Environmental Protection Agency

I have over 10 years experience in public relations and marketing. Four years ago I got layed off from a local city government in the field of marketing/public relations. I was retrained and obtained retraining thru a federal retraining grant in the area of Environmental Health and Safety (36 hour certificate from a regional community college). Two years later 2015 I received a second master's in Speech Communication. I already have a masters in Public Affairs in the area of Business Government Relations. There is a large EPA regional branch here in the area and I have applied 23 times to EPA positions across the country; never getting a referral or an interview. I have worked with EPA in local government and have years of experience.

I have applied for over 23 Public Affairs Specialist positions from grade 7,8,9,11,13,14 always receive a rating of eligible not referred. I thought maybe it was just the Lenexa, KS office so I also applied in D.C., Atlanta, and Dallas, and always received the rating Eligible not Referred. I have applied for three Public Affairs Specialist (Recent Graduate Program) and continue to receive the same rating.

Today, I received notification on a Community Relations Coordinator in Dallas that I was Eligible not referred. And the exact same position was posted today with a new closing date. Now if that does not appear as if the position is/was intended for someone else so modifications were made to assure the designee gets hired.

It is strange that I can't even get an interview for a Recent Graduates Program despite the fact that I already have years of experience but yet I am not among the highest ranking. (none of the results have said anything bout veterans only being refered)

I thought that the hiring practices within the federal government were changing during this administration but it appears its still not WHAT you know but WHO you know.

Actually, it's how your resume reads.

Federal resumes are very unique, & are key to both referrals and being called for an interview.

I've rewritten, reformatted, & reworded my resume numerous times, specifically to increase both my referral & my interview rate, with cyclical increases in my interview rate (& a 90%+ referral rate).

Hemi's advice is spot on, too.

Also is there a questionnaire for the position? Depending upon the competition, if you don't say you are an expert where it asks that question, you may not get referred. And for the recent graduates program at least in most agencies, that is targeted to people who are graduating from college in their early 20s. That may sound discriminatory but if you look at the stats, most agencies are primed to lose a large portion of the workforce in the next few years (gray beards) so they need to hire young people who have 35-40 years to work. But the advice you got here to make sure your resume reflects what the job needs and get feedback from staffing on why you didn't make the cut should help you figure out the problem. And I don't think it's someone gaming the system that many different places & jobs.