Your steps to apply
Administrative Assistant (OA)
U.S. Census Bureau · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and 5 more · Closes tomorrow
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL), The public.
The job is open to the public. You must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or owe allegiance to the United States. Federal employees whose job was eliminated under CTAP or ICTAP may get selection priority.
Experience: You need one year of experience at a level equal to GS-5 in federal service. It can include scheduling, ordering supplies, customer service, typing and editing, routing mail, reviewing time records, arranging travel, and using office software. Paid and unpaid work, including volunteer work, counts. You must also type at least 40 words per minute with 3 or fewer errors on a five-minute test.
Education: Education cannot replace experience at this grade level.
Experience can be paid or unpaid, volunteer work included: if it matches the duties, it counts. The full rules are in the announcement.
2 Resume and documents
Write a federal resume for this job. For each job you held, give the month and year you started and ended, your hours per week and what you did, using the words of the experience the announcement asks for. Many announcements accept resumes of up to 2 pages: check this one.
3 Apply on USAJOBS
Closes tomorrow (November 5, until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time).
The announcement closes once 150 applications are received, which may happen before the official closing date.
You sign in to USAJOBS with a Login.gov account, answer the questionnaire and upload your documents, then you submit. Answer the questionnaire honestly: your resume must show what you claim.
How they rate you: You are rated on how well you meet the qualifications and on a USA Hire online assessment of 13 general skills, which must meet a cut score. Qualified applicants are placed in gold, silver or bronze categories, and gold applicants may be referred to the hiring manager for an interview. Your resume must support your questionnaire answers or your score may drop, and overstating qualifications or cheating can get you removed.
4 After you apply
In USAJOBS, under Applications, you can see where your application stands: received, reviewed, referred to the hiring manager or not, then selected or not. It can take a few weeks.
For the interview, prepare three examples with the STAR method: the Situation, the Task, what you did (Action) and the Result.
If they choose you: a tentative offer, then a background check, then the final offer with your start date.
Tips for this job:
- Keep your resume to two pages or less and list dates (mm/yy) and hours per week for each job, or it may be marked incomplete.
- Watch for the email with your USA Hire link after you apply, and finish the assessment within 48 hours.
- Only include education documents if you use education to qualify, and leave your Social Security number, date of birth and photos off your resume.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.