Clarification from the agency

United States Citizens eligible for Pathways, Recent Graduates

This position is located in the Office of the Chief of Staff, Office of Public Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts. You will reports to the Director of Public Affairs and provide administrative and program assistance in support of projects, activities and operations of the Office. The primary responsibilities of this position are related to public affairs and media relations work, and include:

• Researching, drafting, reviewing and editing content for a variety of agency communications vehicles, such as newsletters, press releases, and social media, for both internal and external audiences;
• Preparing daily news clips;
• Provide general office and administrative assistance to the Director and other members of the Office of Public Affairs;
• Answer the main phone line for the agency;
• Provide Spanish-language support to the office in terms of answering oral and written communications and providing review of translated materials for website and print; and
• Serve on ad hoc teams convened to provide quick responses to special projects and studies which may cut across organizational lines, clusters, disciplines and functions.

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Must be found suitable for Federal employment, determined by a background investigation.
• Males born after 12 -31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• Complete the initial online assessment and USAHire Assessment, if required
• All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement and clearly documented in your resume.
• If selected, you must sign the Pathways Participant agreement.
• If selected, you must sign an Individual Development Plan.
• Recent Graduate appointments are intended to last for a 1-year period.
• Recent Graduate appointment may be extended up to an additional 120 days under rare or unusual circumstances to complete the program requirements.
• The duration of the Recent Graduates appointment in the excepted service is a trial period.
• If Recent Graduate successfully completes the program requirements and converted to competitive service, time spent in trial period will count towards the required one-year probationary period.
• Recent Graduates may be non-competitively converted to a term or permanent position in the competitive service, provided that there is an available position. Recent Graduates converted to term appointments may later be non-competitively converted to a permanent competitive service position. Placement in the program does not guarantee conversion to a permanent appointment, nor is it mandatory.
• Individuals who successfully complete the program can be converted into either a time-limited or permanent appointment.
• You must have Spanish language proficiency in oral and written communications in order to qualify for this position.

Qualifications

In order to qualify for this position, you must meet the Recent Graduates requirements, minimum qualification requirements, and also the Selective Placement Factor shown below.

To qualify under Recent Graduates, you must meet one of the following:

1. A recent graduate who has completed a qualifying associate's, bachelor's, master's, professional, doctorate, vocational, or technical degree, or a certificate from a qualifying educational institution within the previous 2 years; or
2. A recent graduate who has completed a qualifying career or technical education program that awards a recognized post-secondary credential (such as a Registered Apprenticeship Program or Job Corps) within the previous 2 years; or
3. A veteran, who, due to a military service obligation, was precluded from applying to the Recent Graduates Program during any portion of the 2-year eligibility period described above. (Note: A veteran's eligibility period may not extend beyond 6 years from the date on which the individual completed the requirements of an academic course of study or career or technical education program).

In addition to qualifying as a Recent Graduate, you must also meet one of the following qualification requirements:

A. Have at least one year of full-time specialized experience equivalent to the GS-5 grade level in the federal government (obtained in either the public or private sectors) with experience in the following duties:

1. Researching, drafting, reviewing and editing content for a variety of communications vehicles;
2. Preparing daily news clips; and
3. Providing general office and administrative assistance to an office.

(You must clearly show in your resume and claim on the questionnaire how you meet the above experience if you are claiming this option, or you will be rated ineligible)
-OR-

B. Have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, AND meet one of the following provisions of Superior Academic Achievement:

1. Maintained a grade-point average of "B" (a GPA of 3.0 or higher) as recorded on your official transcript, or as computed based on 4 years of education, or as computed based on courses completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum;
2. Maintained a grade-point average "B+" (a GPA of 3.5 or higher) based on the average of the required courses completed in the major field or the required courses in the major field completed during the final 2 years of the curriculum;
3. Rank in the upper one-third of your class in the college, university, or major subdivision;
4. Be a member of a national honor society (other than freshman honor societies) recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies.

-OR-

C. Have one full year of graduate level study, in a field that provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. NOTE: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.

-OR-

D. Have a combination of some specialized experience as described above, but less than one year; and have some graduate education but less than one year of education as described above. However, you have a combination of specialized experience and graduate level education that when combined, equals at least 100% of the total requirement.

Note: You must submit transcripts to document any educational claims, or you will be rated ineligible.

Selective Placement Factor:

In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must meet the following requirement(s) to be considered qualified for the position: You must have Spanish language proficiency in oral and written communications.

If you do not have Spanish language proficiency as described above, you will not be considered for this position.

You may be interviewed partially in Spanish, and you may be asked to translate/review written text.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer and part time experience. You must clearly identify the duties and responsibilities in each position held and the total number of hours per week.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

How you will be evaluated

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

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the result of the online assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

• Attention to Detail
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Reading Comprehension
• Reasoning
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance

In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

Category Rating Procedures: If you meet the minimum qualifications, you will be placed in one of the following categories:

1. Best-Qualified: Applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position and demonstrate high proficiency in all of the critical competencies, including all Selective Placement Factors (SPF) and appropriate Quality Ranking Factors (QRF) as determined by the job analysis.
2. Well-Qualified: Applicants possessing experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position and demonstrates acceptable proficiency in all of the critical competencies, including all SPFs and appropriate QRFs as determined by the job analysis.
3. Qualified: Applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position and demonstrate basic proficiency in most of the critical competencies, including all SPFs and appropriate QRFs as determined by the job analysis.

Veterans: Qualified veterans who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10% are listed in the best-qualified category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level, or higher. This position is not considered scientific/professional. Other 10-point preference eligibles and veterans with 5-point preference who meet the eligibility and qualification requirements are placed above non-preference eligibles within the category in which they qualify. View information on www.fedshirevets.gov.