There are several ways to find available federal jobs of all types. The first three, examining periodicals and online job databases plus directly contacting a federal agency's personnel office, are the most productive and are discussed in detail later in Chapter 29 of the Government Job Finder. The others are treated immediately below in their entirety.

• Periodicals. There are a number of periodicals that carry listings of federal government job openings. These may include both Competitive Service jobs and Excepted Service and PAC positions.

• Online job databases. One of the Internet's success stories is how effectively it has been used to convey information about federal job vacancies and the federal hiring process. The federal government maintains easily accessible job databases on the Internet and most federal job vacancies are available on each state's online job service described in Chapter 28. But even if you are not connected to the Internet, you can still get the complete federal job database on floppy disks every two weeks as described under "job services."

• Federal Agency's Personnel Office. Contacting a federal agency's personnel office directly or using its job hotline to learn of job openings is the most sure-fire way to learn of all current openings with a department including Excepted and other special positions.

• Newspaper Advertisements. The advertisements for federal jobs that appear in local newspapers are generally for professional positions in the geographic area the paper serves. They usually appear in the business section. National newspapers like The New York Times (229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036; phone: 212/556-1234, Washington Post (1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071; phone: 202/334-6000; The Wall Street Journal (420 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10170; phone: 212/808-6700 and U.S.A. Today (1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209; phone: 703/276-5200 are often good sources of federal job ads.

• College Career Planning and Placement Offices. If you are in college, check with your school's placement office to see if it posts vacancy notices from any federal agencies and if federal recruiters interview on campus. Other campus offices worth checking for specialized information on federal jobs include: Minority, Veteran, and Handicapped Affairs, Cooperative Education, Internship, and Student Employment offices; the Financial Aid Office, and the Counseling Center.
  
  The OPM's regional offices distribute to colleges and universities a publication called "Career America News" which furnishes information about new federal hiring procedures and "hot" career opportunities in the federal government.

• Office of Personnel Management. The OPM's central office is aware of virtually all openings at the different federal agencies. In addition, local OPM offices should have listings of all available federal positions. You can locate offices of the OPM in the federal government section of local telephone directories or in some of the federal government directories identified later in this chapter.

• Federal Job Information Touch-Screen Computer Kiosks. These are discussed in Chapter 28. The entries for each State in that chapter tell you where these are located. Current locations may be obtained via FedFax -- ask for the "Federal Employment Information Sources" document -- and from several of the online services described later in Chapter 29.

• State Job Service Offices. Serious job seekers should visit state-operated Job Service Centers which are supposed to carry all federal job listings plus state and often local government jobs. Job Service Centers are discussed in Chapter 28 and identified in the state-by-state listings in that chapter.
  

  For a complete listings of publications and "hotlines," where you can see job lads or listings, see the book Government Jobs Finder by Daniel Lauber.

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