Trying to get a Government Job

[Dirtbag59]

Alright so I want to make this short enough to keep people interested but detailed enough to get good advice. Anyway long story short I've been looking for a way to get a job that would allow me to work in NOVA. My parents have been pushing me to look at government jobs mainly because they pay well and offer a great work/life balance.

I used to be an accounting major but had a hard time keeping up with the course work so I switched to Marketing. Now I have a degree in Business Administration though these days I find myself regretting the switch.

My question is what jobs would be a good fit for me? I know there's some sort of general business job out there and I've taken classes in Accounting (15 credits), finance, marketing, logistics, stats, computer information systems, and management so I know I can can find a fit somewhere. However most of the jobs seem to want accounting majors.

My parents have suggested revenue agent for the IRS but I'm not sure I qualify for that position.

[BDBohnzie]

USAJOBS - The Federal Government's Official Jobs Site - Fed's Job Listing Site. Go here first and do a search on those areas you listed above and see what comes out.

There are various Federal Government contractors and subcontractors that you should look into, as they will be a bit easier to navigate and get your foot in the door. Here is a list off the top of my head:

CSC, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, NetStar1, General Dynamics, SAIC, Raytheon, Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI

Go to their websites and look at the job openings in the NOVA area and apply for what you think you can do. And while it's not direct Federal Government work, if you get onto a contract, there is always the possibility that you get selected to be plucked from the contract to work directly for the government.

The company I work for hired me to work on a DoD contract, and I'm now getting transitioned to do work on a contract for USCIS. And while I will not have the direct contact with the client like I did when I worked for DoD, I love working for my company and they've taken very good care of me.

[saden1]

What do you enjoy doing? An ideal job?

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by saden1

What do you enjoy doing? An ideal job?

My friends keep telling me I should do some sort of work with information technology. I'm not exactly a computer science major nor have I ever built my own computer but at the same time I'd say I'm pretty good with computers. It's funny to because before you asked me that question I hadn't even considered the IT field. Though with me it would probably have to be geared towards the business side of things. At the same time I'd love to have some sort of position that would allow me to interact with a lot of people on a regular basis.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

My friends keep telling me I should do some sort of work with information technology. I'm not exactly a computer science major nor have I ever built my own computer but at the same time I'd say I'm pretty good with computers. It's funny to because before you asked me that question I hadn't even considered the IT field. Though with me it would probably have to be geared towards the business side of things. At the same time I'd love to have some sort of position that would allow me to interact with a lot of people on a regular basis.

I have zero experience with gov't jobs. I've been private sector my whole life, but I would suggest trying to get your foot in the door doing something with which you have experience, even if it's not ideal. Again, I know nothing of working for Uncle Sam, but I would think you could get a higher starting pay grade and level of respect if you enter into public sector work with something that's not totally ground level. That way doors can open up faster.

Whoever recommended surfing the gov't job listings, I would take that advice. Read as many job postings as you can. It may spark some interests. It sounds like you're not too sure of exactly what you want to do, but I wouldn't let your future employer know that.

Just my two cents.

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by GMScud

I have zero experience with gov't jobs. I've been private sector my whole life, but I would suggest trying to get your foot in the door doing something with which you have experience, even if it's not ideal. Again, I know nothing of working for Uncle Sam, but I would think you could get a higher starting pay grade and level of respect if you enter into public sector work with something that's not totally ground level. That way doors can open up faster.

Whoever recommended surfing the gov't job listings, I would take that advice. Read as many job postings as you can. It may spark some interests. It sounds like you're not too sure of exactly what you want to do, but I wouldn't let your future employer know that.

Just my two cents.

This.. plus once you get a foot in it's A LOT easier to transfer even to another department.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

My friends keep telling me I should do some sort of work with information technology. I'm not exactly a computer science major nor have I ever built my own computer but at the same time I'd say I'm pretty good with computers. It's funny to because before you asked me that question I hadn't even considered the IT field. Though with me it would probably have to be geared towards the business side of things. At the same time I'd love to have some sort of position that would allow me to interact with a lot of people on a regular basis.

I'm not sure what being pretty good with computers means, can you clarify? What computer skills do you have?

It seems to me Business Analyst or Project Management jobs would be something that might appeal to you. You get to work with computers and there's quite a bit of demand for these types of people in both the government and the private sector in NOVA area. As a business analyst you'll get to use a suite of software to do some number crunching and you can always get a project management job where you get to interact with people with a software/hardware government contractor.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by saden1

I'm not sure what being pretty good with computers means, can you clarify? What computer skills do you have?

It seems to me Business Analyst or Project Management jobs would be something that might appeal to you. You get to work with computers and there's quite a bit of demand for these types of people in both the government and the private sector in NOVA area. As a business analyst you'll get to use a suite of software to do some number crunching and you can always get a project management job where you get to interact with people with a software/hardware government contractor.

Good with computers in that I'm very good with the basics in Microsoft Office (Access, Powerpoint, Word, Excel) especially when it comes to making queries, designing formulas, or dressing up powerpoint presentations. I also frequently get asked by my friends and family to set up programs and teach them how to use it. In the past month I've done task such as importing songs from an iPod onto a computer, increasing the sharpness on a scanned picture, converting files so we can play our avi home movies on my brothers 360, and importing files over a media server on a PS3. Basically a laundry list of odd jobs. Nothing along the lines of programming or physically installing RAM, though I do have a friend thats about to teach me how to install extra RAM.

