Your steps to apply
Psychologist
Veterans Health Administration · San Antonio, Texas · Closes in 177 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: The public, Federal employees - Competitive service, Federal employees - Excepted service, Internal to an agency.
Open to the public and to current federal employees, including current permanent VA employees in the competitive and excepted services. Applicants must be U.S. citizens, nationals, or people who owe allegiance to the U.S.
Experience: GS-11 entry level needs no experience beyond the basic requirements. GS-12 needs at least 1 year of professional psychology experience at the GS-11 level, and GS-13 needs at least 2 years, with at least 1 year at the GS-12 level; postdoctoral experience counts if it came after the doctoral degree.
Education: You need a doctoral degree in psychology from a program accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS), or the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), with a specialty that matches the job. Other paths include a doctoral degree in another psychology area plus an APA or CPA accredited re-specialization program, or a doctoral degree from 1951 to 1978 from a regionally accredited school with a mainly psychological dissertation. You also need a completed APA or CPA accredited psychology internship, with some listed exceptions.
Licenses and certifications:
- Full, current, and unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level 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 177 days (April 29, 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 listed qualifications. Your application, resume, CV, and supporting documents will be verified, and VA may run reference checks; missing or unclear information can lead to an ineligible rating or a lower overall rating.
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 or CV list exact dates, hours per week, and specific clinical duties, because VA verifies your experience.
- Send transcripts and proof of an APA or CPA accredited internship, since education must come from accredited programs.
- Complete the full online questionnaire and upload every required document before the closing time on the announcement.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.