission — 71.9

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration — 69.7

• Department of Justice — 69.0

• Department of State — 67.9

• Social Security Administration — 66.5

• General Services Administration — 65.7

• Environmental Protection Agency — 65.5

asmith@projo.com