Published September 25, 2017
Office of Personnel Management IT specialist programmers have been working overtime. About every week there are new colorful bars, widgets and dropdowns and announcement sections. I like most of it. But the HR specialists who work for the agencies can’t keep up with the changes. OPM states that the problem with the “This job is open to” section is the problem with the HR specialists who populate the OPM / USAJOBS template for announcements. They are checking off widgets that really are not the true Who May Apply answer. See below.
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/479747400
- The short view of this announcements states in words “Agency Employees Only – Full Time.” And there are two widgets.
- OPEN the announcement. Look to the right at the cute, colorful widgets. It states that Federal Employees AND ONLY Internal to the Agency can apply.
- A JOB APPLICANT WILL WONDER … WHO CAN APPLY TO THIS JOB? “ONLY internal to the agency” or Federal employees, which would include federal employees and a lot of various hiring authority applicants.
- NEXT: Scroll down to Who May Apply section in the text of the announcement. If you were to call the HR specialist at the VA office, they would tell you that this job is open to only Current Permanent Overton Brooks VA facility and VHA employees.
- NEXT: You click on the QUESTIONS link, it takes you to the top again where there is disagreement with Who May Apply.
OPM ADVICE: I have been told by OPM that the typed narrative in the middle of the announcement is correct. This announcement is ONLY open to the people who work in this hospital or VA employees. But you can also check it out with the HR specialist:
SUMMARY: I hope that the OPM Programmers or OPM Trainers can fix this problem with the announcements. It is confusing to applicants. Wherever you see these two widgets together, you might have to ask the HR specialist, read the middle of the announcement, or guess Who Can Really Apply.