Your steps to apply
Biological Science Technician
Agricultural Research Service · Urbana, Illinois · Closes in 9 days
Sign in to save your progress. Free, with just your email. You can read all the steps without an account.
1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: The public, Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL).
The job is open to the public, but you must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. national. No prior federal experience is required. Veterans' preference and CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP priority may apply to eligible applicants.
Experience: You need one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-05 to qualify for GS-06, and one year comparable to GS-06 to qualify for GS-07. The experience must involve lab, field, or greenhouse research, such as collecting samples, operating scientific equipment, keeping research records, preparing lab materials, or performing plant disease inoculations. Paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work, counts.
Education: Completing at least one full year of graduate education toward a master's or equivalent degree can qualify you for GS-06. Related fields include Biology, Plant Pathology, Plant Sciences, Plant Biology, Plant Genetics, and Agronomy. You can also combine graduate education with specialized experience.
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 in 9 days (November 12, 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: Applicants are placed in Best Qualified, Well Qualified, or Qualified categories based on the quality of their experience and on attention to detail, flexibility, integrity/honesty, interpersonal skills, learning, reading comprehension, self-management, and teamwork. Your application questionnaire, resume, and USA Hire assessments are all used. Overstating your qualifications or cheating on an assessment can get you removed from consideration.
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:
- Keep your resume to 2 pages or less, because applicants who go over are removed from consideration.
- For each job, list dates, hours per week, title, series, and grade so reviewers can match your experience to the GS-06 or GS-07 requirements.
- If you use graduate education to qualify, upload your transcripts, and for foreign schools include proof of accreditation.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.