Your steps to apply

Consumer Safety Inspector
Food Safety and Inspection Service · Alamogordo, New Mexico · Closes tomorrow

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: Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL), The public.

This job is open to the public. You must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, or owe allegiance to the U.S. Career transition candidates (current or former federal employees whose job was eliminated) get selection priority.

Experience: At GS-5, you need at least 52 weeks of work with regulated food or other products for human consumption, such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, or pharmaceuticals. Higher grades require more experience, including one more year at the level below and skills such as independent work and knowledge of meat and poultry inspection laws.

Education: A full 4-year bachelor's degree with major study, or at least 24 semester hours in agricultural, biological, or physical sciences, food technology, epidemiology, home economics, pharmacy, engineering, or nutrition. At GS-5, you can combine education with experience, but only education beyond the first 60 semester hours counts. Higher grades can use directly related graduate study.

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 (2 pages maximum) with personal details, education, and work experience including dates, hours per week, titles, and grades Unofficial college transcripts if you use education to qualify; official copies needed before starting DD-214 if claiming veterans' preference DD-214 plus SF-15 proof if claiming 10-point veterans' preference Proof of eligibility, SF-50, and recent performance appraisal if claiming career transition priority

3 Apply on USAJOBS

Closes tomorrow (November 4, 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 are rated on your online Assessment Questionnaire and your resume. The ratings are based on seven competencies: attention to detail, decision making, dependability, flexibility, interpersonal skills, resilience, and self management. Veterans get selection priority within each rating category, and your resume must support your questionnaire answers or your rating may be lowered.

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 show the specific food or product experience and dates, hours per week, and duties, and it cannot exceed two pages or you may be removed.
If you use education to qualify, upload your transcripts with the application and make sure the school is accredited.
Include examples like sampling, identifying product problems, writing reports, and discussing findings with others, since the rules ask for these skills.

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