April 2018 |
Transition-e-news Volume 4 Issue 141 |
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Transition Insight
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Corporate Gray Military-Friendly Job Fair * April 20, 2018 * Springfield, VA
You're invited to interview with dozens of military-friendly companies at the April 20th Corporate Gray Military-Friendly Job Fair at the Waterford Reception Center in Springfield, Virginia. Meet face-to-face with representatives from Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Leidos, KeyW, ARServices, ACT I, U.S. Postal Service, DXC Technology, Edward Jones, and more. Job fair hours are 9 am to 12:30 pm, with an Employer Panel discussion for job seekers from 8 am to 9 am. To ensure you receive the job fair Employer Directory in advance, pre-register at http://corporategray.com/jobfairs/395. And if you upload your resume, the participating companies will have early access to your credentials. While especially for transitioning service members and veterans, this job fair is free and open to all job seekers.
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How Much Can You Earn Working for the Federal Government?
by Barbara Adams, CPRW, CEIP, MFRW, MMRW, MFCA-T In the past decade, the average salary for federal employees has grown, and according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), in 2016, federal civilian workers had an average wage of $88,809. That’s more than $20K higher than the average wage among the country’s 114 million private-sector workers. When you start applying to specific job announcements, you’ll notice that the salary is represented by a range. Federal compensation is based on several factors. In the Competitive Service, pay is based on the level and nature of the work to be performed. If the work is considered “Grade 9-level work,” then an applicant will be paid at the grade 9 level, regardless of experience, skills, or education. Pay scales are also adjusted by geographic location, so the general pay scale in New York City will be higher than the pay scale in Montana. Just remember that regardless of location, the position would still be considered a Grade 9. Special pay rates and different scales also vary by location and grade (this applies to engineers, for example). Additionally, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has the authority to establish higher rates of basic pay, called special rates, for a group or category of General Schedule (GS) positions in one or more geographic areas to address existing or likely significant handicaps in recruiting or retaining well-qualified employees. According to the Partnership for Public Service, “the General Schedule (GS) is the predominant pay scale for federal employees, especially employees in professional, technical, administrative or clerical positions. The system consists of 15 grades, from GS-1, the lowest level, to GS-15, the highest level. There are also 10 steps within each grade. The grade level assigned to a position determines the pay level for that job.” For instance, GS-3 or GS-4 is typically used for internships or student jobs: GS-5 to GS-7 represents mostly entry-level positions GS-8 to GS-12 represents mid-level positions GS-13 to GS-15 represents the top-level supervisory positions Any positions beyond GS-15 are part of the Senior Executive Service (SES), an elite level of government leadership that falls just below political appointment. Click here for the national minimum for the GS levels 1-15 as of January 1, 2018. Please note that federal pay scales are adjusted annually. Sources: 1 -
2017 Employee Engagement and Loyalty Statistics, Access Perks,
8/28/17. 2 -
2014 Global Workforce Study, Willis Towers Watson, 8/14 |
Military Transition: Maintaining Your Security Clearanceby Kirk Windmueller, Author and a retired Special Forces Officer. All rights reserved An active clearance can be a critical asset when you transition from military service and seek a follow-on career. About 1 percent of the US population holds a security clearance and even fewer hold a Top Secret clearance. Jobs that require a Secret or Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance tend to be harder to come by, but also pay more (sometime tens of thousands of dollars more) than non-clearance jobs. Having a security clearance makes you appealing to potential employers. It shows you are trustworthy, reliable and disciplined. Demand for clearances aren’t just limited to government and the defense industry, but a growing number of fields like medical, technology, telecommunications, finance, academia and consulting firms are seeking individuals with current security clearances to work in areas that require access to restricted or proprietary information. Keep in mind that contractors must pay the cost of the security clearance for their employees, and the higher the clearance, the more costly the investigation (clearances can cost between $3K and $15K). Some companies would rather hire an employee with a current clearance and train them up for the job rather than hire a person with the right skills and no clearance. It is a big risk to hire a new employee only to have them fail their background investigation and become ineligible for a clearance required for the job. This costs the employer time and money. One of the most frustrating things that could happen is for your clearance to expire as you are in the middle of transitioning and applying for jobs. If you can, time your exit from the military so that you have at least a couple of years left on your clearance. Expect an investigation (or reinvestigation) for a Secret clearance to take 3-4 months, and a TS investigation to take 6-12 months. Investigation backlogs are commonplace. A Secret clearance is good for 10 years from the date of the investigation, and a TS clearance is good for 5 years. Your Facility Security Office (FSO) can check the status of your clearance through the Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS). The date of your last clearance investigation should also be on your Officer Record Brief (ORB). If you are not going to use your clearance immediately after you separate from the military, you will have to find a sponsor willing to host your clearance (this would typically be a defense contracting company). If you don’t find a host, your clearance is archived with OPM after 2 years of separation and it is very difficult to get out of archive. Pro Tip: If you are applying for a clearance job, put your clearance level and investigation date upfront and visible on your resume. |
