I'd like the process to look like the following:
I see a job to which I'd like to apply. I am new to the site.
I sign in. I upload my resume. I complete in open form a paragraph on why I feel I am a strong candidate. I click apply. Done.
I get feedback automatically on the hiring process (reviewing resumes, narrowing resumes, selected two or three and you are or are not one of them, hired-feedback on why you were NOT chosen for an interview or hired along with suggestions on what I might do to improve). Again...all automated...email status updates, if I elect to see them.
I see the next job to which I'd like to apply. I choose my existing resume or send another. I write a paragraph on why I am a good fit. Apply. Done.
These LONG essays and redundant questions over and over on if when and why I've ever worked for the government should not appear, especially if I haven't. Then the end of the process should not tell me things like, be sure to send all forms necessary or you won't be considered, or don't send forms you dont need to send or you wont be considered, etc. Just tell me! Am I done or NOT based on my status of never having worked for the government! Just keep me in the loop (electronically) on the application process, please. Tell me why you didn't select me. Tell me what I need to improve to get selected. Tell me who I can call with questions. (Some times you do this one now, I should say. Do this consistently for all government agencies and departments. Why the duplication?)
If you do these things you will not only improve USA JOBS.gov, but many of the private application HR processes as well!
Comments (5)
Couldn't agree more, especially with "Tell me why you didn't select me. Tell me what I need to improve to get selected."
This is exactly what I was told on May 14th in Philadelphia by a graduating senior's father, who has been called for two interviews at an agency but who was not selected for either job. He would like to know what he needs to improve, but is afraid he will be labeled a trouble-maker, and may be blacklisted somehow, if he inquires.
If the agency were to make this information available without the applicant's having to jump through hoops to get it, he or she would be better served and the agency's decision-making process would be more transparent. However, there has to be a way to end the discussion, because a few applicants will want to have continued debate about the answer they receive. It is likely that some agencies, like some corporations, already are best-practice in this area. Perhaps their practices could be collected and shared.
What drives me crazy about USAJobs as well as DIA jobs website is that there is no coherence at the top. Qualified individual should be "qualified" and then linked to jobs for which they are qualified. We should not have to look for each and every job ourselves. We have an industrial era government playing at the Internet, and very little true incentive to serve We the People.
I agree wholeheartedly with the need to re-engineer USAJobs. Federal managers are now required by personnel offices to use "libraries" of qualifications statements that are incredibly tedious to locate, typically are only marginally useful for the particular position and limit the manager's ability to request essay based information. Personnel staff highly discourage managers from creating more specific questions. This is supposedly a savings measure to allow for "more consistent" scoring, however, what I, a federal manager, have seen is it is confusing, redundant and next to impossible to elicit useful information. Under the old system, the manager was able to develop KSA questions that met their needs, could work with the personnle hiring staff to develop good recruitment documents.
The real problem with the current process is that it takes so long to complete - up to 8 months from beginning to end that we are doing nothing to encourage new and younger people to join the government. When they apply for jobs (as my daughter has) they often never hear whether or not they were selected or why. Applying for jobs through the USAJobs site is so tedious and time consuming they tend to give up and stop applying.
Proposed fixes include 1) stop the scored question approach to the vacancy announcements, allow managers to develop their own questions instead. This has become a true hindrance for managers and applicants alike; 2) instead of relying on an automated process, hire sufficient personnel specialists to manage the process as it should be in a timely and professional manner - use the technology for what it is good for, such as online forms submission, question answering, etc.; 3) keep applicants and managers informed of the process, include a tracking system so both the manager and the applicant can see the status of their application and the process.
Number three above would go a long way toward demonstrating transparency in the hiring process. The 45 day goal from OPM is hardly ever met anymore.
In my most recent experience of hiring for my federal organization, it wasn't the actual hiring process that delayed bringing the applicant on-board it was the required HSPD1, the federal back-ground check. Why does it take 60-120 days when the private sector can do this within a few days and obtain more detailed information that an OPM investigator can obtain?
As a fed who has done recruitment, I see so many issues. USAJOBS is so much better than what we had before the Web. It has even improved, and yet there are still so many issues. In the paper system, the number of application forms were numerous, then they were reduced to two (SF & OPM resume' which is nothing like a standard resume'). Now, via the Web they are multiplying again. Agencies have their own sites and own forms. The "rate yourself" system is horrible: it ranks those with the least skills at the top, just because they think they are good, even if they have no experience. The hiring process is long. Those processing the oppressive number of applications are underpaid and overworked (I'm not one of them, but I can certainly see the stress.). Even worse are the number of people who have no idea that there is a huge variety of federal careers, don’t know what the titles mean, don’t understand which ones will have the most openings, and don’t know such careers can be incredible. Most positions don’t pay anything close to their private sector equivalents, but they give a sense of service, have decent benefits, and at least some sense of job security. People need information on how to get their foot in the door.