How to apply for a Mexican federal government job: TrabajaEn step by step

Which jobs are filled by competition

The Servicio Profesional de Carrera covers management and liaison posts in federal ministries and many other federal bodies, at five ranks: Enlace (liaison), Head of Department, Deputy Director, Area Director and Director General. When one of these posts becomes vacant, the agency's committee must issue a public, open call (article 26 of the Ley del Servicio Profesional de Carrera, the career civil service law).

Calls are published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF, the Official Gazette), almost always on Wednesdays, and on TrabajaEn, the portal where you register. From October 14 to 28, 2026, 42 calls came out with 373 jobs (376 vacancies) from 17 agencies. The biggest publishers were Environment and Natural Resources (101 jobs), Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (48), Finance (35), Agriculture (30), the Interior Ministry (25) and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (25).

236 of the 373 jobs (63%) are based in Mexico City. The rest are in the states, led by Oaxaca (11), the State of Mexico (9), and Baja California, Querétaro and Zacatecas (7 each). Many ask you to be willing to travel or to move.

Who can apply

372 of the 373 jobs we reviewed were open public calls: anyone who meets the profile can apply, even if they do not work for the government today. On top of what each call asks for, article 21 of the law requires you to:

• Be a Mexican citizen with full civil rights, or a foreign national whose immigration status allows the job.
• Not have been sentenced to prison for an intentional crime.
• Be fit to perform public service duties.
• Not belong to the clergy or be a minister of any religion.
• Not be barred from public service or have any other legal impediment.

The same law forbids discrimination based on gender, age, disability, health, religion, marital status, ethnic origin or social condition. When candidates are equal, preference goes to people who already work in the same agency (article 32). Recent calls add that you must not have a final sentence for certain serious crimes or be listed as a delinquent alimony debtor.

What education and experience they ask for, and what they pay

Each job asks for a level of education, a list of accepted degrees and years of experience in certain areas. 331 of the 373 jobs (89%) ask for a bachelor's degree (licenciatura): 116 accept people who finished their credits without graduating (pasantes), the other 215 ask for the degree itself. 30 ask for high school (bachillerato), 11 for a technical degree and 1 for middle school.

The degrees that come up most are Law (in 168 jobs), Business Administration (160), Economics (105), Political Science and Public Administration (103) and Accounting (86). Each job accepts several.

Experience goes from 0 to 12 years: 5 jobs ask for none, 86 ask for 1 year, 82 for 2, 79 for 3, 60 for 4 and 61 for 5 or more. This is how pay and experience change with the rank:

Gross monthly pay (before tax) as stated in each call, in Mexican pesos; experience: the median, with the minimum and maximum in brackets. 21 jobs do not state their rank clearly and are not in the table.

Step 1: read the rules of the call

Every call has its rules (bases): the job profile, the dates of each stage, the minimum scores, the documents and how to ask questions. Read them before you register, because the competition follows them. On Kandidatu we summarize what matters for each job and link to the original call in the DOF.

Compare the profile with your own history: your degree must be on the list, and your years of experience must be in the areas the job asks for, not in just any job.

Step 2: register on TrabajaEn

You register only on www.trabajaen.gob.mx and only within the dates of the call. For the jobs we reviewed, registration stays open 14 to 16 days, almost always 15.

On TrabajaEn you create your account and fill in your résumé: education, degree and work history with dates. Then you pick the job and accept its rules. The résumé review is the first stage of the competition and the system does it: it compares your résumé with the profile and, if they match, gives you a participation number (folio). If they do not match, it rejects your folio.

So your TrabajaEn résumé must state clearly the degree, the areas of experience and the years the job asks for. If you are rejected by mistake, some calls let you ask for your folio to be reactivated (25 of the 373 say so), with a very short deadline: sometimes a single business day after registration closes.

Do not change your résumé after you register: at the document check you will be asked for your TrabajaEn résumé exactly as it was. The portal does not open from some countries: we checked from Europe.

Step 3: exams and skills assessments

The stages are set by article 34 of the law's regulations: résumé review, knowledge exams and skills assessments, experience and merit assessment, interview and final decision.

The technical knowledge exam is based on the job's syllabus (temario), which the agency publishes with the call. In 279 of the 373 jobs (75%) there is also a general exam on the federal public administration. Skills assessments usually measure results orientation and teamwork; for management posts they may also measure leadership, negotiation or strategic vision.

If you do not reach the minimum score you are out of the competition (article 32 of the law). In the calls that state it, the usual minimum is 70 out of 100; some ask for 80 on the technical exam. Exams start a few days after registration closes and the whole competition takes several months. Dates and places for each stage are announced on TrabajaEn, at least two business days in advance.

Step 4: document check and experience assessment

If you pass the exams, you are called to have your documents checked, as originals or certified copies. If a document is missing or does not match what you entered on TrabajaEn, you are out. What almost every call asks for:

• Your printed participation folio and your TrabajaEn résumé unchanged, plus a signed résumé with dates, duties and pay.
• Valid official photo ID, birth certificate (or an immigration document that allows you to work in Mexico) and CURP (population registry number).
• A recent tax status certificate (Constancia de Situación Fiscal) from the SAT, with the same RFC tax number as on your résumé.
• Your degree or professional license (cédula), or proof of credits if the job accepts pasantes.
• Proof of experience: contracts, appointment letters, pay slips or your IMSS contribution report (108 calls mention it). Recommendation letters do not count.
• For men, the released military service card (cartilla), in 141 of the 373 jobs.
• A sworn statement and, in 46 jobs, a certificate showing you are not a delinquent alimony debtor. 38 also ask for PDF copies on a non-rewritable disc.

At the same stage your experience and merit are scored: years and type of experience earn points, as do achievements, awards and further studies that you can prove.

Step 5: interview and decision

The candidates with the best scores go on to an interview with the agency's Selection Technical Committee. To be a finalist you usually need at least 70 points in the final score. The committee picks the winner among the finalists; if nobody reaches the minimum, the competition is declared void and the job is advertised again.

If the winner does not show up to start work, the committee may pick the next finalist. People who join at the first entry level are temporary (eventual) career civil servants during their first year (article 4 of the law).

Tips before you register

• Write your TrabajaEn résumé with the same words as the profile: degree, areas of experience and years.
• Gather your tax status certificate, CURP, degree or license and proof of every job now: the time between the exam and the document check can be short.
• Download the technical exam syllabus as soon as you register: exams start a few days after registration closes.
• Keep your folio and check TrabajaEn and your email throughout the competition: that is where dates and places for each stage arrive.
• If your folio is rejected, check the rules to see whether you can ask for reactivation, and by when.