Understanding your eligibility will help you know which jobs you should apply to. There are several different eligibilities in the Federal Government; we call them hiring paths.
The hiring paths listed in a job announcement show you what groups of people, such as veterans, recent graduates and current federal employees, are eligible to apply for the job. Agencies can post jobs that are only open to certain groups. Your eligibility for a particular job is determined by whether or not you are a member of one of the groups listed in the job announcement.
This means that you can apply to any job, but you may not be eligible for the job if you don't fall into one of the required hiring paths. If you're not eligible, the hiring agency will reject your application.
For example, anyone is eligible for jobs that are ‘Open to the public', as long as you're a U.S. citizen. If you're a current federal employee, you're eligible for jobs that are ‘Open to the public' and ‘Federal employees', depending on which service you currently work for.
Look for the This job is open to section in the job announcement to see who's eligible to apply.
The job announcement may list the following:
- Open to the public
- Federal employees—Competitive service
- Federal employees—Excepted service
- Internal to an agency
- Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)
- Family of overseas employees
- Individuals with a disability
- Military spouses
- National Guard and Reserves
- Native American and Alaskan Natives
- Peace Corps & AmeriCorps VISTA
- Senior Executives
- Special Authorities
- Students
- Recent graduates
- Veterans