Federal employees who end up considering a move to the private sector (for whatever reason) will need to be aware that the process for finding a job differs greatly between federal employment and elsewhere.
http://cgi.hrsjobs.com/foxweb.exe/hrsaffi1?FEDWEEK
If you are seeking a federal job, you don’t have many places in which to look. First, you can look at your own agency’s job postings. Many times these postings are limited to agency employees and are listed on your agency’s website or posted on agency bulletin boards. Second you can go to http://cgi.hrsjobs.com/foxweb.exe/hrsaffi1?FEDWEEK and search the listing of jobs from all federal agencies. Agencies are required to post jobs on this site if they are seeking applicants from outside of their own agency. Over the last several months, the number of postings on this site have fluctuated between 12,000 and 15,000. You could also visit individual agency sites to look for opportunities if you chose to do so.
It’s not nearly as easy to locate a job outside of the federal government; the potential sources of job announcements easily go into the thousands. Though you do not have to check out every source, you will have to spend quite a bit more time than if you were looking for a federal job.
You can look in the want ads. This is the traditional first source for job seekers. Sunday newspapers can have from 12 to 120 pages of job advertisements, depending on the economy (today it is a lot closer to the 12 than it is to the 120). Unfortunately, the want ads are also available to anyone with the price of a Sunday paper and the time needed to review the lists of jobs. As a rule of thumb, the better the economy, the more ads you will find in the paper and the less competition you will face should you choose to apply for one of the jobs you find.
You can search on the Internet. There are myriads of sites that contain job listings that vary from universal sites such as http://www.monster.com to individual company and recruiter sites. Similar to looking through the want ads, a downside to Internet searching is that anyone with Internet access and some time can locate all of the job opportunities you can.
You can “network” with others to find possible jobs. Networking takes more time than other methods and will yield fewer specific job openings, but you will face far less competition for the openings you do locate. Networking consists of making connections with people you know to people who may have information about possible job openings.
You will need a new set of skills to search for a non-federal job. Once you develop them you will be far more likely to find success.
** John Grobe, President of Federal Career Experts, is the contributing editor of FEDweek’s The Federal Employees Career Transition Handbook and an expert in employment and job search issues. He provides career advising services to individual employees. John can be reached at (708) 771-2445 or johngrob@ripco.com. **