Still if my job relied on learning navigating and learning a certain type of software theI'm fairly confident that I would be able to pick it up quickly. To put it in more relateable terms, if there was a such thing as a technology IQ mines would be around 130.

Still I like the idea of Business Analyst or Project Manager. Those actually sound a lot like the type of jobs I would be suited for. Thanks Saden. When I was training for accounting it was so much easier to know what types of jobs would be waiting after school since if worse comes to worse you go to Monster and simply type accounting. With a business administration degree it's a little bit wider in terms of scope but it's harder to search for jobs and right now the ones listed on our schools career net aren't exactly the type of jobs I'd consider.

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

Good with computers in that I'm very good with the basics in Microsoft Office (Access, Powerpoint, Word, Excel) especially when it comes to making queries, designing formulas, or dressing up powerpoint presentations. I also frequently get asked by my friends and family to set up programs and teach them how to use it. In the past month I've done task such as importing songs from an iPod onto a computer, increasing the sharpness on a scanned picture, converting files so we can play our avi home movies on my brothers 360, and importing files over a media server on a PS3. Basically a laundry list of odd jobs. Nothing along the lines of programming or physically installing RAM, though I do have a friend thats about to teach me how to install extra RAM.

Still if my job relied on learning navigating and learning a certain type of software theI'm fairly confident that I would be able to pick it up quickly. To put it in more relateable terms, if there was a such thing as a technology IQ mines would be around 130.

Still I like the idea of Business Analyst or Project Manager. Those actually sound a lot like the type of jobs I would be suited for. Thanks Saden. When I was training for accounting it was so much easier to know what types of jobs would be waiting after school since if worse comes to worse you go to Monster and simply type accounting. With a business administration degree it's a little bit wider in terms of scope but it's harder to search for jobs and right now the ones listed on our schools career net aren't exactly the type of jobs I'd consider.

Good with computer won't get you any IT job.. if you want to do stuff like that you might get on with a non-profit if you have other things to offer as well, such as writing, fundraising, etc

Otherwise get your A+ and do desktop support (you'll probably start in helpdesk) or basic comp tech work. I do it on the side and if you get in with the right networks there is plenty of work. Be prepared to do everything from installs, data transfer, POS rollouts, etc.

Otherwise what you say that you're good at really only qualifies you to be a secretary.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by saden1

I'm not sure what being pretty good with computers means, can you clarify? What computer skills do you have?

It seems to me Business Analyst or Project Management jobs would be something that might appeal to you. You get to work with computers and there's quite a bit of demand for these types of people in both the government and the private sector in NOVA area. As a business analyst you'll get to use a suite of software to do some number crunching and you can always get a project management job where you get to interact with people with a software/hardware government contractor.

Helps to have a security clearance as well but he won't get that until he has his foot in the door. It took me two years at my current job before they gave me one plus it took another 6 months for it to go through but once you get one it may trump my education. I swear if you have a top secert with poly (I don't) you could have a high school education and be in demand for high paying jobs.

My wife has one friend that got out of the army with her secret clearence and just HS education went to work for a contractor, thus contractor paid for her education both BS and Masters and now she has a pretty high up job making bank, took 10 years but it paid off.

[BDBohnzie]

Originally Posted by saden1

It seems to me Business Analyst or Project Management jobs would be something that might appeal to you. You get to work with computers and there's quite a bit of demand for these types of people in both the government and the private sector in NOVA area. As a business analyst you'll get to use a suite of software to do some number crunching and you can always get a project management job where you get to interact with people with a software/hardware government contractor.

Bingo. Each agency has a budgets (sometimes multiple) department, so you could search budget analyst, marketing analyst, finance analyst along with business analyst and see what is out there. And be sure to search the contractor websites for these jobs as well, because the Fed outsources a lot of analyst positions.

[MTK]

The big pain with gov't jobs is they tend to have very specific education and experience requirements. I've been looking at gov't and state jobs for a while now, finally got to sit for my first civil service exam a few months ago. Even then I had to make a few phone calls to argue my experience to just get my foot in the door for the exam. Very frustrating. Still don't even know what I got on the test yet, it can be a very drawn out process.

[firstdown]

The hard part is getting a goverment job the easy part is keeping it. Good luck.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by firstdown

The hard part is getting a goverment job the easy part is keeping it. Good luck.

Very true!!! I work for a contractor and we basically carry the government office that we support.

[johno]

Originally Posted by mredskins

Very true!!! I work for a contractor and we basically carry the government office that we support.

dude story of my life.

as for the OP, you are surely qualified for plenty of entry level financial analyst jobs. i am a finance contractor for a federal agency, and you would be qualified get a job with companies like mine. many of the men and women i work with get the skills as a contractor and then work their way into a govt job. 2-3 years as contract support and you can be more than qualified to make the switch.

if you are looking in nova exclusively, i would keep an eye on jobs on base at quantico. there are jobs to be had in acquisitions. if you are willing to work in dc, there are opportunities to be had there too. all federal agencies spend money, and as a result, there are jobs to monitor said funds.