aaagghhh

[gary]

Sept 2, 2015 13:53:57 GMT -5 donk said:

I hear you. Or I feel like I'm the last one picked for the kickball team. Or not picked at all.... 

I'm feeling like I haven't been picked for the team, but have been chosen to be the ball.

[saaao]

For perspective, I know an ALJ who had to wait seven years before he was selected off the old register. He was wide open, had a reasonable score, and was an extremely well regarded insider who had done every job from decision writer to HOD, excelling at every position. I have been on every cert since the first, and the only reason I am taking this seriously is I am up for cities I very badly would like to go to and I don't want to get caught flat footed with only two weeks notice. However the best advice I have heard is to put this to the back of your mind. At this point everyone who has been passed might not be anything but a victim of the complicated logistics at play. If I don't get selected this round, I am looking forward to not worrying about this until the next round that I show up, which due to upcoming budgets fights will probably not be until after January.

[bendy]

How can you be on a cert for 7 years? Will they just continue to extend the date out for the cert (beyond Dec. 2015)? I assume that, if that's the case, then they add more people to the pool from the additional testing they are doing now? Will they do more interviewsbefore they hire again, or will they start hiring again from what they have and then interview more people in a year or two? 

[funkyodar]

Bendy, you are getting cert confused with register. The register will not die in dec 2015. It will, if history holds, be extended repeatedly.

Yes, others will be added thru testing like they are doing now, or maybe even a refresh in the future, but as long as you are on the register and the hiring agency hasn't three struck you, you will continue to get on certs for cities in your GAL. Even 7 years from now (unless by then they do trash the entire register and redo the whole process like they did this time).

As to interviews, everytime the agency asks for a cert they will interview anyone on it (thats reachable) that they have not previoulsy interviewed.  You get one shot at the agency interview.  Even if you are finally hired in 2020, if its off this register, you had your one interview the first time you were on a cert.

[bendy]

Thanks Funky. So, let me see if I understand... This Cert basically dies when they stop making calls this time? Then, when they are ready to start hiring again, there's a new Cert and they interview whoever else is reachable. We keep showing up on certs as long as they are looking to hire for our GAL and we don't have 3 strikes. I know, I'm probably still missing something. 

[luckylady2]

There's quite a bit more to it - the certs may or may not die. We're not sure under this newer system (March 2013 applications). It seems that SSA may be carrying some certs over a couple rounds of hiring, but now that OPM is adding new people to the Register, SSA may retire all of them and ask OPM for new ones. The problem with that is that OPM takes longer than SSA would like to send new city-certs over. AND we're running up against the end of a fiscal year (Sept 30) with no budget passed for the the next one - ie at this point nothing can be planned past Sept 30.

Welcome to the Board! There's a lot of information in the FAQ section at the top of the General section and the search function may also help answer some of your questions.

[luckylady2]

Oh - and its certs now, one for each city, not one big Cert -- the way it was before 2013

[privateatty]

This thread would not be complete without a very relevant citation: p. 68 and the advent of the Propmaster in 2008.

Yes, aspirants, Propmaster has been at this Game for seven years (at least--for that is his time on the Board). So when I see a collective argh, think of the Prop and think too of the late great Warren Zevon:

“Well, I met a girl in West Hollywood
I ain't naming names
She really worked me over good
She was just like Jesse James
She really worked me over good
She was a credit to her gender
She put me through some changes, Lord
Sort of like a Waring blender

Poor, poor pitiful me
Poor, poor pitiful me
These young girls won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe is me”

[Deleted]

I think the vast majority of ALJ's on here will tell you that their wait time from initial application on USAJobs to actual hire date was easily 1.5 to 2.0 years on average. And 98% of that time was spent waiting in the painfully slow silence from OPM/SSA.
So if you are still waiting in the silence from OPM/SSA and you are still 2 years or less in your waiting, then, shrug, shake it out, and understand you are in amongst many many others now present and those others who can tell you, "been there, done that".
It truly is SNAFU.

[cheesy]

It sure would be nice to redo that interview I hosed up 18 months ago.

[71stretch]

Sept 2, 2015 15:11:27 GMT -5 bendy said:

How can you be on a cert for 7 years? Will they just continue to extend the date out for the cert (beyond Dec. 2015)? I assume that, if that's the case, then they add more people to the pool from the additional testing they are doing now? Will they do more interviews before they hire again, or will they start hiring again from what they have and then interview more people in a year or two? 

Don't confuse certificate and register. One can be on register(s) for years. The certs are drawn from the register. This person was on several certs in that seven years, and was finally selected. Those who are successful in the testing that's going on now will be added to the register when they are scored, and the register will be extended past December 2015. Certs will be requested as often as funding allows, as they are lagging behind their goals. They will interview those people who appear on certs who have not interviewed already, and will hire as they have been doing. A " refresh" of the register, in which new applications are taken, won't happen for at least another year.