When it comes to starting a new career in the Federal Government, how does Veterans Preference work?

Agree...really have not seen the benefit of this so called “Veterans Preference”. In the two years of retirement, I’ve apply for varies positions and haven’t received the slightest of phone calls.

Ex military is given preference in certain governments occupations... .

If you want something other than law enforcement, forget it. If you don't know someone in the government you're not getting in, your resume and vets preference is worthless to the feds. I've tried for years to get a job related to my degree in environmental science and the experience has made it abundantly clear, you better have a working relationship already in place before you apply for a federal job. The VA's vocational rehabilitation program is equally worthless as a resource for your job hunt.

Would love to get a new start.

I have been applying for federal jobs since 2011 when I retired from the military, and other than about five phone interviews, I have not had any luck. One of those phone interviews was last Spring, and the guy told me that he thought I was overqualified. How do you overcome that? Another phone interview about six years ago was on a conference call with three interviewers. It seemed like they were just reading scripted questions while continuing their work day. I think they paid little attention to my answers, because when they ran out of questions they acted like no one was engaged enough to end the interview. It was such an awkward silence that I thanked them for their time and said goodbye. I'm pretty sure they already knew who they were going to hire, and that my interview was just a formality so they could claim they contacted the required number of applicants.

I have over 30 years of experience, mostly in the criminal justice system.

Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor

Unfortunately you can be a veteran and not have veterans preference. The preference is determined by your period of service/grade at the time you seperated from service. Example: veterans that servered between 1977-1990 don't get preference (except those deployed to Grenada/Just Cause) or 1993-2000. The rank of 0-4 and above don't get preference (except those that have a minimum 10% service connected disability thru the VA)

Well it's been a year and I am still out of work. I would say that while it took the VA a while to rate me (about 10 months), their rating was fair. With that said I can't say that the VA preference has made any difference when there are almost no jobs in my area (Philadelphia) that I qualify for. I have to say they made promises that they couldn’t keep. They made it sound that I would have jobs to choose from and that is not the case.

If you need help getting a job do a search for veteran headhunters they help with resumes and finding jobs for veterans for free. I can't remember the one I used but I have been out for a few years and I add a take away from the one they did for me and it stil gets me an interview every time I use it