Your steps to apply
General Attorney (Open Continuous)
Consumer Product Safety Commission · Washington, District of Columbia · Closes in 122 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: Federal employees - Excepted service, The public.
Only U.S. citizens, nationals, or people who owe allegiance to the United States may apply. Current federal employees in the excepted service may also apply, and no prior federal experience is required.
Experience: You need 52 weeks of specialized experience, meaning work that gave you the knowledge to do this job. At GS-12 it must include legal research and drafting legal documents. At GS-13 you must also give legal advice in person or present arguments, working independently on complex questions. At GS-14 the drafting must cover at least one area such as administrative, ethics, procurement, fiscal, privacy, or labor law.
Education: You need a J.D. or LL.B. law degree and active membership in good standing with a state, territory, D.C., or Puerto Rico bar. For GS-12 you also need two years as a practicing attorney, or one year plus a second law degree (LL.M.). For GS-13 you need three years as a practicing attorney, and for GS-14 you need four years.
Licenses and certifications:
- Active bar membership in good standing in a U.S. state, territory, D.C., or Puerto Rico
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 122 days (March 5, until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time).
The announcement may be changed to close early without notice, and the first referral cut-off date is November 13, 2026. Applications received after that date are referred at regular intervals as openings occur.
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: Your application is first checked for minimum qualifications. Qualified applicants then take USA Hire online assessments on 12 competencies, such as reasoning, decision making, and integrity, and answer an application questionnaire. A subject matter expert then reviews your resume, and applicants can be removed for overstating experience or cheating on an assessment.
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, then the final offer with your start date.
Tips for this job:
- Attach your law school transcripts with your application, since they are required even though unofficial copies are accepted.
- Make your resume show dates, weekly hours, duties, and grade for each job, because the agency will not assume experience from job titles.
- Keep your resume to two pages, since only the first two pages will be reviewed.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.