Tuesday, March 3, 2015

What is the Federal Government looking for in their New Hires?



What occupations are in demand? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the Federal Government likes to hire, well, rocket scientists. By far, the top fields of hire in the US Government are those occupations falling under the categories of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). 39.1 percent of all new employees hired in fiscal year 2013 were hired in the STEMM fields. This number has steadily increased by 10 percentage points since 2009. 

Do not stress if you are not a mathematician, or an astrophysicist. There are plenty of admin and support rolls available to help you showcase your writing, communications, accounting or even culinary talents. However - whatever your field is -  you will want to focus your resume around the technology that you used and the problems that you solved

If you served as an administrative assistant, you may have worked with a customer database, and input schedules into Microsoft Outlook. If you were a financial analyst, you may have worked with Excel, Quicken, or SAP.  If you were the “go to” person in the office every time the printer acted up - find a way to incorporate your troubleshooting skills into your Federal resume. And if you were a chef, waiter or restaurant manager, be sure to list the systems you used (Open Table, Point of Sale, Microsoft Suite). Information technology comes in all shapes and sizes (and our Federal Hiring Managers appreciate that!). 


The above graph and statistics are adopted from the Partnership for Public Service’s (PPS) “FED FIGURES 2014,” an annual report put together from the amazing team at PPS. This data includes recent hiring information for full-time, non-seasonal, permanent civilian Federal employees hired in fiscal year 2013 in executive branch agencies - excluding the U.S. Postal Service. You may also note that enlisted military personnel (Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy, US Marines and National Guard) are also excluded from these statistics. You can check out more helpful labor statistics at ourpublicservice.org or www.bls.gov (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).