An Open Letter to President Obama: To Create Jobs, Make the Federal Application Easier

Dear President Obama:

On Monday, August 15, when you were on the hustings in Iowa claiming that we needed to fix government, my husband and I found out just how "fixed" government is.

My husband had applied for three open federal positions, and was interviewed for none of them. For two of those positions, he was told that while he was rated as "qualified," others were rated as "well qualified," and these individuals were therefore the ones being considered.

Now, I will admit to a certain bias where my husband is concerned, (although I am sure that both he and our children will tell you that I mince no words when I think he could do something my way, er, uh, better than the way he is doing it), but I saw the job description and I know what he can do. When it comes to technical skills, he was more than qualified. What had to have made the difference between "qualified" and "well qualified"? I strongly suspect those who were given this latter designation were already employed in the federal government, knew the federal reporting systems, and could check off those skills on their applications. In other words, a "well qualified" person is an experienced federal paper pusher.

With regard to the last of the three applications, he was told that his application was kicked out because he had failed to attach his transcript, and had, instead, attached his resume twice. Now, I quote from a post on GovernmentExecutive.com about a memo former OMB Director Peter Orszag sent out regarding streamlining the federal hiring process: Agencies also are required to revise the job descriptions for the 10 most common positions they hire for and rewrite them in plain language; put in place plans to inform candidates through USAJobs about the status of their applications throughout the entire hiring process; and demonstrate that they have involved hiring managers in every step of the process. (Bold & italics mine.)

At no time was my husband informed through this so-called "hiring process" that his transcript was not attached - his application was simply thrown out as "incomplete." So much for communication during the hiring process.

That process, rather than being less opaque and more transparent has become more impossible to navigate than ever. Between the two of us, we put in 40 hours (the equivalent of a standard government-employee work week) and $21+ on a book to try to twist, turn, manipulate, and force a square peg into a government round hole (seems like it's a rabbit hole) of an application process. There were a whole lot more productive things I could have done with the time I wasted.

A brief scan of the usajobs.com web page suggests that there are over 10,000 federal jobs open. Now, this may only represent less than 1/10 of 1% of the 13.9 million unemployed Americans, but unemployment stats are like the difference between a recession and a depression - if it's happening to someone else, it's a recession; if it's happening to you, it's a depression. We're depressed.

President Obama, you announced that you will make a major speech in September to lay out a major jobs programs. Here's a thought: start by cleaning up your own house to make federal jobs more accessible to qualified, non-federal applicants - strip out the specifics in the application that are related to federal reporting systems and paperwork, concentrate on the skills that an applicant brings to the job, and put real people instead of a computer back into the selection and review process. Oh, and by the way, jobs in rural areas? Government employment has historically been a door opener for careers for people from low population sections of the country (the ones, by the way, that did not turn out for you in large numbers in 2008).

Better yet, maybe you need first-hand experience in what it takes to fill out a federal job application. If things continue the way they are with others as in this household, you'll get your chance in November, 2012.