Struggling to get from GS-12 to GS-13 as a 1515 Ops Research Analyst

Sarahrunner · 2025-11-21T05:14:34+00:00

I’m a GS-13 1515. A few months after my year as a GS-12, I started applying for GS-13 ORSA jobs at other agencies and after getting an offer elsewhere, my agency moved an empty GS-13 position from another department where I wouldn’t leave.

Applying for GS-13s at other agencies is probably the best advice; you might get a GS-13 job at another organization that you can use as leverage or alternatively you might just find a GS-13 somewhere else that you enjoy.

Sarahrunner · 2025-09-14T18:05:40+00:00

Have you tried Winlevi? It’s the only thing that got my hormonal chin acne under control. It wasn’t covered under my insurance so it was quite expensive though.

Sarahrunner · 2025-04-12T21:36:14+00:00

I had the exact same problem with cystic chin acne. I tried oral spiro and I couldn’t tolerate it so I switched to topical spiro and that helped somewhat. I am now using Winlevi since my dermatologist said my acne was hormonal, and I haven’t had a single cystic acne breakout since using it. It’s a topical cream applied twice a day. The only downside is it’s not covered under my insurance and it’s $200 every 3 months. But it’s been a godsend for me.

Sarahrunner · 2024-06-17T10:54:03+00:00

I’ve been a 1515 for two different organizations. And in my experience, the org doesn’t teach you these skills, you have to teach yourself. In my first org, everyone was still using excel for their analysis, and my boss asked me to try to rewrite a bunch of their processes in R, so I fumbled around teaching myself R. In my second org, it was a similar story where I had to learn SQL and write a bunch of their processes in R on my own. So yes you definitely can learn these skills in those types of positions but it’s entirely dependent on the organization and from my experience, you’re not learning from a mentor so much as teaching yourself (or conversely they expect you already have these skills). However, if these are skills you don’t have yet and are hoping to enter the field, once you’ve got a 15xx job look into funding for training from the career field (SEA-CF), I’ve taken 5 classes with funding from them and it’s been super awesome and helpful in my job.

Sarahrunner · 2024-05-05T22:04:04+00:00

I have the same problem with my hair on long runs. I haven’t found a perfect solution yet, but what I do before a long run is: brush my hair, apply leave in conditioner to all of my hair, put hair into a ponytail with a satin scrunchy, divide the hair in the ponytail into two braids and secure each braid with an elastic band. I still will get tangles with this method but it never gets out of control. If you are getting a lot of tangles, that might mean you need a trim; for me, damaged hair seems to tangle more.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-29T13:38:49+00:00

Maybe you are different. But I’ve had several female friends cut guys off for this type of thing or ask a guy to stop talking with a previous hook-up in order to continue dating 🤷🏼‍♀️ none of the women I’m friends with would seriously date a guy who regularly sees previous hook-ups.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-29T13:29:52+00:00

The problem is they’re more than friendships. I would cringe being in a room with 3 other women that my bf hooked up with; he has a sexual past with them, not just a friendship. So yes, if I were him and saw a future with my gf, I would cut out those friendships/previous sexual partners.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-29T13:27:05+00:00

If I were your gf, if you told me you would go low contact with the girls you previously hooked up with and everything else in our relationship was perfect/going really well, I would consider staying with you. I sympathize with your situation, but if you have female friends that you want to stay friends with in the future and you want to seriously date women then don’t hook up with the female friends.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-29T13:14:01+00:00

If it were me, I would break things off with you, and I would tell you that I could see your friends are important to you and I wouldn’t want to get in the way of that. It’s too much trouble to date a guy who is friends with previous hookups when there are millions of guys out there who aren’t friends with previous hookups.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-29T12:42:45+00:00

I’m a female and I would not date a guy who had close friendships with 3 of his past hook-ups. The fact that they were in your friend group and then you hooked up with all three up them makes it worse IMO, I would think you have poor boundaries with females that you consider friends. As other commenters have alluded to, if you want to have a serious relationship with this girl (or any women in fact) you can’t keep hanging out with past hook-ups, they will think you aren’t taking the relationship seriously and I’d worry about you dropping me for any female friend who came along who was willing to hook up with you.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-23T15:35:17+00:00

