What truly makes a candidate or employee stand out from the crowd? Believe it or not, nowadays, people place more importance and values on the soft over the hard skills. Getting a job might require a set of hard, technical skills. But to keep it, you need the soft ones.
Although there are plenty of resources for learning about the federal hiring process and how to format a federal resume, not much is said about what to write on a federal resume. How do you know that you are presenting the best information that each employer is looking for? There are three places on a federal job opportunity announcement (JOA) that you must look in order to find the necessary information that must be demonstrated in your resume. They are presented here in order of value.
The U.S. Government as a leading venture capitalist, wow, is this a joke? This sounds like industrial policy, public intervention, and “picking winners." It is something that European and East Asian governments do, but not us, right? Think again. The U.S. government has actually played a major role in developing many innovations used by our technology giants to reach worldwide dominance.
Have you ever noticed the raised reflective pavement markers that reflect white light at night when you have your headlights on? As a transportation engineer, I see things on the road that many others may not. Some may not know that they reflect red if you are headed the wrong way. (Hopefully, you’ve never seen this in action!)
If you have never experienced successful culture change personally, as a team member in general or as a leader, you may not be prepared or know how to proactively manage your team’s culture. The culture of your team (or department or division or plant or region or whole company) is the engine that drives your team’s success – or its lack of success.
The public relies on civil engineers to ensure that shared structures and systems, from roads and airports to power generation and delivery, are efficient and safe. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for this essential profession is expected to grow by 11 percent by 2026, faster than the 8 percent growth rate projected for the field of engineering overall, and 7 percent job growth outlook for all occupations.
The first thing to consider is a change in mindset. Very little will change, if the mindset that has been driving the imbalance remains unchallenged.
In 2018, flexibility is king. If you want to attract and retain millennials (not to mention Gen Zers), companies need to readdress their office processes and performance management systems.
Most employers will ease you into the new role to allow you to get a better feel for your position, your co-workers, and the overall culture in general.
“Every time we are asked to help, we need to flip through the rolodex of our experiences to get to an idea of what we can offer…”
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