Your steps to apply

Attorney Advisor
Patent and Trademark Office · Alexandria, Virginia · Closes in 8 days

1 Check you can apply
2 Resume and documents
3 Apply on USAJOBS
4 After you apply

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1 Check you can apply You are here

Who can apply: The public.

This job is open to the public, but only U.S. citizens and nationals can apply. Applicants must also register for Selective Service if required.

Experience: You need one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience at the next lower grade level than this job (GS-15), such as giving legal advice on patent or trademark law, researching statutes and case law, or writing executive-level legal analyses. You also need 4 years of professional legal experience after your law degree, which can include judicial clerkships, trademark examination, litigation, or counseling; paid and unpaid work, including volunteer work, counts.

Education: You must have a Master of Laws (LL.M.), Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), or Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from an ABA-accredited law school. Education cannot replace experience at this grade is not stated, so the announcement does not say education can replace experience.

Licenses and certifications:

Active membership in good standing with the bar of a state, D.C., Puerto Rico, or a U.S. territory court

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.

Resume ready: dates, hours per week, duties Resume of no more than two pages, showing month/year dates and hours worked per week for each job Two to three professional or academic references, one of whom must be your current supervisor Law school transcripts (unofficial copies accepted at first) Proof of active bar membership, such as a bar card, certificate of good standing, or bar number on your resume Veterans' preference documents (such as SF-15 or DD-214), if you claim it Foreign education equivalency evaluation letter, if your degree is from outside the U.S. Possible follow-up documents after closing, such as SF-50 or performance appraisal, if you are a current or former federal employee

3 Apply on USAJOBS

Closes in 8 days (November 11, until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time).

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 will be rated on your resume, your questionnaire answers, and USA Hire assessments covering competencies such as attention to detail, decision making, reasoning, and teamwork. Overstating your experience or cheating on an assessment can get you removed from consideration.

Apply on USAJOBS ↗

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, a security clearance (Other), then the final offer with your start date.

Tips for this job:

Your resume must be two pages or less and show month/year dates and hours per week for each job.
Upload your law school transcripts and proof of bar membership, because both are required.
Make sure every claim in your questionnaire answers is backed up by your resume, or your rating may drop.

Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.