Your steps to apply

Research Agricultural Economist
Economic Research Service · Kansas City, Missouri · Closes in 10 days

1 Check you can apply
2 Resume and documents
3 Apply on USAJOBS
4 After you apply

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, Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL).

Any U.S. citizen or U.S. national can apply under Direct Hire Authority. Veterans' preference does not apply to this vacancy.

Experience: You need one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-11. Specialized experience means work directly related to this job, such as applying advanced economic research methods and quantitative analysis, doing complex research on food market trends or consumer food choices, and managing large econometric or simulation analysis.

Education: A degree in economics that includes at least 21 semester hours of economics and 3 semester hours of statistics, accounting, or calculus. You can also combine education and experience, using courses equivalent to an economics major plus more experience or education. A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in a related field, such as Agricultural Economics or Applied Economics, can also qualify you, alone or with specialized experience.

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.

Resume ready: dates, hours per week, duties Resume of no more than 2 pages with personal information, education, and work experience Resume must show hours worked per week, dates of employment, and job title, series, and grade Unofficial college transcripts if you use education to qualify, with course hours shown Evidence of accreditation for any foreign education DD-214 if you claim veterans' preference, although it does not apply to this vacancy CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP proof and SF-50 forms if you have priority eligibility

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: Applicants are not rated or ranked numerically. Those who meet the minimum qualifications are placed in the Eligible category, based on the resume, the online Assessment Questionnaire, and any required assessments, with the resume needing to support every answer. Inflated or inaccurate information can lower your score or make you ineligible.

Apply on USAJOBS ↗

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:

Your resume must show hours per week and exact dates for each job, or it may not count.
Keep your resume to 2 pages or less, since longer resumes are removed from consideration.
If you use your economics degree to qualify, upload transcripts that show the economics and statistics course hours.

Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.