Your steps to apply
Staff Psychologist
Veterans Health Administration · Shreveport, Louisiana · Closes in 6 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: Federal employees - Competitive service, The public, Federal employees - Excepted service, Internal to an agency.
The job is open to the public, current permanent VA Nationwide employees, other federal employees, and VHA health professions trainees. The announcement says you must be a U.S. citizen to apply.
Experience: GS-11 needs no experience beyond the basic requirements. GS-12 needs 1 year of experience as a professional psychologist at the GS-11 level, and GS-13 needs 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 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 fits the job. School psychology degrees are not eligible. You also need a professional psychology internship accredited by APA or CPA. Other options include a re-specialization program with an APA or CPA internship, or a doctoral degree awarded from 1951 to 1978 from a regionally accredited school.
Licenses and certifications:
- Full, current and unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level in a U.S. state, territory, commonwealth or D.C.
- American Board of Professional Psychology board certification, only if your internship was not accredited
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 qualifications, using your application, resume and questionnaire. The announcement says experience must be described clearly and specifically under duties, because the agency does not assume experience. Missing or unclear 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, then the final offer with your start date.
Tips for this job:
- Make sure your resume lists average hours per week for every job, or your application may be affected.
- Describe your psychotherapy, assessment and treatment work in detail, showing the GS-12 and GS-13 skills listed in the announcement.
- If you use education to qualify, send transcripts from schools accredited by a body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.