>> With the Department of Defense and with many government agencies,
the easiest way to get an entry-level job right now is through what they call either a Pathways
or what used to be called a PALACE Acquire Program.
These are program specifically geared for recent graduates from various either bachelor's
or graduate programs, and the way you find these types of programs is go to USA Jobs
and use the key term "recent graduate" in the keyword search,
and these types of programs will crop up.
And if somebody is looking seriously for federal employment, they need to go through the effort
of building a federal resume within USA Jobs and starting setting up a search agent
that will report to them every day on the keyword searches
that they've established in USA jobs.
The other thing they have to keep in mind is that the federal resume that you put
into USA Jobs also functions as your job application.
It has to be quite thorough and extensive.
It is not a simple one- or two-page document.
It is a very thorough document of your past experience and the people
who will ultimately review that document are not looking at it in the terms
of the 15-second decision on whether or not to move forward with an interview.
In terms of contract staff, if I'm looking for somebody, a contractor to come in
and support the program, it's a little less emphasis on technical knowledge
and more emphasis on communication skills,
especially with the operations people around the installation.
If you're going to try to coordinate getting a drill rig to collect soil and water samples
out on the airfield, I need somebody who can do a good job in talking to airfield operations
and security and all of the other missions that are out on that airfield and coordinating
that effort, so that we don't cause and impact to the mission at the base.