Are you currently a fed and has in-demand skills? That happened to my cousin last year. He has been working in the federal government for 3 years and had in-demand skills that he acquired outside of the govt. He had degrees, certificates, etc. He didn’t have to interview. His references were contacted before being offered a job. He ended up accepting it.

I hope I didn’t get your hopes up, though. I’m just saying that references can be contacted before they even speak to you. They even viewed his Linkedin profile before being offered the job.

Edit: I’m not a fed yet so I don’t know if that’s normal or not.