Don’t just post a vacancy announcement to USAJOBS and sit back waiting for highly qualified applicants to contact you, the Merit Systems Protection Board said recently in an article calling on agencies to be proactive in their use of the federal government’s job-posting database by mining the site for resumes.
It said to search the site by keyword to identify specific qualifications as well as seek out combinations of characteristics, for example, most recent job title or description, schools attended, location, education level, or whether an applicant is seeking permanent or temporary work — and once candidates are identified, invite them by email to apply.
The list of qualifications used to search the site can be saved and used again later, or USAJOBS could be told to notify a hiring official once a matching candidate submits a resume.
Another way to get more out of the site is to advertise a vacancy on the USAJOBS homepage under the “featured job” or “featured employer” areas, being careful to work in some positive marketing about the agency.
