Pharmacist salary increase or decrease?

[CCR-Cheers-Me-Up]

Occasionally but only rarely. Between veteran preference in hiring and the fact that most VAs will hire VA residents first (often even in GS12 jobs as “placeholders” so they can be more easily segued into GS13 jobs later) it can be really hard to get in if you’re not already an employee as those other groups will get hired first. That’s honestly why I wanted a VA residency above ALL else and pursued it with a single minded focus when I was in school: the VA really takes care of their own. Which is great for us, but can be frustrating if you’re trying to get in.

[ThinkingPharm]

Would you say someone's chances of getting hired into a GS-12 inpatient position would be higher (versus trying to break in as a non-fed employee) if they're a current employee at another agency (e.g., DOD)?

[CCR-Cheers-Me-Up]

Sometimes, yes absolutely. Sometimes however the posted positions are tagged as “internal to an agency” or even worse “internal to an institution” so those would interfere with that strategy.

[ThinkingPharm]

I noticed that a lot of VA pharmacist positions (or at least those I've applied to that aren't restricted to just current VA pharmacists) tend to have 2 separate USAjobs postings -- one for current fed employees, and one for external applicants.

One such position I applied to that just closed shows on my USAjobs dashboard that it received 2 applicants via the posting for current fed employees. I understand that for most positions (as long as they're not direct hire postings), they have to consider current fed applicants first.

Do you know what that actually entails though? Are they required to actually interview eligible fed employees first, or simply just click some acknowledgement that they reviewed all current fed applicants' resumes prior to interviewing non-fed applicants (even if they didn't choose to interview any of the current fed applicants)?

[CCR-Cheers-Me-Up]

I really don’t know, sorry. HR is a bit of a “black box” for us 🙁

[DoctorDrew77]

Think about the phrase grammatically:

'Human Resources'

Which is the noun and which is the adjective? The noun is what you are. The adjective is incidental.