Your steps to apply
Medical Support Assistant
Veterans Health Administration · Lyons, New Jersey · Closes in 5 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: The public.
The job is open to the public. You must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, or someone who owes allegiance to the U.S. The announcement also says you must be a U.S. citizen to apply.
Experience: No experience is needed for GS-3. For GS-4, you need one year of experience equal to GS-3 work. For GS-5, you need one year of experience equal to GS-4 work. The experience should show medical support or office work in a health setting, and the announcement says to describe it clearly and specifically.
Education: A high school diploma, GED, or state proficiency certificate meets the basic requirement. For GS-4, one year of education above high school can be used instead of experience. For GS-5, two years of education above high school can be used instead of experience. Education must come from schools accredited by a body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Foreign education must be judged equal to a U.S. program by a credential evaluation service, and you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript.
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 5 days (November 2, 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 how well you meet the qualifications, based on your online questionnaire. Your resume and supporting documents will be verified, and the agency may check references. Errors or missing required information may lower your rating or make you ineligible.
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 (Other), then the final offer with your start date.
Tips for this job:
- Send a transcript if you use education to qualify, and a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency if your education is from outside the U.S.
- If you claim veterans' preference, select it in the questionnaire and send your DD-214 and, if needed, an SF-15 with proof.
- Describe your past work with specific dates and duties, since the agency will verify everything and will not assume experience. Submit the full package by 11:59 PM ET on 11/02/2026.
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