Clarification from the agency

Current IRS Internal employees who are recent graduates and have completed a degree or certificate from a qualifying education institution within the previous 2 years or 6 years for Veterans

WHAT DOES AN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST (CUSTOMER SUPPORT) DO? An Information Technology (IT) Specialist working in customer support provides technical support to customers who need advice, assistance, and training in applying hardware and software systems. Much of this work involves resolving difficult and complex problems, some unique to a single customer or organization, while others are more repetitive or similar to issues that have been handled and resolved before within the organizational component. As an IT Specialist (Customer Support) you will find that each day brings many new and exciting challenges, you will be exposed to the latest in information technology, and be recognized as an expert in your field.

The IRS Internal Recent Graduates Program affords a developmental opportunity to IRS employees, who have graduated within the previous 2 years from a qualifying educational institution or program. If selected, you will be placed in a developmental position as an IT Specialist (Customer Support) GS-2210 5-11 in the Information Technology Division.

In order to successfully complete the Recent Graduates Program, you must complete 1 year in the position, a minimum of at least 40 hours of interactive training, and demonstration of successful job performance. If or any reason do not successfully complete the program you will be returned to the previous grade of the same or similar position you previously held within IRS prior to being selected for the Recent Graduates Program.

The following are the duties of this position at the GS-12. You will have the opportunity to learn to perform these duties and will receive training to help you grow in this developmental position.
As an Information Technology Specialist (Customer Support) you will:

• Coordinates, oversees or performs activities involving troubleshooting, installing, testing, and securing existing, new or updated voice or data communications equipment. Evaluates installations to ensure compliance and conformity to regulations, standards, and security compliance, technical and procedural requirements.
• Provides advice and assistance to customers on a large local problem to troubleshoot complex problems; and provides support in a manner that minimizes interruptions in customers’ ability to carry out critical business activities.
• Develops contingency plans to ensure continuous availability and accessibility of network resources in the event of emergencies.
• Identifies and analyzes critical problems and issues to determine nature of requirements, specifications, resources, constraints, security, and coordinates controls to ensure integrity of communication systems design and implementation.
• Leads the local implementation of national projects to evaluate and report on new tools and trends in the customer support field such as browser-based and speech-enabled customer support services; recommends purchase of new tools to enhance the delivery of customer support services. Leads the implementation of national projects, reviews, validates, and standardizes problem resolutions for inclusion in the problem management database.
• Leads the implementation of large scale projects such as: upgrading from hubs to switches; inventory control, equipment replacement, consolidation of regional networks; and redesigning network infrastructure in response to changes in network technologies or network requirements, such as VoIP taking into consideration telecommunications policies, regulations, standards, and requirements.
• Serves as senior customer technical analyst with responsibility for projects, resolves the most complex customer problems; e.g., re-imaging customer workstations, correcting other workstations affected by similar problems, configuring hubs, switches, and routers, and troubleshooting interconnectivity and inter-operability of equipment and software requirements including operating systems. Serves as the primary contact with respect to major equipment installations, moves, maintenance, and acceptance testing of new, untried, computer equipment involving multiple sites.
• Provides desk side guidance, documentation, and training on system, products, new technology and updated standard operating procedures (SOPs) to eliminate recurring errors, accomplish tasks or projects and where appropriate, provides recommendations for improvements.

If you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform all these duties, and will receive training to help you grow in this position
WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OTHER IRS CAREERS? If you want to find out more about IRS careers, visit us on the web at www.jobs.irs.gov  

Conditions of employment

• Refer to "Other Information".
• Click "Print Preview" to review the entire announcement before applying.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National
• IRS Employees with Career or Career Conditional Appointments.

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Qualifications

You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement. 

GS-05 LEVEL: You must have 3 years of IT related general experience, 1 of which was at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-04 grade level in the Federal service.This experience must include Information Technology (IT) related experience that demonstrates each of the following four competencies: 1) Attention to Detail, 2) Customer Service, 3) Oral Communication and 4) Problem Solving.  IT related experience for this position includes: Basic knowledge of IT processing functions to understand the stages to automate a work process. Experience must have also included work with clients and customers to assess and/or address their needs, and provide information or assistance relative to the products or services; communicate effectively both orally and in writing; and, identify and resolve problems, determine relevant information, demonstrate using sound judgment, and making recommendations. Experience may have been gained in work such as computer operator or assistant, computer sales representative, program analyst or other positions that required the use or adaptation of computer programs and systems. OR

You may substitute education for general experience as follows: a Bachelor's or higher degree at an accredited college or university in computer science, engineering, information science, information systems management, mathematics, operations research, statistics, or technology management or degree that provided a minimum of 24 semester hours in one or more of the fields identified above and required the development or adaptation of applications, systems or networks. OR

You may qualify by a combination of experience and education. Options for qualifying based on a combination will be identified in the online questions.

