Dear Bureaupat,

I’m interested in applying for a job with the federal government, but the whole application procedure is a bit daunting. I’m used to just submitting a resume and cover letter for private sector jobs, so I’m hung up on the “Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities” questions. What is this about? How seriously do they take this? Do you have any tips for me? I’m not much of a writer so I’m really intimidated.

Dear Job-Seeker,

The Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities questions are known in govspeak as KSAs, and your answers to these questions are supposed to prove that you are indeed qualified for the advertised jobs. Trust me, you aren’t the only one who finds them intimidating.

In fact, KSAs will soon be a thing of the past. The Office of Personnel Management will ask agencies in September to stop requiring the time-consuming essays and instead rely on applicant resumes, just like is done in much of the rest of the world. The elimination of KSAs is part of a broader initiative by the Obama administration to overhaul the federal government’s hiring process.

KSAs became part of the obstacle course the government uses to select its employees in the 1980s as a replacement for the old civil service exams. A few agencies have already stopped using them, including the Army and the U.S. Customs Service. Others hold fast and think they are a very effective way to weed out the unqualified and the unmotivated applicants.

For the moment, KSAs (and their equivalent for senior executive positions, the ECQs) are still a reality for the vast majority of federal jobs and they are taken seriously by HR officials. Above all else, it is important that your answers be error free, so be sure you use spell check and ask a trusted friend to proofread if you aren’t confident in your own abilities to catch common errors.

As for content, rely on your resume. Your challenge is to insert everything that would be in your normal private-sector resume somewhere in concise and coherent answers to the questions.

In the excellent book "How to Land a High-Paying Federal Job", Lily Whiteman offers this general advice:

• Position your "best" credential in the first answer.
• Don’t leave any question blank.
• If you need to repeat a credential in more than on essay, try to emphasize different angles each time.
• Emphasize recent achievements.
• Mention your degrees, certifications, and training courses as well as work experience.

Good luck in your job search!

The only,

- Bureaupat

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