The Unofficial ALJ Exam Timeline Thread

[71stretch]

We do not know yet whether the register will be extended. Whether you will land on another cert before it expires, whenever that is, depends on the number of positions being filled, the number of cities covered by those locations, your score and your GAL -- lots of factors. If your score is high, and your GAL covers a lot of cities, your chances of landing on a subsequent cert are better. If you are limiting yourself to cities within your region, that may reduce your chances of being on a cert, but that depends on your score as well as the number of offices in your region, and the number of those offices that are on any given cert.

[tricia]

Maxlaw, thanks for doing this. This is my first time for making the cert, so I never paid too much attention to the last part of the chart before, but now that I'm looking at it, I see that scheduling of ODAR interviews has been two to two and a half months before the offers. I'm not sure what the time period has been between the scheduling of interviews and the actual interviews. If the interviews this time really are March 7 to 18, as predicted, does anyone have a guess as to when we will find out if we are getting offers?

[notajudgeyet]

My guess - by April 1.

[71stretch]

The offers will come sooner this time than last time.. far fewer interviews, fewer references on the reference forms all points to a shorter process. If interviews end around the 18th, then maybe not by the first, but by the 15th of April would be very likely.

[topher]

First class is scheduled to start June 6, so working backwards...report date May 23 ...Offer dates no later than first week of May, most likely last week of April would be my guess.

[415orlando]

Ok. I'm really confused. Did I miss the application period for an ALJ exam, or was the last one in 2009?

[71stretch]

You did not miss an application period. The current cert was pulled from the register that was begun in 2007 and refreshed with new applications twice since, the last in 2009.

[415orlando]

Thanks, Observer, for the clarification.

[Favor]

Does anyone know when the ALJ vacancies will open again?

PLM

[71stretch]

The current register, we think, expires 10/31/11, but can be extended, as it was last year. My best guess is that they will extend it, at least for a short period, and we won't see applications being taken in calendar year 2011. Part of that guess is due to the possibility that they might be working on changes to the process, in light of the President's memo from a long time ago now about changing the ways federal employess are screened/selected. The other part is just the time and money it takes to work through another 1100+ applications they could expect.

But, that's just my guess.

[hopeful92]

Will OPM be notifying those on the current cert that there will be a delay of what to expect or is all still up in the air?

[Justice-Dude]

Apr 18, 2011 21:05:13 GMT -5 hopeful92 said:

Will OPM be notifying those on the current cert that there will be a delay of what to expect or is all still up in the air?

I suspect everything is on hold until the budget/debt limit issues are resolved. If the budget is uncertain, so are jobs, including the new ALJ selections. SSA might decide to let the 700,000+ case backlog grow until the national outcry demands action.

[chinook]

The board is slow right now so this might be a good time for people (particularly those new on the board) to spend some time and read some of the earlier posts here. There is significant information here on the process of becoming an ALJ. It helps if you know who does what. For example OPM tests you and creates the register. When an agency needs people it requests a cert from OPM. OPM creates the cert and sends it to the agency. OPM does not notify you that you are on a cert. The agency may or may not notify you. SSA always notifies you if you are on the cert but remember they are not the only agency -- SSA may be the biggest but there are other agencies. I know of one small cert to a non-SSA agency where the individuals were not notified and nobody was hired off the cert.

Now to answer your real question: will SSA notify those on the cert what is going on? Maybe, maybe not. I am not sure they know what is going on right now.

[hopeful92]

thanks for the clarification. I guess we need to wait and see.

[DeeBoss]

Does anybody know how to get a copy of the ALJ application so I can get some idea of what types of questions are involved?

[71stretch]

Take a look in here:

005754d.netsolhost.com/faljc7.html

for some helpful info, assuming the process doesn't change radically next time around.

[maxlaw]

Bumped for those who haven't looked at the thread before; the first post has the timeline. Last year's large cert notification was at almost the same time, so don't be surprised if this year follows a similar time frame.

[Buffalogal]

Thanks Maxlaw.

[beatlebeachboy]

Hi All. I'm new to the Board and all of this information is very informative, and rather dispiriting. But thank you all anyway for your making this site available.

[judgeallan]

I applied during the March 5-15, 2013 window and the application manager "Assessments" section notes that while the assessment questionnaire was found complete on 3/12/13, the "External Assessment" has a due date of 4/24/15, i.e. over two years later. My "Application processing status" is also complete as of 3/12/13, which I guess just means that I got all of the paperwork in. Will the "External Assessment" really be years in duration? That doesn't seem to track the timelines of prior recruitment processes.