Your steps to apply
Licensed Practical Nurse (Psychiatry)
Veterans Health Administration · Brockton, Massachusetts · Closes in 10 days
Sign in to save your progress. Free, with just your email. You can read all the steps without an account.
1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: The public, Internal to an agency.
You must be a U.S. citizen. The clarification says the job is open to all U.S. citizens, current permanent VA employees, and current permanent federal employees of other agencies. Veterans' preference does not apply to this job.
Experience: At the entry level (GS-3), no experience is needed beyond the basic requirements. To reach GS-4, you need six months of LPN or LVN experience, or one year of nursing care work in a hospital, clinic, nursing home, or similar facility; GS-5 needs one year at GS-4, and GS-6 needs one more year at GS-5.
Education: You can qualify with graduation from a practical or vocational nursing school approved by a state agency or accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission when you finished. Military health training accepted by your state licensing body can also count, as can a license granted by a state that does not require school graduation.
Licenses and certifications:
- Active, full, current, and unrestricted license as a Graduate Licensed Practical or Vocational Nurse in a U.S. state, territory, Puerto Rico, or DC
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 10 days (November 13, 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 how well your application meets the qualifications, using an online questionnaire. The VA verifies your resume and documents, and errors or missing information can lower your rating or make you ineligible. Eligible applicants are reviewed in this order: current permanent VA employees at the facility, other VA employees, then all other applicants.
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:
- Your resume must show month and year dates, hours per week, and each employer's full address, or you may be rated ineligible.
- Attach transcripts if you rely on school to qualify, and attach your active nursing license.
- Describe your nursing duties in specific detail, because the VA will not assume anything about your experience.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.