Applying for a federal job is a lot like applying for college.  The applications are tedious pieces of work all looking for insightful, succinct responses to the same question repeated multiple times: why are you the best person for the position available?

But unlike most colleges, federal agencies don't let people use a "common application."  Each agency employs its own unique forms and electronic processes, forcing people applying for different federal jobs to insert the same information about themselves over and over again in different formats.  And according to recent studies, this lack of consistency in the application process is costing agencies applicants.

The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), an independent agency which reviews personnel actions and decisions in government, recently released three studies about the government's hiring processes.  According to the studies, one-third of people hired by federal agencies admitted to not applying for other jobs in the government because it was "too time consuming."  With the average federal job application taking between one and three hours to complete, many would-be applicants simply submitted one or two applications to the nation's largest employer and called it quits.  

Not surprisingly, the main complaint from study participants was having to write and re-write descriptions of their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to fit varying questions. Apparently, even the most vain of applicants fatigue during this process. Similarly, one out of every four new hires stated they did not apply to other jobs because they would have needed to rewrite or reformat their résumé.  This issue has not gone unnoticed.

"Work is evolving in the white collar realm, and we [the government] need people with skills that other organizations also need," said John Crum, the acting director for policy and evaluation at the Merit Systems Protection Board.  "We need to compete.  If we don't make it easier to apply, we will become less competitive and lose people."

To really understand what people were complaining about, I tried applying for jobs at a few, heretofore unnamed, Federal agencies.  After re-writing my resume and answering a ton of seemingly irrelevant questions about my personality in high school, I wanted to give up.  Then I remembered I was only pretending to apply for a Federal job.

Each agency did not always have different applications.  Up until the early 1990s, all agencies had applicants fill out an SF171, a standard form about four double-sided pages in length.  

But according to the Office of Personnel Management, the SF171 proved that "one size does not fit all." After all, the KSAs for an engineer are different from the KSAs for a lawyer.  Why should they use the same form?  

After SF171, federal agencies got the power to create their own unique applications.

While offices individualized their forms with good intent, the outcome has been tedious paperwork that turns off a large amount of prospective employees.  MSPB testified in front of the Senate in early May about the situation, who is looking to simplify the process.

Director Crum suggests that federal agencies not centralize their applications again, but save the forms' details for a further round in the application process.

"Do we need the college transcripts of everyone that's applying?  Or just the people we're really interested in?" Crum asked.  "Go on the basis of the resume, and only get more information from the 50 people you're really interested in.  Why get this information from all 500?"

OhMyGov! couldn't agree more.