Your steps to apply
Dental Assistant
Veterans Health Administration · Canandaigua, New York · Closes in 2 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: The public.
The job is open to the public, and the announcement says you must be a U.S. citizen, national, or someone who owes allegiance to the U.S. to apply. It also says non-citizens may be appointed only when qualified citizens cannot be recruited.
Experience: At the basic level, you need six months of experience that shows you can do the work or are familiar with it. GS-4 needs 1 year of experience at the next lower level, and GS-6 needs 1 year of experience at the GS-5 level that shows core dental assisting skills.
Education: Completing a 1-year dental assistant program accredited by the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) can qualify you instead of experience. Experience and education can be combined. For GS-4, 2 years of education above high school that includes a CODA-accredited dental assistant program can qualify, and for GS-5, a full 4-year course of study that includes or is supplemented by a CODA dental assistant program can qualify.
Licenses and certifications:
- Certification of radiologic competence for X-ray work, or a temporary graduate dental assistant appointment if not yet certified
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 2 days (November 5, 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 how well you meet the qualifications, based on your online questionnaire, resume, and supporting documents. The VA will verify your information, does not assume experience, and says errors or missing items may affect your 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:
- Describe your experience clearly and specifically, with dates and hours per week, because the VA will not assume anything.
- If you use education to qualify, send transcripts from a school accredited by a U.S. Department of Education-recognized body.
- Check the document list for items that apply to you, such as DD-214 or disability letters, and submit everything by 11:59 PM ET on 11/05/2026.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.