Federal Job Search

Getting Back to Work After Vacation: 8 Ideas to Ease Your Stress

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While most of us like going on vacation, many of us dread going back to work. Visions of hundreds of emails to go through, projects dumped on our desks during our break, and just returning to place you don’t love in the first place, are dancing in our heads. In fact, those visions can keep us from taking time off at all! According to one recent study, more than 50% of Americans leave vacation time on the table. Don’t be one of them!

Here are 8 ways to make returning to work less stressful:

Preparing before you leave, helps the return. Be sure to change your voice mail and set your email to out-of-office auto-response. This lets people know that you’re out and hopefully avoids nasty messages about why you haven’t returned their calls! Make a list of pending projects too so you know what needs to be addressed when you return without thinking about it.

  1. Give yourself a day at home before returning to work. Having a day to go through mail (well, some of us still get mail), unpack, do your laundry, and just get organized will help you feel better when you walk through that work door.
  2. Consider returning to work midweek. Airfare is usually cheaper midweek than during the weekend; even better, this will mean your first week back is a short one!
  3. Minimize commitments on your first day back. If possible, try not to schedule meetings and deadlines for your first day back. This will help you ease back into things.
  4. Commit to spending no more than 30 minutes reviewing your emails on your return. Some things will have taken care of themselves during your absence. Some things don’t matter anymore. Focus on triaging your email box. There’s no rule that says you must read every email in chronological order—you could sort them by sender, topic, etc. And, if you’re willing, consider spending a few minutes eyeballing your email before you walk into the office so you know what you’re facing.
  5. Bring a small souvenir to work or go to lunch at a place that serves food that reminds you of your vacation. This is an easy way to remind yourself of your vacation.
  6. Don’t gloat or brag. While you may still be excited about your vacations and others may ask about it, save your photos and detailed stories for your friends during lunch.
  7. Treat yourself your first week back. Perhaps you can schedule lunch with a friend or go to the gym or go see a movie that’s on your list. If you do something fun, that will help ease that transition. Be sure to leave work on time too.

Veterans’ Appointment Authorities; Beyond Preference and Points

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While you may be familiar with veterans’ preference and points, there are other hiring eligibilities for which you may be eligible. In order to be considered for some of these hiring authorities, be sure to check-off your eligibility in your USAJOBS Profile, mark the eligibility(ies) under which you wish be considered when you apply, and include your eligibility(ies) on your resume. While you are not entitled to be hired under these authorities, you can let your network know that you are eligible. Here are some of the more common veterans’ hiring authorities:

• Veterans Recruitment Appointment (VRA). VRA is a non-competitive appointment authority; this means you can be appointed without competition if you qualified. Qualifications include: serving during a war or being in receipt of a campaign badge; OR are a disabled veteran; OR are in receipt of an Armed Forces Service Medal for participation in a military operation; OR have separated within the past 3 years; AND separated under honorable conditions. VRA can be used for appointments of GS-11 or below.

• 30% or More Compensably Disabled Veteran: this is also a non-competitive appointment authority. To be eligible, you must have a service-connected disability rating of at least 30% from the Department of Veterans Affairs; OR be retired from active military service with a 30% or more disability rating. You do not get “extra credit” for having more than a 30% disability rating. There is no grade level restriction for appointments made under this authority.

• Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA). VEOA applies only when the agency is filling a permanent, competitive service position and has decided to solicit candidates from outside its own workforce. It allows eligible veterans and preference eligibles to apply to announcements that would otherwise be open to so called “status” candidates, i.e., “current competitive service employees and certain prior employees who have earned competitive status.” To qualify, your latest discharge must be under honorable conditions AND you must be a preference eligible OR a veteran who has completed 3 or more years of active duty. You receive no points when you apply under VEOA, nor does VEOA entitle you to be selected ahead of non-preference eligible applicants. Again, there is no grade restriction to this appointment authority.

• Disabled Veterans Enrolled in a VA Training Program. Disabled veterans eligible for training under the VA vocational rehabilitation program may enroll for training or work experience at an agency under the terms of an agreement between the agency and VA. While enrolled in the VA program, the veteran is not a Federal employee for most purposes but is a beneficiary of the VA.

The above is not intended to be a complete discussion of these authorities. In all cases, final determinations of eligibility for these and other appointment authorities is the responsibility of the agency Human Resources (HR) office. Applicants should be sure to include readable copies of their DD-214 and SF-15 (if applicable) when applying for federal positions.