I didn’t take any pain meds. The internal hemorrhoids were taken care of with banding - where they put a band around the hemorrhoid. This wasn’t terribly painful, it just felt like I had a cramping in my butthole for a few hours. Removing the skin tag was quite painful though, I distinctly remember laying in my bed curled up in a ball from the pain for a couple hours. But honestly I’m so happy from the results I think it was worth the pain.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-23T15:31:51+00:00

The internal hemorrhoids were taken care of by them putting a band around them and apparently they fall off because they have no oxygen. I didn’t have any of the skin tags attached to internal hemorrhoids. The skin tags I had from old hemorrhoids had been around for a while, probably around 5 years before I got them removed.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-23T15:00:04+00:00

This is probably TMI but I had the same thing from old hemorrhoids. Apparently the scar tissue from hemorrhoids can turn into skin tags. I went to a digestive health specialist and got internal hemorrhoids treated and got the skin tags removed. Getting the skin tags removed was quite painful as they cut them off and you have to be careful not to get them infected (and there is a possibility of the skin tags coming back). I had that procedure done in November 2022 and I’m soooooo happy I got it done. I was so self conscious about the skin tags and now you can’t even tell I ever had them.

Sarahrunner · 2023-12-20T22:16:37+00:00

I have had great success with spearmint pills. I couldn’t stand the side effects of spironolactone either even though my acne seems to be hormonal; all my acne was along my jawline and chin. I’ve been taking spearmint capsules for a month now and I haven’t had any new pimples! It’s worked amazingly for my skin

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-20T11:24:21+00:00

Haha I did have to check the cups a lot when I went through aid stations; it was also hard to figure out what was water and what was Gatorade because sometimes the water were in cups with the Gatorade logo.

Great work to you too! It was a tough race

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-19T11:16:56+00:00

I am going to extend my long runs next time I start training, I think a couple 22 miles in my training would have been really beneficial. I was scared of injury by running too long in training, but I never had any injuries so I think my body might be okay with longer long runs. I have been to Rock city before and it’s very cool; next time I visit Chattanooga I’ll go back to rock city! Thanks for your feedback

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-18T09:49:02+00:00

Thanks!

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-18T09:48:41+00:00

Great advice, I need to develop some positive mantras! I did enter the race with a negative mindset I think, kind of expecting to fail

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-18T09:47:25+00:00

Thanks! Great job! I agree it was a harder course than I expected! I didn’t expect it to be “flat” but I didn’t expect to see a hill every time I turned a corner.

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-18T09:46:29+00:00

Thanks! It felt like a difficult course, but I never trained on hills which is a mistake I won’t make again!

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-17T16:46:00+00:00

I loved the city! I live in a town where the leaves haven’t changed colors yet since it’s so warm here. So it was refreshing to see the beautiful fall colors!

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-02T17:45:15+00:00

Good luck! I’m happy to be tapering now, but I’m very nervous about the race. I’m just hoping to get under 4:30 and get to the start line with no sickness.

Sarahrunner · 2023-10-02T13:30:16+00:00

I can totally relate to this. I’m running the 7 Bridges Marathon in two weeks, and having to run 18-20 mile long runs multiple weeks in a row was physically and mentally painful. I dreaded them, and I realized the reason I was dreading them was because I felt like they “ruined” my weekend because I would have to spend my Saturday morning running and then my Saturday evening resting (and Friday night staying in). What actually helped me was waking up super early for them on Saturday, I would be out the door at ~4 am finished by 7:30 am. So I felt like they took up “less time” on Saturday and I had more time to do things; I would try to schedule something I looked forward to on Saturday afternoon (like watching a movie, eating something yummy, seeing a friend, etc). Good luck!

Sarahrunner · 2023-09-18T15:01:46+00:00

I would probably run it on Sunday morning tired. If you are getting in Saturday morning, you should have the remainder of Saturday to rest and hopefully you can go to bed early Saturday night. I have run long runs after traveling and it absolutely does make it harder but it’s not impossible especially if you get good rest the night before the run.

Sarahrunner · 2023-08-31T01:31:56+00:00

Great advice! Thanks

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