USAjobs.gov

There has been a lot of activity from the Obama Administration this week in the name of innovation and best practices.

There was a double-post on the White House Blog by Federal CTO Todd Park and the Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel about two new initiatives that would seem to be related, but it is not clear how. The first was a prelude to White House’s Plans To Announce Presidential Innovation Fellows and the second was from VanRoekel touting the progress of the Digital Strategy Progress. The latter featured the use of the term “building blocks.” Keep reading →

When USAJOBS — the online portal for federal jobs — shut down for a few days in October to launch it’s new website, government job seekers and recruiters had high expectations for the potential features and functionality. With fresh updates that included the ability to upload several resumes, determine an applicant’s hiring eligibility and conduct a more advanced search, users were excited to test out “USAJOBS 3.0.”

Unfortunately, the honeymoon period was short-lived. Users were faced with several frustrating issues and, at times, applications were not being successfully delivered to the agencies — partially due to the unprecedented number of visitors that bogged down servers and hindered optimal site functionality. Keep reading →

As Federal Computer Week‘s Alice Lipowicz notes in her ongoing coverage of the troubled relaunch of USAJobs.gov, “It is unusual to see a federal IT story that generates the kind of strong emotions that the USAJobs 3.0 launch has done in the past several weeks.”

Officials at the Office of Personnel Management have come under withering attack for failing to anticipate the initial surge in user demand or the need for greater system and help desk capacity that followed. Keep reading →

Updated: Efforts by the Office of Personnel Management to rectify technical problems with its new USAJobs site may have made matters worse, according to a Federal Computer Week report, as agency officials continue to work around the clock to remedy the customer complaints.

Users trying to apply for jobs on the USAJobs search website have continued to encounter extended timeouts, lost data and incorrect results since the site was relaunched last week. Keep reading →

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) predicted the chances that Congress will put together anything longer lasting that a string of continuing resolutions after the current continuing funding resolution runs out Nov. 18 are “fairly remote.”

Speaking at a conference on federal technology and innovation in Washington today, Connolly expressed concern about the intractable state of the federal budget debate. Keep reading →

The federal government’s centralized job site, USAJobs.gov, is in the final stages of a sweeping overhaul that will reduce a chronic complaint by applicants–the need to re-enter profile data–and give federal manages a better picture of potential candidates.

When it debuts officially October 13, the new version of USAJobs.gov will also represent a significant step forward in data security and integration, according to Angela Bailey, associate director of employee services, at the Office of Personnel Management, which maintains the jobs site. Keep reading →


What benefit does LinkedIn have for federal government employers looking to hire and government employees looking to be hired, either in the private sector or in government?

Plenty. Keep reading →