When Veterans’ Preference Doesn’t Apply

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I’m a Veteran, So Why Don’t I Get “Points?” Veterans’ preference, as most of your know, is used in federal hiring. However, not all veterans receive “points” and points to do not apply in all federal hiring situations. Let’s look a couple of situations where veterans’ preference does not count:

  • Veterans’ preference is not applicable for internal promotions, reassignments, and other personnel actions regarding existing federal employees. Veterans preference points apply only in announcements that are open to all citizens / all sources / delegated examining. If you are applying for positions open to status applicants or are being reassigned from one position to another, there is no consideration of veterans’ preference.
  • If you are applying for a position using your Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) eligibility, there is no consideration of veterans’ preference points. When you apply under VEOA, you are applying as a “status” applicant, and as noted above, veterans’ preference points are not considered for status postings.
  • You are not eligible for veterans’ preference points. Former military members at O-4 and above do not receive “points” unless they have been given a disability rating by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  • You received a dishonorable discharge. Only veterans discharged or released from active duty in the armed forces under honorable conditions are eligible for veterans’ preference. This means you must have an honorable or general discharge.
  • You are a “retired member of the armed forces.” Unless you have a disability rating OR you retired below the rank of major or its equivalent, you are not eligible for points.
  • You are applying for a position in the excepted, rather than the competitive service. Not all positions in the excepted service apply veterans’ preference points (although many do). If you are applying for a position in the excepted service that is exempt from 5 CFR 302, veterans preference does not apply.
  • You did not service during certain designated periods. If you do NOT meet the following, you are eligible for points (unless you have a service connected disability or received a Purple Heart):
    – For more than 180 consecutive days, other than for training, any part of which occurred during the period beginning September 11, 2001, and ending on August 31, 2010, the last day of Operation Iraqi Freedom, OR
    – During the Gulf War, between August 2, 1990 and January 2, 1992, OR
    – For more than 180 consecutive days, other than for training, any part of which occurred after January 31, 1955 and before October 15, 1976, OR
    – Between April 28, 1952 and July 1, 1955 OR
    – In a war, campaign or expedition for which a campaign medal or badge has been authorized.
  • You have 0 Point Preference. If you were released or discharged from a period of active duty from the armed forces, after August 29, 2008, by reason of being the only surviving child in a family in which the father or mother or one or more siblings:
    1. Served in the armed forces, and
    2. Was killed, died as a result of wounds, accident, or disease, is in a captured or missing in action status, or is permanently 100 percent disabled or hospitalized on a continuing basis (and is not employed gainfully because of the disability or hospitalization), where;
    3. The death, status, or disability did not result from the intentional misconduct or willful neglect of the parent or sibling and was not incurred during a period of unauthorized absence.

Still not sure? Use the Department of Labor’s Veteran’s Preference Advisor which can be found at: http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/vets/vetpref/mservice.htm.

How to Email About a Job – 7 Best Practices

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The days of using snail mail for job search are pretty much over. Most recruiters and hiring managers received hundreds of emails each day from potential job applicants. How can you may your email stand out?

  1. Use a business appropriate email address and account. This means an email address with your name (and no birth year); it also means Gmail or, if you have one, a personal domain. If you do not have a Gmail account, you may want to establish one—even if you just use it for your job search. Make sure your “display name” is appropriate as well. If you are still using AOL, that’s fine—just do not use it for your job search. And don’t use your work email either.
  2. Use a precise subject line; do not leave the subject line blank or simply say “resume” or “job application.” Without clarity, the recipient of your email may delete it without reading or it may end up in spam. You can use a subject line of Budget Manager position / announcement 1234 / Jerome Brown or something similar.
  3. Label your attachments properly. Again, any attachments you include should be labeled for clarity. If you are attaching a resume, your document name should not just say “resume;” include your name. Consider naming your resume Angelina Lopez-Budget Manager Resume; that way, the reader knows what they are opening. And, make it a real attachment, not Dropbox, Google Docs, or other document sharing service. If you do have Word, use PDF.
  4. Use a standard, easy-to-read font. Most employers use Microsoft Word and Outlook. Make sure whatever you are using is truly compatible. Fonts should be standard (Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, etc., and text should be black. Do not use “stationery” or other backgrounds in your email.
  5. Create a signature block for your email. Your signature block should contain your name, email, and phone. You can also include active links to your professional social media accounts such as LinkedIn. Be sure to customize your LinkedIn URL.
  6. Keep your message short. Most people do not read long emails so keep your message to a paragraph or two (perhaps between 90-120 words) and get to the point as quickly as possible.
  7. Review, review, and review again. Ask someone else to proof your email (and attachments, if you’re using them) for you. Spelling and grammar mistakes are as problematic in an email as they are in traditional letters.