Federal Employment and Grad Degree Question

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by 03310151, Oct 2, 2007.

Loading...
  1. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member

    I am not sure if this is school specific or not. But, does anyone know how many credits constitutes 2 years of graduate study? I think the waters are muddied a bit since some schools have accelerated terms and can fit in 5 or more a year. At wazzu it was 3 semesters per year (not counting the summer term).

    Reason for asking: for federal .gov employment it states that in order to qualify for a GS-9 position you can use education as long as it is 2 years of graduate study.

    For most of us, 2 years of grad study = degree completion.

    Anyone have some insight on this?

    Thanks,

    Cory
     
  2. I think on a lot of the listings they say 2 years of graduate study or a masters degree. I am not the authority on this but I have read that on there before.
     
  3. sentinel

    sentinel New Member

    Precisely, 2 years of full-time graduate course load equals a graduate (masters) degree.
     
  4. AuditGuy

    AuditGuy Member

    I agree with the above, but I have also seen some school teachers who can be paid as either

    Bacherlor's + 30 Credits

    or Master's

     
  5. Steve King

    Steve King Member

    It's either or; not just a master's

    The US Office of Personnel Management states that academic credentials for a GS-9 position are: "Master's (or equivalent graduate degree such as LL.B. or J.D. as specified in qualification standards...) or 2 academic years of progressively higher level graduate education."

    Here's what the website says about their definition of an academic year:
    An academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 academic year of full-time study. This determination is made based on normal course loads for a full year of study in the graduate program. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours or 27 quarter hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended.

    The website can be found at: http://www.opm.gov/qualifications/SEC-II/s2-e5.asp. I hope that helps.

    Steve
     
  6. Daniel Luechtefeld

    Daniel Luechtefeld New Member

    Man, that is a ridiculous requirement for such a low pay grade. Most of the Federal employees I've met in my grad studies were GS-12's pushing for GS-13.
     
  7. Jigamafloo

    Jigamafloo New Member

    The Graduate education qualification for a GS-9 is not only laughable, it's a load. At least within the DoD, I cannot recall a single "9" that I ever worked with over the course of a 21 year career that had any where near that level of education, nor a job that required it.

    In fact, I've seen many GS-11 and GS-12 positions filled by people without any significant education at all. In most cases, experience (supposedly) applied, or veterans preference, or (and this shouldn’t shock anyone), the positions were filled by the internal “good ol’ boy” network. To top it off, a GS-9 starts in the neighborhood of 38k per year…not bad, but certainly not the type of money needed to attract that type of talent. Industry (depending on the type of graduate eduction) pays far better.
     
  8. 38k??? that is it? that is horrible for someone with a masters, that is also what a e4 in the military makes if you include allowances.
     
  9. Ron Dotson

    Ron Dotson New Member

    I'm a Supervisory Consumer Safety Inspector (GS-9) in the US Dept of Agriculture. I competed for the position against other GS-8s that had education that ranged from bachelor degrees to one or two years of college. When I reveived the promotion, I had not quite finished my bachelors but I had sufficient specilized experience to qualify for the job. For those of us in the Food Safety and Inspection Service that reach the GS-9 level, we usually have several years of seniority that equates to step increases. For example, I am a GS-9 step 5. I earn just short of $50K base and can also get overtime even though I hold a supervisory position.
     
  10. thanks for sharing, that makes me feel a little better about a future in federal employment after the military. Around 50K is where I want to be after i complete a masters.
    I have heard as a recruiting incentive they were giving people higher than step one on the pay scale to try to get people to work for them, has anyone else hear this?
     
  11. Hortonka

    Hortonka New Member

    I am happy to have come across this discussion! I just recently applied for a GS-12 positon that is IT related. I have been working as a network engineer for the past 10 years and have been wanting to get into federal government work for sometime. I am ex military. The position is paying around 80K I can't see myself working at the pay level of a GS9 I make more than that in my current position.

    Secondly Ron Dotson, I have some additional questions about the federal hiring process and retirement benefits I was wondering if you are available offline that I could email you some of my questions

    Thanks
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 8, 2007
  12. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Not if that federal employment is in the D.C. area. That won't go far here when decent housing is still very expensive, despite having gotten a little better with the bad market.

    -=Steve=-
     
  13. Ron Dotson

    Ron Dotson New Member

    Another thing to keep in mind about working for the federal government is locality pay. Go to this website and choose the locality you might be working in:

    http://www.opm.gov/oca/07tables/indexGS.asp

    The locality pay for my salary base is RUS (Rest of US) and is somewhat lower than other parts of the country. My base in D.C. would be a little over $52K...not much of a difference but it is a bit higher.
     

Share This Page