General Schedule (GS) jobs

[AFCS_Actuator]

Are any of the spouses here General Schedule types? I would like information about how one gets hired as a GS-"x" and what kind of jobs are out there. Thanks.

[Toro]

My wife is an RN and had a GS job as a nurse at Lakenheath. I don't remember the office that put out the job openings (I want to say family support center), but she applied through them and got a job fairly easily. There are all kinds of GS jobs - if you see a civilian who works in an AF building (not AAFES or DeCA), they're probably a GS. When I think GS, I primarily think clerical clerical kinds of jobs.

[Guest Stealth]

All GS jobs on base are organized and administered through the Civilian Personnel Office. Like Toro said, they pretty much have openings in most everything. Civilians that work on base fall into 4 categories for the most part.

Civilian Personnel (GS)

NAF employees (Non-appropriated funds)

AAFES employees

Contractors

If she wants info on civilian personnel, have her go to the Civilian Personnel Office. They have a listing of the jobs available and how to get into the government work force. They are usually pretty friendly and willing to give you good advice. Also, all DOD job openings (opportunities) are posted on USAjobs.com and also some jobs get posted on AFPC website.

GS jobs can be good and bad. It al depends on the boss and the base.

[AFCS_Actuator]

Thanks for the info. I had a personnel officer tell me that if my wife was a GS employee at base X and then we had to PCS to base Y she is guaranteed another job at base Y. Is there any truth to that?

[Toro]

No. She would have a decent chance, but there would be no guarantee.

[Guest CuriousGeorge]

No, a job is not guaranteed, but chances are good. As a GS employee, I've been able to get a job at each new base, but not immediately. I waited 5 months and applied for 4 jobs when we PCSd to our most recent base. As a GS 09, it was difficult to find a job comparable to the job I had at the previous base.

The good news, I had to take a lower GS job here due to lack of jobs, but they still pay me the GS 9 pay.

[Guest skylover_wife]

USAJobs also has an option for subscribers to receive emails about job openings. Everyday, I receive an email with 30 job postings, and you can choose what fields/careers are applicable to you and specific locations (states) where you're looking. This can be helpful when you're looking at moving because you can already get a sense of what's available at the next stop.

[Trogdor]

Reviving this thread because I wanted to validate some of this info since it is three years old (used search function and couldnt find anything else).

Just graduated UPT and my new wife is looking for GS jobs at our next base (Hurlburt/Eglin). She has done the whole USA jobs thing and now she is just waiting to see if she gets picked up for the jobs she applied for at our new base. She currently works for a civilian company, and I am just trying to help her as much as possible with the military/GS stuff. I was just wondering if the Civilian Personel Office (if it is still called that) is a good place for us to go to research even more job opportunities and/or follow up on her current job applications. Also, should she call the civilian office at our new base or can the people at our current base help her find more job opportunities?

I know a lot of this we can go find out for ourselves but I thought I would ask here first for some first hand experience, especially since I am completly ignorant, as is she, on the how the whole GS system works. Thanks for any info.

[Toro]

I don't have any specific info to answer your question, but you may want to read the AFPC Civilian Employment page. It has general information on GS jobs and civilian hire.

I would also recommended looking at USA Jobs (mentioned above), which is were specific job openings are posted by base. Type Hurlburt or Eglin into the search and it will display all the openings (you can refine the search to a specfic field).

[LJ Driver]

The CPO here at Hurlburt or Eglin would know best about the current situation. Not everything gets posted to USAjobs, especially if people already have someone in mind. CPO at the base you want to work can usually read between the lines a little better because they are right here. Also, there are a cubic crapload of contractor jobs in this area that are not GS. There are tons of research companies and lots of companies that are trying to get AFSOC attention, so don't limit your search to GS only. Once you are here in the area, you'll be able to network better and see what's available. Keep in mind that most civilian contract companies (and also many GS positions at Hurlburt) require a minimum secret, somtimes a TS, so be prepared for that.

[Guest ukwxbelle]

Thanks for the info. I had a personnel officer tell me that if my wife was a GS employee at base X and then we had to PCS to base Y she is guaranteed another job at base Y. Is there any truth to that?

All potential hires are considered on experience, education (if necessary), and their preference points among other job specfic things. Preference points are gained in many ways: previous GS experience (basically an internal hire), Veteran's preference (10 pts for V w/disabilities, 5pts for standard V), and then there are spouse preference points. It is true what was said earlier that she's not guarenteed a job when you move, but she has greater potential to land a comparable job because of her total points. And if all other things are equal between two candidates, they'd probably hire the spouse over a non-spouse.

I'm currently AD but separating so I've become quite familiar with this whole thing. One thing to warn you about usajobs- I've noticed right now that it seems that every job is open everywhere and has several vacancies. I'm sure this not the case, I think their trying stock-pile applicants for when positions become available. For instance, they show something like 500 openings at Vance . . . I'm pretty sure that's like the whole civilian workforce there! Best advice would be to find a couple jobs that seem appealing, then check the availability with the CPO. I also learned a lot about the civilian jobs by picking the brain of our commander's secretary whose been a spouse and civilian employee for about 10 years now.

Another thing- you'll find that many job listings will not list their GS position and pay scale rather a pay band and somthing like YE-1351-02. They are transitioning to a new pay system (I forget its name) in hopes of eliminating sub-par employees and people that die/retire in their jobs. There is a payband that is associated with the job listing and you'll get a salary some where in that band based on your experience/qualifications. They still have the yearly raises, but they are now more performance driven not automatic compensation. They older employees hate it b/c they can't act like they've earned tenure and are now required to produce or it will hurt them. It really aides the up-and-coming go-getters that will do great things for the government.

That's what I've got, I hope that helps.

[Guest ATB]

My wife is an Optometrist, and we're heading to UPT sometime in FY09. She's a civilian, and would like to work on base if we can find a vacancy. I've searched USAJobs and the AFPC civilian employment website and all I could find were listings for Health Technicians who work in the Optometrist's office.

In the event we can't find something, or if we can't find something right away, I was wondering whether anyone's spouse, who has a professional degree (doctor, lawyer, etc) ever had a problem finding a job in their profession on base as a civilian employee?

[Guest Kawen]

My wife is an Optometrist, and we're heading to UPT sometime in FY09. She's a civilian, and would like to work on base if we can find a vacancy. I've searched USAJobs and the AFPC civilian employment website and all I could find were listings for Health Technicians who work in the Optometrist's office.

In the event we can't find something, or if we can't find something right away, I was wondering whether anyone's spouse, who has a professional degree (doctor, lawyer, etc) ever had a problem finding a job in their profession on base as a civilian employee?

I'm a pharmacist - my husband is stationed at CHS. The medical group here is pretty large, but they only have 2 pharmacists- one is a major and the other is a civilian (since the enlisted who function as the technicians have a lot of privileges that aren't present in the civilian world due to the state laws - they have way fewer pharmacists than a civilian clinic of that size would have). At any rate, I was interested in working for them, but they weren't hiring when I was looking. Thankfully, there are lots of other places to work- though it would have been nice to have all the holidays off and a set 8-4:30 schedule every day. If we ever get stationed OCONUS it will of course be absolutely necessary to work as a GS since my license won't be valid in other countries, so we'll see how that goes!