These 3 Federal Government Jobs Might Actually Just Change Everything | Hacker News Reader

These 3 Federal Government Jobs Might Actually Just Change Everything

jasonshen.com

10 pointsjasonshen14 comments

Here's my post about the same positions: http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2013/12/work-in-governm...

> These 3 Federal Government Jobs Might Actually Just Change Everything

That's the worst kind of link bait title. A type lambasted and ridiculed here, xkcd and everywhere else. HN should have some kind of smart filter to just auto flag these kinds of submissions.

Edit: And it's flagged off the home page. Good riddance. Maybe be a little bit less silly with your headline next time jason.

7 surprising tricks for spotting link bait titles that might just transform HN

I appreciate your thoughts but I have to disagree with your concern - headlines have evolved over the years because writers have figured out what is more effective. Users have limited attention and especially with something as important as these roles, it is my responsibility to make the article as enticing as possible to read.

Headlines offer a promise to the reader and it is the writers job to then deliver on that promise. I believe I do so in the post itself. If you disagree, that's fine, but I don't consider the title link bait, because that suggests that the actual content failed to deliver on the promise.

> it is my responsibility to make the article as enticing as possible to read

It's your responsibility as a writer to be honest. Why is it your job to make a post enticing? If being honest with the title of your post isn't enticing then I'm afraid your article isn't interesting and lying about its contents are not the right solution. And your title is not honest. Change everything? Are you kidding me?

> headlines have evolved over the years because writers have figured out what is more effective

You make it sound like you've no responsibility for your actions. Hey it's out of your hands, other writers have figured this out and you must follow. And all you have to show for it is a flagged post and at least in my case a big minus in my opinion for ride joy. You come across as a bit too much self-promoting. Reviews for your book also mention humble-brags, so it's not a stretch. Personally I put integrity above fleeting success, but your milage may vary.

> Headlines offer a promise to the reader and it is the writers job to then deliver on that promise. I believe I do so in the post itself.

You don't. You don't have anything in the post that really addresses how the jobs, individually or collectively, might change anything, much less everything. Heck, you don't, in the body of the post, even discuss what it is that the programs these positions involve leading are.

Seems like they didn't even bother to proof read the job listings. The job listing says the positions "promotion potential" is for a GS-15 and lists the salary range as 123k - 155k. But then down in the "Qualification Required" section it talks about GS-14. The GS-14 salary range goes from 105k - 133k. So either the repeated GS-14 use is a typo or they are listing the wrong potential starting salary number.

You might be thinking hey, minor issue. It's not here is why. This is emblematic of the kinds of things you can expect as a matter of routine if you were to take this job. A million minor issues from typos and comical misunderstandings in important communications to your email frequently breaking for unexplained reasons to being forced to use shitty government software to do tasks like filling in your time card that waste hours of your life each month. Just because the word presidential is in the job title isn't going to change the reality of how the government works.

I believe that is not a typo. What they are saying is that this job is a GS-15 job with a salary of 123k-155k, and that in order to be qualified to apply for this job, you must demonstrate that you have at least one year of experience working at a level equivalent to GS-14.

No bones about it, this job requires wading through A LOT of crap. But so does being a successful startup founder, or senior executive at a big company. It may be different kinds of crap, but no important job is every easy. I do believe doing this job well could in fact change the reality (to some small degree) of how government works.

The only chance we have of making the system better is to have capable, good people trying to make it so.

I understand that, there is a defiantly a typo in this listing though...

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/356185700

"The GS-14 salary range starts at $123,758.00 per year"

Either they meant to say GS-15 or the salary number there should be 105k.

>> The way government jobs are evaluated require them to map the requirements of the job against things that they can find on your resume. So while you might be used to the one-page resume for industry, it is not unheard of to have 15 page resumes in government.

Just curious - does "require" here really many they are legally required to evaluate your resume in this way? Wow.

There used to be a different process called KSA (knowledge, skills and abilities) that was even worse (from what I hear). I think this application would approach hiring more progressively, but they still need to do things like create written evaluations of candidates explaining why they wanted to move forward (or reject) each candidate. A lot of laws were created to avoid any chance of discrimination (or unfair preference), which leads to a much longer and slower process.

This article might be of help, though I am not at all an expert in this area. http://www.fedsmith.com/2011/10/10/creating-federal-resume-p...

Blah, HN-ed. Here's a cached version http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

Edit - looks like it might be back? Leaving cached version just in case.

Nothing changes everything. Or maybe any title that indicates something will change everything means it will change nothing.

I disagree, Industrialization, Electricity and Computer Science are all relatively newer concepts that really have changed everything in the last 200 years. Timescale changes everything!

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