Archive for April, 2009

On Friday, I”ll be teaching a standing room only classroom in Gaithersburg filled with first-time federal jobseekers who WANT A FEDERAL JOB. This will be my 8th class and around my 110th first-time jobseeker.

IT’S NOT AN EASY CAREER CLASS TO TEACH, BUT I DO MY BEST TO MAKE IT INTERESTING AND BRING THE FEDERAL JOB PROCESS ALIVE. It’s an amazing experience to go through the Ten Steps and people are kind of in shock at how complicated it is to apply for these great jobs. I feel like I’m giving bad news, but it’s the real thing.

But my goal is to help them stay patient and follow these complicated directions to LAND A GREAT JOB. The jobs are good and worth the effort. The entire USAJOBS builder, announcement and How to Apply instructions go quite well.

It’s when I get to Army CPOL and Avue, that people start turning red, breathing fast and getting tired. It’s quite a day… To get a GREAT job, it does take sweat, tears and super patience. I’m helping the best that I can.

Tell your friends. The classes are as good as they can be. Kathryn Troutman, Instructor.

http://www.resume-place.com/training/ten-steps-to-a-federal-job-workshop/

I am very pleased to see that Senators Akaka and Voinovich are beginning to unravel the federal application process. They are talking about NO MORE KSAs! And I hope that they put a limit on the Questionnaire questions also. And … if they could take off 8,000 characters from the essay limits, that would be great too. They are also saying that announcements are written in language difficult for people to read – RIGHT, please write in Plain Language. What do you think about this? Kathryn

Akaka, Voinovich Introduce Bill to Streamline Federal Recruitment and Hiring
March 30, 2009

Washington, D.C. – Today U.S. Senators Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) and George V. Voinovich (R-OH) introduced the Federal Hiring Process Improvement Act of 2009, a bill to streamline the federal recruitment and hiring process.

“Too many federal agencies have built entry barriers for new workers and invented evaluation processes that discourage qualified candidates,” Senator Akaka said. “Like the private sector, agencies need to take advantage of modern technology to find and hire the right candidates. By streamlining and simplifying the hiring process, this bill will be an important step toward making the federal government the employer of choice.”

“Over and over, we hear of the problems in the federal hiring process. It takes too long; it is too burdensome, and so forth,” Senator Voinovich said. “The quality of technology has improved, but our processes have not. This does nothing to dispel any preconceived notions that the federal government is nothing but a bureaucratic system. It is time to convey to the thousands of men and women at all stages of their career looking for work that the federal government is more than just an employer, but a place where Americans can utilize and grow their skills in service to their nation.”

Among other provisions, the Federal Hiring Process Improvement Act seeks to address these issues by requiring agencies to:

* Develop strategic workforce plans, including hiring projections and critical skills gaps in the workforce;
* Post brief, clear job announcements in plain writing;
* Allow applicants to submit resumes and cover letters,
and no longer require “knowledge, skills, and abilities” essays;
* Provide timely notification to applicants on the status of their applications;
* Take no more than 80 days from the time a managers decides to fill a vacancy to the time an offer is made;
* Keep an inventory of all applicants who elect to be considered for other federal vacancies; and
* Measure the effectiveness of hiring efforts and reforms.