GS-07 LEVEL: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-5 grade level in the Federal service: This experience must include Information Technology (IT) related experience that demonstrates each of the following four competencies: 1) Attention to Detail, 2) Customer Service, 3) Oral Communication and 4) Problem Solving. Specialized experience for this position includes: Interviewing subject-matter personnel to get facts regarding work processes, and synthesizing the resulting data into charts showing information flow; operating computer consoles where this involved choosing from among various procedures in responding to machine commands or unscheduled halts; scheduling the sequence of programs to be processed by computers where alternatives had to be weighed with a view to production efficiency; preparing documentation on cost/benefit studies where this involved summarizing the material and organizing it in a logical fashion; working directly with customers in obtaining information needed to establish or change accounts; translating detailed logical steps developed by others into language codes that computers accept where this required understanding of procedures and limitations appropriate to use of a programming language OR One year of graduate education at an accredited college or university in computer science, engineering, information science, information systems management, mathematics, operations research, statistics or technology management or in one or more of the fields identified above and required the development or adaption of applications, systems or networks. OR Superior Academic Achievement may be met by having a Bachelor’s degree, with one of the following: A GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale for all completed undergraduate courses or those completed in the last 2 years of study, or a GPA of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale for all courses in the major field of study or those courses in the major completed in the last 2 years of study, or rank in the upper one third of the class in the college, university, or major subdivision, or membership in a national honor society recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies. OR At least 1 year of combined graduate education and experience as defined in paragraphs above.

GS-09 LEVEL: You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-7 grade level in the Federal service. This experience must include Information Technology (IT) related experience that demonstrates each of the following four competencies: 1) Attention to Detail, 2) Customer Service, 3) Oral Communication and 4) Problem Solving. Specialized experience for this position includes: Experience in an IT field or work where the primary concern was the subject matter of the IT application. The assignments must have shown completion of the following, or the equivalent: Analysis of the interrelationships of pertinent components of the system; planning the sequence of actions necessary to accomplish the assignment; personal responsibility for at least a segment of the overall project. OR Master's or equivalent graduate degree or two full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's or equivalent graduate degree  in computer science, engineering, information science, information systems management, mathematics, statistics, operations research, engineering or technology management or in one or more of the fields identified above that required the development or adaptation of applications, systems or networks. One year of graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. OR At least 1 year of combined graduate education and experience as defined in paragraphs above.


-The experience may have been gained in the public sector, private sector or Volunteer Service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis.
-To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week, on your resume.

In addition to the above you must have, within the previous 2 years, completed all educational requirements for a qualifying associates, bachelors, masters, professional, doctorate, vocational or technical degree or certificate from a qualifying institution; or intended graduation is no more than 9 months from date of application

In addition to the above requirements, you must meet the following, if applicable:
You must have been at the next lower grade level of the grade you are applying to for 52 weeks (time-in-grade requirement). 

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Your application includes your resume, responses to the online questions, and required supporting documents. Please be sure that your resume includes detailed information to support your qualifications for this position; failure to provide sufficient evidence in your resume may result in a “not qualified” determination.

Rating: Your application will be evaluated on the CJEs of the position to be filled per the National Agreement Article 13. Your application will also be rated and ranked among others, based on your responses to the online questions, regarding your experience, education, training, performance appraisals and awards relevant to the duties of this position. IRS employees may obtain most recent awards listing at https://persinfo.web.irs.gov/
Your rating may be lowered, if your responses to the online questions are not supported by the education and/or experience described in your application.

Referral: If you are among the top qualified candidates, your application may be referred to a selecting official for consideration. You may be required to participate in a selection interview (telephonic and/or in person at the discretion of the Selecting Official in accordance with hiring polices). We will not reimburse costs related to the interview such as travel to and from the interview site.

If you are a displaced or surplus Treasury employee eligible for the Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), you must receive a score of 80 or better to be rated as well qualified to receive special selection priority.