How to Get Hired in Washington

While President-elect Barack Obama seems to be making Washington work cool again, the economic downturn and upward-spiraling unemployment rate are lending their own weight to the appeal of gaining secure employment in the federal government. Lily Whiteman, the author of How to Land a Top-Paying Federal Job, spoke with U.S. News about finding work in the nation's capital. Some good news: There are opportunities for people at all stages of their careers. Excerpts:

Are baby boomers retiring from federal jobs and creating openings, despite the financial crisis?
The official statistics from the Office of Personnel Management show that within the next few years, about 40 percent of feds are expected to retire. That's not the number of people who are eligible—that's the number who are actually expected to retire. That includes about 90 percent of managers.

What does that mean for younger workers right now?
You can see that federal agencies are really concerned with backfilling for the outgoing top brass. They've rolled out new internship programs, programs for students, and special two-year management training programs for recent grads and young professionals. These are really great programs that are designed not to be busy work, like many internships are, but really to give young people training, mentoring, rotations—a leg up to move fast into management. Some of them target women and minorities or people with disabilities. And the ones targeting minorities pay great salaries, housing in many cases, transportation to and from the program.

What are my options if I'm a blue-collar worker in my 50s with a couple of decades in the auto industry in Detroit?
The federal government hires lots of blue-collar workers. If you look on USAJobs.gov, and you search for professions like carpentry, air-conditioning repair—there are openings. I talked to a recruiter who said the CIA hires hairstylists and fashion experts from Hollywood help create disguises for their spies. They hire refugees from the dot-com bust and from Wall Street to help analyze the trails of terrorist groups. A lot of people you would never think get hired by the government get hired by the government.

Is the hiring happening in a few f ederal agencies or a broad swath?
It's really broad. Private industry must shrink during hard times, but federal agencies have legal mandates that they have to fulfill, no matter what's going on.

Do most people need connections to get hired or into internship programs?
A lot of people think that you have to know somebody. That's completely untrue.

Are federal agencies looking for specific work experience or transferable skills?
They totally look at transferable skills. They're hiring record numbers of experienced professionals and people who come from private industry. Also, with the economic crisis, there are going to be a lot of feds managing the $700 billion bailout. There are new agencies being created. The [Securities and Exchange Commission] is getting a big boost. The Government Accountability Office, which is helping oversee the bailout, is looking for banking experts to help manage it. Whenever there's change, it creates opportunities because there's flux.

Does networking matter more when it comes to getting a job in the Obama administration?
The media are really focused on the political appointments, and there's only around 7,000. The federal government hires over 200,000 people every year. For political appointments, you generally have to be a leader in your field, and you have to have some political connection or be able to generate one quickly, or have the backing of an influential group, like a union or an association.

Is a job on Capitol Hill very different from federal agency work?
Capitol Hill is very different. Generally, the advantage is you're closer to the power than you are with federal agencies. It's generally easier to have influence at a younger age if you're working on Capitol Hill. The disadvantage is the pay is significantly lower than federal agencies, the hours are longer and much less predictable, and you don't have the civil service protections. If you work for a member of Congress who resigns, doesn't get re-elected, or doesn't want you on their staff anymore, you lose your job. Congressional jobs are great steppingstones to jobs with lobbying agencies, associations, and nonprofits, too.

Can you get a job on Capitol Hill if you ' re not a college-age intern?
Absolutely, particularly if you have expertise in a certain issue that's being addressed by Congress. Whenever you watch congressional hearings, you see somebody pass [members of Congress] a note or whisper in their ear. That's usually someone on their staff who's an expert on that area. If you have general political knowledge, speechwriting knowledge, substantive issue knowledge—that can be very desirable.

Can older workers get jobs elsewhere?
I've talked to recruiters at the State Department and at U.S. AID [the Agency for International Development] and other foreign-service agencies, and they are actively recruiting people who are experienced, who have substantial knowledge of issues being addressed—who have no international experience and no government experience. They are seeking diversity—even looking for parents going back to work, who have never worked overseas before.

A lot of the things that you would assume would be true are not true, like that you have to know a second language to work overseas. Totally not true, because English is the language of so many countries, and so many overseas programs give language training. Although people with language knowledge—particularly Middle Eastern languages—are in huge demand in the intelligence community [you can learn more at Intelligence.gov].

What ' s the best first step to take in finding a federal job?
Every federal agency has its own website, and every agency's website has a careers section, which has their openings and hiring bonuses. A lot of people don't know that a really important place to find openings is job fairs. The FDIC [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] has a huge number of job fairs on its site. USAJobs is great, but there are a lot of openings that are not posted there.

Is there a lot of competition for these openings?
Most jobs attract a lot of applicants. That's the bad news. The good news is that most of those applications wipe out pretty quickly.

What gets an application wiped out?
Probably about 50 percent get cut immediately because they don't make the deadline or they don't include the information that's required, like a college transcript. Or they don't answer all of the questions. Federal applications do ask more questions, and sometimes they're essay questions and annoying to fill out. It's really essential, because it's a huge selection factor—screening out people who don't want it enough to ruin an otherwise enjoyable weekend. Target your application to the job. If you don't, it'll get about as much attention as the junk mail that gets sent to your home.

Any advice for federal job interviews?
Most people just kind of wing it, and they crash and burn. Just do a Google search on common interview questions, and craft employer-centric answers that give specific examples of your successes and show your desire for the job. Like politicians make their stump speech, you've got to make your stump speech. You are almost guaranteed to be asked common trite questions like: "Tell me about yourself: Why do you want to work here?"

Do you have specific recommendations for interviews with federal agencies?
Yes. Know your target organization. Read the website. If it's a big organization, know your particular office. Read the press releases. The big difference between public and private sector is that federal agencies are in the news all the time. Know the controversies going in. If you're doing a [sector] switcheroo, know your answer to why you want to start government work. Make sure your answer isn't that the agency is near the Metro or that you hate your boss.

So what are some good answers to that question?
I always say it's better to accentuate the positive: why you want to go to your target organization, rather than why you're fleeing your current situation. Because hiring managers really don't care about your personal problems. They want to know what you're going to do for them. Show the fire in your belly about their organization or the fact that you've followed the agency your whole life and now you want to contribute to it.

Can you cold-call agencies or go knock on their doors?
If you know an agency is addressing an issue that you're an expert in, find the manager and get your résumé in front of them. Make a connection, and maintain the connection. There's a new social networking site for government professionals, govloop.org, and some people have found jobs from that site. Yellow Book is another great resource—it's in libraries—and it features the name, phone number, and E-mail of everyone in government, almost. I really think the squeaky-wheel principle is important in everything in life. If you've gone to an interview and you haven't heard back—call them.