Federal Hiring Process - A Bottomless Abyss?

The Wall Street Journaltoday had an interesting article about the vast number of federal jobs available and how they are unfilled because the hiring process is so bad.  Unfortunately this is so true.  We have a couple of vacancies still not filled even though people were selected over 8 months ago.  Even in our current economic environment people just can't wait that long.  It's frustrating for both the prospective employee and for the organization needing the help.  Hopefully OPM can somehow straighten the process out...just who is the patron saint of lost causes?  

Even though the process is pretty screwed up, I still say if you read the job announcement very closely, and tailor your resume to exactly what the job description says, you stand a better chance of of being selected.  I know this probably seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how many resumes I've read where you can tell that the job seeker put very little effort into his/her writing.

Comments

[Mark]

"Even though the process is pretty screwed up, I still say if you read the job announcement very closely, and tailor your resume to exactly what the job description says, you stand a better chance of of being selected."

Wrong. I've read each job announcement carefully and on some announcements, I was able to cut and past the same qualifications to my resume because that's how close my skill-sets were to matching it. Yet, they hired someone less qualified than me because they were a veteran.

It appears that someone needs to go into the OPM and clean house. I could bring a team of professional human resouces folk into Washington, D.C. with me and within three months, the scenery would change for the better.

[Tim]

Mark,

Well, I've sat on a number of boards and after reviewing over a hundred resumes, I've discovered only a few of those resumes were tailored to the positions being evaluated. For many of them it appears like the person did not read the job descriptions at all.

I'm not disputing your experience, and I fully agree that OPM and agency HR centers need an enema.

Thank you for your comment!

[Patrick R. Maher]

This was a very revealing article. This is such a common problem that we dealt with in our 80,000 person IT recruiting company that we built a software system to really clean this up for both the recruits and the hiring agency. http://www.jordangilmore.com/

Any insight on who and how to pitch our system?
We are also a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business

[Jonpaul]

I thought that the 100 plus questions I have to answer when I apply for a federal job would take care of giving an accurate idea of my skills and abilities. What are those questions for if not to be evaluated? My resume is just my work history; it is usually generated by the USA jobs website, it does not fit any specific job.

Another thought. Maybe the 100s of resumes that don't match the job are from people who don't have the experience for the job and that is why they are not tailored.