Your steps to apply
Licensed Practical or Vocational Nurse (Mental Health)
Veterans Health Administration · Bedford, Massachusetts · Closes in 80 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: Federal employees - Excepted service, Internal to an agency, The public, Federal employees - Competitive service.
The job is open to the public, but you must be a U.S. citizen, national, or owe allegiance to the U.S. Non-citizens may be hired only when qualified citizens cannot be recruited.
Experience: GS-3 needs no experience beyond the basic requirements. GS-4 needs 6 months as an LPN or LVN, or 1 year of nursing care work in a hospital, clinic, nursing home, or similar facility; GS-5 needs 1 year at the GS-4 level, and GS-6 needs 1 more year at the GS-5 level.
Education: You can qualify with graduation from a state-approved or NLNAC-accredited practical or vocational nursing school. Military health care education accepted by your state licensing body can also count. For GS-4, graduation from an approved school of at least 24 months can qualify. Only education from U.S. Department of Education recognized accredited schools counts, and foreign education needs a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency.
Licenses and certifications:
- Full, active, current, and unrestricted LPN or LVN license in a U.S. state, territory, commonwealth, or the District of Columbia
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 80 days (January 22, 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 you meet the qualifications and questionnaire, and the VA verifies your resume, so it must clearly show your experience because the VA will not assume anything. Missing required forms can result in an ineligible rating (IFFM), and selected applicants may be asked to write narrative responses to KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities).
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:
- Make your resume show each job's title, duties, month and year start and end dates, and hours per week, because the VA checks your answers against it.
- Attach a copy of your LPN or LVN license and your transcript if you use education to qualify.
- If you are a current federal employee, attach a non-award SF-50 that is less than a year old and shows grade and step.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.