Your steps to apply

Foreign Affairs Specialist
National Nuclear Security Administration · Washington, District of Columbia · Closes in 2 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.

Anyone from the public may apply, but you must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. national, or owe allegiance to the U.S.

Experience: You need at least 1 year of specialized experience at the next lower level, GS-12 or NQ-02. Specialized experience means work that supports national security and foreign policy goals through international engagement, coordination with foreign and domestic partners, and program execution.

Education: You may qualify with at least 24 semester hours in fields such as international relations, political science, economics, history, or law, or 12 hours in one of those fields plus 12 hours in statistics or quantitative methods. You can also combine education and experience, or use four years of appropriate experience. Education must come from a school accredited by a U.S. Department of Education-recognized accrediting body, and foreign education needs an official evaluation.

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 duties, employer name and address, start and end dates, hours per week, and salary Transcripts (unofficial accepted at first; official required if selected) if you use education to qualify Written evaluation of any foreign education Veterans' preference documents if applicable, such as DD-214 Career Transition Assistance Program documents if applicable Optional cover letter for information not covered in your resume

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 your resume, your answers to the application questionnaire, and a USA Hire online assessment that covers 16 competencies, including project management, stakeholder management, and partnering. You must meet or exceed the assessment cut score, and overstating your experience or cheating 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 (Q Access Authorization), then the final offer with your start date.

Tips for this job:

Keep your resume to two pages, because only the first two pages are reviewed.
Show the hours per week and salary for each job, along with start and end dates.
If you receive the USA Hire link after the announcement closes, you must finish the assessment within 48 hours.

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