Re: Writing Successful KSAs

Some job announcements only give 5 or 7 days to respond - what do you expect to get with such a short suspense? AND, don't even think about taking leave to work on KSAs! I can hear "leave abuse" being shouted!

Re: Writing Successful KSAs

Simple? I hardly think so! After years of answering KSA's
and, doing (on my own) almost exactly what the article
describes, I always wonder who REALLY reads and uses
these things to evaluate candidates.

Re: ksa

I agree, a majority of the time you have people looking over your application that may not be aware of the job requirements of the position your applying for.
After getting my foot in the door and having been apart of three different agencies, a majority of the time I have seen supervisors already have someone in there staff picked for the position, but has to go through the whole scheme of announcing the position inwhich you get all the outside people excited about applying when their not aware that someone has already been picked from within and they don't have a chance in hell and even if there a veteran. I think this was a great article, but getting into a government job is all about who you know and luck. I'm a veteran and I have a Masters and it took me over year. Only to have a friend with a BS get in before me because she had an aunt in human resources that got her in and at the same level as me with a Masters. I was pissed and still a little pissed.

Re: ksa

Those outside excited people that have applied for the position are called "filler applicants". Supervision HAS to interview X amount of people before they can hand over the promotion to the hand picked pre-selected buddy.
Simple as that.

Re: ksa

You hit the nail on the head. I have a Masters and have been stuck in the same position for fifteen years because of the buddy system. Another thing is if you are not retired military, you will not get selected. The boss is too busy creating a job for himself and his buddies.

Re: Here we go again

I agree Prog Analyst about the negative comments and vibes from these blogs. All the whining and complaining does is make it appear that ALL federal workers are unhappy. Frankly, if people could see some of the awful applications submitted for jobs they'd have a better understanding that maybe they should pay someone to do it for them. I always like the applications for individuals seeking secretarial or clerical positions where typing and proofreading are required, yet their application packages are filled with mistakes.

Wake up whiners and complainers - take an honest look at yourselves and then tell me you have a reason to whine and complain. What you see in an honest look at yourself will more than likely be significantly different than what you think you are seeing.

Re: Here we go again

Look at myself? OK, career federal officer, superior writing skills. Significant presentation experience to large diverse groups. Second highest or highest score on supervisory examination the past 5 years.

People selected. Brother in law's (2). College roomates (2) Hockey players (many). Bring in Adultery and DNA and you have the management staff in my office.

Whine and complain? Not in my world!

Re: Here we go again

Funny, I didn't really interpret the negatives as people not liking their jobs. I love the security and benefits of a goverment job. However the promotion process is exactly as described...a farse. I refer to it as the dumb-down effect. No manager I have seen in 16 years has hired anyone that was in a position to challenge his practices by virtue of experience or intelligence. In fact now that our most senior supervisor has far exceeded his boss he has been removed from day shift and replaced by a yes man. Without rambling about this I put it out there that the only fair way to promote from the KSA packages is to have them reviewed by an independent source without input from anyone in the promoting office....and that will never happen.

Re: Here we go again

To those who know for a fact that there is favoritism in selecting outside candidates- maybe your supervisors and managers are aware of you using government time to read/ post to articles like these.

It's great to get that govt paycheck and be able to spend your day "working" by staying on top of articles and replying to them. Of course, it would be better if you could get that promotion you so deserve so you can make even more money "working" by reading articles and posting to the interenet.

Re: use of KSAs

Give me a break - most of the time KSAs are NOT even read! I am NOT whining merely making a point. Believe me, I have been in some offices were people were pre-selected for positions. It happens all the time. Most jobs require you to know someone. It is not What you know - - but Who you know!

Re: use of KSAs

With 30 years of govt service, I have sat on a number of promotion panels and believe me, WE READ THE KSAs. While I agree many selecting officials already know who they want for the job, if that person doesn't write their KSAs correctly, they won't make the BQ and can't be selected (and I've seen it happen; someone slated for the job doesn't make the BQ most probably because of poor KSA descriptives). And in my agency, the promotion panel is made up of 1/2 bargaining unit employees and 1/2 non-bargaining unit employees so that bias is hopefully held in check because of that balance.

Re: use of KSAs

The problem with using KSA's is that they are not verified and certianly not challenged or reviewed by an individuals performance or so-called (what was in the KSA's) capabilities of said individual and the only bias, er ah basis is that that person knew someone or makes a bigger stink than the good employee.

So, no matter how many bargaining unit employees that person knew on the panel from having worked at the same location for over 20 years the end result is that they got the position over someone else that was and is more qualified to perform, based on past performance in the SAME agency, no doubt.

In fact, sometimes higher ranking management says pick employee X, you have an extra position, that we did not announce, give that person a raise, too.

These power plays are not challenged with the facts; but are simply more big government in action and the reason we are the way we are.

Very interested to hear your rationalization of that one.