Veterans' Preference

[chris]

southerner said:

This is more puzzling. It would seem that vets preference is then used on 2 occasions: when the AR (competencies) was scored per zugswang's initial comments and yet again at the "final" point total for addition of the 5 or 10 points. I can see one or the other, but not both occasions. Use of the vets preference twice seems to be undue advantage. Is there another explanation? Some of OPM's secrecy is d**n annoying.

I think it's just poor wording. They aren't going to use it twice.

[chieftain]

I can't think of a way that vets' preference could have been applied objectively before the first cut, unless there were two candidates who they felt were in a statistical tie, with being a vet and one not. My sense is that it is only really going to count the second time around. I have read a couple of posts on the old board from 10 point vets who didn't make the first cut, so that alone didn't get you over the hump.

[workdrone]

I think we're all just reading tea leaves at this point, since you can interpret OPM's writing many different ways. But it is an intellectually interesting exercise.

[jandea]

I have several questions for anyone who may have an opinion.

1) What if someone submitted an application for ALJ by the May 9th cut-off and got an e-mail from OPM stating, "Your Accomplishment Record (AR) score was not among the highest group of all eligible applicants." and were assigned a rating of zero. Does that mean that the person got no credit for veteran status?

2) What if someone got an e-mail from OPM stating "Your Accomplishment Record (AR) score was not among the highest group of all eligible applicants." but were assigned a score of 3 or 5 rather than 0. Does that mean they the person had veterans status but were still not selected for further consideration via WD/SI.

3) What if someone got an e-mail from OPM that did not mention anything about a ranking or score but stated only that they left off their bar number. Does that mean that they met all of the qualifications EXCEPT giving their bar number and that, but for the missing bar number, would have made the first cut? What if that person had veterans status?

[privateatty]

workdrone says:
"I think we're all just reading tea leaves at this point, since you can interpret OPM's writing many different ways. But it is an intellectually interesting exercise."

The AR has the VP status on the front page: 5, 10 or 30 points, with of course 10 being the max that can be applied per CFR at the tail end of your final score. The Question is how OPM views the AR with the 5, 10 or 30 point designation. I don't think points per se are added on front end, but from everything I've seen (and it ain't much compared to most folks on this Board) its a factor. I suspect the "front end" would factor into a tie breaker situation per a certificate being sent up.