Federal Government Pathways

The US government has agencies engaged in the fight against climate change; leading efforts in space exploration; overseeing disaster and emergency response efforts; and researching the latest in disease prevention, just to name a few.  There are over 400 federal agencies. These are in every US state, territory, and Washington DC; and in over 140 countries. Many agencies are here in Denver, CO—you don’t have to leave Colorado or be a politician to work in the federal government, although those are certainly options.

There are three categories of federal employees:

• Competitive service includes most civil service positions. Applicants must apply for and compete with other applicants for positions.  These positions work in many hundreds of US government agencies, in different specialties.
• Excepted Service appointments are civil service positions and often include security and intelligence agencies (FBI, CIA, NSA), and the US Department of State. Applications are managed by the respective agencies’ policies and procedures.
• Senior Excepted Service includes senior leadership positions, often political appointees.

With so many career opportunities across the hundreds of federal agencies, it is a good idea to first learn about the variety of career options:

After you get an idea of all the opportunities in the federal government, you can start to consider specific pathways that can help you start your federal career.

Current students, recent graduates, and veterans all have specific pathways designed for individuals early in their                          careers.

• Click here to read about additional pathways for Individuals with Disabilities, Native Americans, Veterans, Peace Corps and Vista volunteers, and military spouses.

Where do you find these hundreds of civil service internships and jobs?  Most Pathways Program Internships and Recent Graduate jobs are found at USAJOBS.GOV, the website and application portal used to apply to all competitive civil service positions.