By: Dharm Patel Applying to any federal job is done through the United States' federal government job portal, USAJOBS. Before you get started, you will need to create an account on USAJOBs and apply through the main application portal. Federal jobs are available for STEM graduates in a variety of agencies, including the National Institutes of Hearth (NIH: read our previous blog post!), Food & Drug Administation (FDA), Department of Defense (DOD) , Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and more. Generally, graduate students and post-docs in the biomedical sciences will have the requisite experience for research positions, research administration positions, program analyst positions, and other non-bench but research related positions (side note: bench jobs do exist in government research labs in various agencies). Applying to federal government jobs is very different from applying to jobs in the private sector. There are strict rules on citizenship (almost all require US citizenship), required years of experience in the field, pay scale/GS level (General Service), geographic location, and specific agency requirements. From gogovernment.org, the General Schedule (GS) is the predominant pay scale for federal employees, especially employees in professional, technical, administrative or clerical positions. The system consists of 15 grades, from GS-1, the lowest level, to GS-15, the highest level. There are also 10 steps within each grade. The grade level assigned to a position determines the pay level for that job. Grade levels: GS-3 or GS-4: Typically internships or student jobs GS-5 to GS-7: Most entry-level positions GS-8 to GS-12: Mid-level positions GS-13 to GS-15: Top-level supervisory positions Even before writing a federal resume, one must take time to diligently read the job announcement. In it, you will find important/required information like duties and qualifications, how to apply (some jobs have assessment questions), how you will be evaluated, level and amount of experience, education, and training. You should only consider applying if you fit ALL of the requirements. Unlike a private sector job, the GS-level and pay is based on the education, training, etc; so if you don’t have it, you cannot be hired at that GS-level and that job. Additionally, the time that a federal job is posted is generally 1-2 weeks, so you must be organized and fastidious in applying. Below is an example of a current job posting for a molecular biologist in Montgomery County, MD searched by typing in “national institutes of health” on USAJOBs. Note a few things about this posting: applicant must be a citizen, it is a GS-12 position, fulltime position in MD, and they require current experience (at least 1 year) in molecular biology techniques as well as cellular techniques. So in the resume, you should address each of the summary points and duties in the posting, demonstrate your competency in each of those, and outline the length of time of your experience. 
A federal job is one spent in civil service to the country. In general, the advantages of a federal job are generous benefits, solid pay commensurate with market value, and relative job security. These are hard to come by in the private sector, even in the best of times. However, there are several cons of a federal job: they are hard to land, challenging because of perceived bureaucracy (red tape), inefficiencies and waste, and involve a lengthy and complicated hiring process. There is also the challenges of a revolving door of senior leadership which affect agency priorities, and ultimately, the notion that making a difference in the lives of American citizens is a marathon, not a spring (i.e. it takes a long time to get things approved, done, implemented, etc.). Additional benefits of a federal job can be found here. Stay tuned for the next blog post on how to craft a federal resume!
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