Your steps to apply

General Engineer
Naval Sea Systems Command · Naval Business Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · Closes in 5 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.

Open to U.S. citizens only, as the agency clarified. Applicants must also be determined suitable for federal employment.

Experience: You need at least 1 year of specialized experience, meaning core work in your field, at or equivalent to the NH-03 pay band (GS-13 equivalent) in federal service. Private or public sector experience also counts if you tested and evaluated the design or development of ship or submarine propulsion systems.

Education: You can qualify with a professional engineering degree from an ABET-accredited program, or with at least 60 semester hours of engineering and science courses that meet OPM standards. Other options include current EI, EIT or PE registration, passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, or a science bachelor's degree plus at least 1 year of professional engineering 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.

Resume ready: dates, hours per week, duties Complete resume of no more than 2 pages showing employer, dates by month and year, and hours per week if part-time For federal jobs, pay plan, series and grade on your resume Copies of any licenses, certificates or professional memberships you claim Official or unofficial transcripts or a course list if you use education to qualify DD-214 if you claim veterans' preference, even though it does not apply under this hiring authority Statement of service on command letterhead if you are on active duty

3 Apply on USAJOBS

Closes in 5 days (November 9, 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: Your resume will be rated on problem solving, quality assurance, systems testing and evaluation, and engineering project management. Claims you cannot support, or missing or unclear information, can lead to a lower rating or being found not qualified; the selecting official may also interview candidates.

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 (Secret), then the final offer with your start date.

Tips for this job:

Your resume must show dates by month and year, and hours per week if you did not work full time.
If you use education to qualify, include transcripts or a course list showing engineering coursework.
Describe your hands-on propulsion system testing work clearly, since resumes are rated only on what they show.

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