Time for a Resume Refresh!© Copyright, 2018, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved. Springtime! What a pleasant season. It signals freshness and newness. Its arrival prompts us (or some of us, Editor’s note) to spring clean our homes, free our closets from woolen sweaters, and embark on new projects. As you contemplate what you will accomplish this spring, make it a point to refresh your resume. In fact, make it a point to refresh your resume every season, at minimum. Why? Consider the following scenarios: The early bird gets the worm. You like your work and are not job hunting, but your friend calls one morning and invites you to apply for a position that unexpectedly opened in his organization. The position is a great fit for you, and it pays more than you are currently making. They need to hire immediately, and your friend recommends you submit your resume as soon as you can. Unfortunately, you have not updated your resume in several years, and you will really need to hurry to pull together something solid. If only you had kept your resume updated! The longer you wait, the less you will remember. You have been in your current position for several years, and you decide to start job hunting. You find your old resume and realize it does not include your last two positions. You begin racking your brain to remember details about your job duties and accomplishments and where you put that certificate or award. You dig through your file cabinet to find past performance appraisals, but you cannot locate them. You have no documentation of performance statistics, and find you are unable to write strong descriptions of your last two jobs. If only you had routinely updated your resume! May I have a raise please? You may not be seeking new employment, but you would like a raise and a title upgrade. Your responsibilities have increased significantly in the last few years, but your title and salary have not kept pace. You approach your boss and s/he asks for a list of accomplishments. A detailed resume would be the perfect document to present. With an updated resume accurately reflecting your responsibilities, recent accomplishments, and awards, you have an effective tool to help negotiate a promotion. Get with the times. You are not actively seeking a new position, but you like to keep your options open. Because you understand the need to be prepared, you revised your resume last year by adding new job duties and accomplishments to the write-up of your current position. You did not, however, update and refresh your resume to reflect today’s trending resume formats. Fashions come and go. Hot colors change every season. So do resume styles change. Research and modify the format to reflect what is au courant and rejuvenate your resume accordingly. Add some color. Find and include, as appropriate, the keywords that are used currently in your field or industry. Eliminate outdated terminology. Do this at the beginning of every season to keep your resume refreshed and updated. It will save you from having to be in a hurry when you really need it. Hopefully you feel compelled to update your resume on a regular basis. Do not wait until you need it. Be prepared in advance because you never know when a perfect new opportunity might come along. This season, dust off your resume, update and refresh the content, and give it a fashionable new look. Think spring, and think time to update your resume! More About ResumesResume Customization Cheat Sheet About the Author… Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 2011, NETability purchased WorkCoachCafe.com, and Susan has been editor and publisher of WorkCoach since then. Susan also edits and publishes Job-Hunt.org, is a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a columnist on HuffingtonPost. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+ |
Proposed Senate bill aims to curb military spouse unemployment
By BILL BARTEL | The Virginian-Pilot (Tribune News Service) - Reprinted with permission
© 2018 Stars and Stripes, all rights reserved SUFFOLK, Va. — Erin Ward figures that during her husband’s 24-year Navy career, she had 15 careers as they moved 19 times before he retired recently. Financial security was hard to find while raising three children, Ward said. Getting any job or finding one that paid enough was hard when an employer knew you were leaving as soon as your spouse got a new assignment, she said. "I never really got paid at the level my peers were getting paid because of my lack of time in the industries," Ward said, joking that she had a "smorgasbord of a resume" before recently finding a more solid career in real estate. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said Ward’s story, and others told to a packed room of military spouses Friday afternoon, aren’t unique and highlight a major problem. Studies show that roughly 12 percent to 24 percent of military spouses are unemployed, compared to the 4.1 percent national average, Kaine said. Day care is inconsistent within the military community and the Pentagon doesn’t do enough to promote programs that help spouses find jobs, he said. "Military spouse unemployment is a military readiness issue, including whether you can retain talent," Kaine said. Frustration with not finding work "can cause people to leave when they would like to stay." The Virginia Democrat has proposed a fix. He’s introducing a bill Tuesday to address several issues, including spouses being given preference for some defense-related jobs and stronger assistance for military families as the service member re-enters civilian life. Among the proposals are changing federal hiring procedures to expedite hiring of spouses on or near military installations and encouraging private defense contractors to focus more on hiring military spouses. The legislation also asks the Defense Department to study how to expand the awareness of career training programs for spouses of service members. The Pentagon already has the Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts Program, known as MyCAA, but it’s not widely known to many military families, said Taylor Miller, who is married to a Navy lieutenant. Miller noted that MyCAA helped her get scholarships to pursue a career. "It helps but the problem is most people aren’t aware of it. We need to make sure that mlitary spouses have the exposure," she said. Kane’s bill would also expand the Defense Department’s Military OneSource program, which offers confidential assistance and counseling to military families for an array of personal and financial issues related to the military and returning to civilian life. His proposal also would make Military OneSource available to veterans for up to a year after they retire rather than the current six-month limit. Ward said the confidential assistance can be a lifeline when you’re adjusting to having your husband home permanently after spending decades with months apart. Veteran families need it for more than six months, she said. "Transition is a really big deal when you haven’t lived with somebody for 24 years," she said. "It made me feel really good to pick up a phone and that the help was there." Kaine predicted the legislation will get bipartisan support, given that it’s assisting the military. He did not have a cost estimate. |
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