Your steps to apply
Staff Psychologist
Veterans Health Administration · Shreveport, Louisiana · Closes in 6 days
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: Federal employees - Competitive service, The public, Internal to an agency, Federal employees - Excepted service.
You must be a U.S. citizen. The job is open to the public, and the agency also considers current permanent VA employees, federal employees of other agencies, and VHA health professions trainees. Veterans' preference is part of the referral order.
Experience: For GS-11, no experience is needed beyond the basic requirements. For GS-12, you need at least 1 year of experience as a professional psychologist at the GS-11 level. For GS-13, you need at least 2 years as a professional psychologist, with at least 1 year at the GS-12 level.
Education: You need a doctoral degree in psychology from an APA, PCSAS, or CPA accredited program, with a specialty that matches the job. You also need an internship from an APA or CPA accredited program that matches the job. Other paths exist for older degrees (awarded 1951 to 1978) and for applicants who completed a re-specialization program or a non-accredited internship with American Board of Professional Psychology certification.
Licenses and certifications:
- Full, current, and unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level in a U.S. state, territory, or D.C. (temporary graduate psychologist appointment possible for unlicensed applicants, up to 2 years, under supervision)
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 how well you meet the listed qualifications, based on your application, resume, and the occupational questionnaire. Your experience will be verified, and reference checks may be done. Missing required information or unclear descriptions can lead to an ineligible rating or a lower score.
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:
- Your resume must list job title, duties, start and end dates (month/year), and average hours per week for each job.
- Describe your experience clearly so it shows the GS level it matches and the therapies you have used.
- If you use education to qualify, include transcripts and internship documentation with your application.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.