With over half a million views on our Job News and Advice page this year, we’re pleased to see that readers are engaged with our content and find it useful as they seek out their own VA careers. In fact, there were some posts this year that really clicked (pun intended) with you.
For you regular readers, consider this a refresher on some of our most popular (and most important) topics, including the advice we offer applicants. For new readers, this is your chance to explore what it means to work at VA, whether it’s jobs that are available or the help we offer in getting your foot in the door.
Getting started at VA
When you’re starting your search for a career here at VA, a good question to ask is “Where do you fit in the General Schedule (GS)?” The GS is how the federal government ranks qualifications for a position, and finding a way to translate a GS score to your education, training, or even military experience is a great first step.
Speaking of translation, we took some time this year helping Veterans and transitioning military personnel get comfortable “Speaking civilian: Taking military jargon off of your resume.” That’s because we know how hard it is to shake off the lingo of your military career and explain it to civilian recruiters.
At the same time, we encouraged you to “Follow these 4 steps for federal resume success,” which stressed the importance of how a tailored resume only improves your chances of getting noticed by a VA recruiter.
We also wanted to help you “Make your answers excel with our VA interview primer,” so you could have a better understanding of what our team is looking for when you sit down with them. Since VA uses the PAR method of questions, we’re looking for answers that describe the problem, action, and result of a specific situation from your career.
Careers that count
Many readers learned how they can “Provide important support as a VA contract specialist,” the folks who make strategic and innovative business decisions to help us acquire vital goods and services for our facilities.
Others may want to put some specialized training to good use and “Make an impact with a VA Police career.” Police jobs are always popular with Veterans and transitioning military personnel, but we welcome anyone who wants to help keep Veterans safe.
You might also be inclined to “Create and innovate as a healthcare engineer at VA,” who work to design, construct, improve, and operate over 1,300 health care facilities—including 171 VA medical centers and 1,126 outpatient-only sites of care of varying complexity—around the country.
Helping you find the right path
If you’re not sure where you might fit in at VA, or are looking for a fresh start, we have resources available for you, too.
During the year, we wanted to help you “Find your best fit with our Technical Career Field (TCF) programs,” which span a wide variety of career fields and offer experience in positions that are critical to safe and consistent operations at our facilities. For those of us who want to be of service to Veterans but aren’t medical professionals, the TCF program is a great path to an engaging and meaningful career with VA.
For those in school, we urged you to “Apply to these influential VA scholarship programs now,” as the Health Professional Scholarship Program (HPSP) awards scholarships to students receiving education or training in a health care services discipline, and the Vet Center Scholarship Program assists individuals pursuing graduate degrees in mental health roles.
Eyes on the future
By investing in new technologies, VA not only provides better care, but better prospects for caregivers to engage in cutting-edge breakthroughs. However, none of this would be possible without the people throughout VA who work to create solutions, helping us show the world how “Innovation at VA takes care—and careers—to new heights.”
Work at VA
As we look ahead to the new year, we hope you’ll enjoy this advice and make us part of your journey to a job at VA.
- STAY informed with more Job News and Advice.
- LEARN about our mission of service.
- EXPLORE the top 10 reasons to work at VA.
- SEARCH for an opportunity near you.
