Your steps to apply
Medical Support Assistant (Advanced)
Veterans Health Administration · North Aurora, Illinois and 4 more · Closes in 6 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: Internal to an agency, Federal employees - Excepted service, The public, Federal employees - Competitive service.
The job is open to the public, but you must be a U.S. citizen, national, or someone who owes allegiance to the U.S. Current permanent VA employees and current permanent federal employees of other agencies may also apply. The announcement says veterans' preference is waived for this job because of a critical staffing shortage.
Experience: The basic requirement is no experience. For the GS-6 level, you need one year of experience equal to GS-5, such as scheduling medical appointments, entering patient information into computer systems, or giving customer service in a non-VA medical hospital or clinic. Paid or unpaid work counts.
Education: A high school diploma, a GED, or a state proficiency certificate meets the basic education requirement. Education from outside the U.S. must be judged equal to a U.S. program, and schools must be accredited by a U.S. Department of Education-recognized body.
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 6 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: You will be rated on your application materials, your questionnaire answers, and your USA Hire online assessments on competencies such as customer service, teamwork, and reading comprehension. The VA may also run reference checks, and errors or missing information may lower your rating or affect your consideration.
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:
- Use specific details in your resume about your dates, duties, and hours, because the VA will not assume your experience
- Set aside at least 3 hours for the USA Hire assessments and finish within the deadline given after you apply
- Attach a transcript if you plan to qualify through education
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.