2015-2016 HBCU Careers Magazine

HBCU Careers Magazine

How agencies develop a well-defined school- selection criteria may be central to this discussion but one can simply click here to source HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, or HSI’s by STEM Fields for the local Regional Innovation Cluster. but how many of these programs would be considered centers of academic excellence with programs that can be translated into cyber security degrees or fields for the jobs that are required in the 50 industries that constitute the Advanced Industries Sector according to Brookings latest study?

Figure 3 Data Analytics Dashboards for USAJobs.gov

The new and improved dashboards associated with USAJobs.gov now have an improved user inter- face that leverages a more data-centric approach. The changes promise benefits for finding candidates as well as funding and appear to be well suited to help government recruiters locate pockets of talent within requisite markets, or in seeking concentrations of needed skill sets and competencies But where are the best feeder programs? In and above Presidential Management Fellows Programs, Pathways Programs now DHS has a new program called the Cyber Student Volunteer Initiative that takes in close to 1500 applicants for some 300 internships that provide real world experience in Homeland Security agencies. Army is moving to a program called Soldier for Life to address reintegration of returning Veterans into key fields where talent is needed. Even the Scholarship for Service Program with the support of the National Science Foundation and OPM as well as other intelligence have all provided access to candidates via virtual invitation only career fairs periodically that will help you fulfill an obligation that addresses student loan repayment incentives for a 24-36 month commitment to support the Federal government in your career. The new Tech Hire initiative coming out of the Department of Labor is a great one to watch too. Given the posture taken has been to fill-one-for-every-three-vacancy announcements that are open treating this reality as more than budget mechanism by agencies at a time when resources are constrained and talent is leaving at a high rate, these talent problems will be compounded when the applicant experience is a poor one. The job seeker must persevere and be steadfast to get a Federal career started, but just as there are only a few fields where a pension is even being offered or can be secured today, the journey can be worth it. Forward leaning examples of what may become of the traditional job boards or USAJobs.gov for that matter may not be too far down the road in terms of the will to build a better mouse trap; maybe one that uses Artificial Intelligence to augment the matching of skills, cultural-fit, and career trajectories. In fact something close to that can be found on sites like Good.co, BeanSprock.com, or even mobile voice- based job boards such as Jobaline.com for bilingual or part-time jobs for those whom may only have a cell phone as a lifeline to the online job marketplace.

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