How to choose hiring paths in your profile
The Federal Government offers hiring paths to help hire individuals that represent our diverse society. Agencies use these paths to tell us who they're looking for when they're hiring—whether it's a current federal employee, a veteran, or a recent graduate. There are many different hiring paths including:
- 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 & Reserves
- Native American and Alaskan Natives
- Peace Corps & AmeriCorps VISTA
- Senior Executives
- Special Authorities
- Students
- Recent graduates
- Veterans
How do I choose a hiring path?
When you fill out your USAJOBS profile information, we'll automatically select one or more hiring paths based on the information you give us. These are listed under the You belong to the following groups section.
What if I fall under more hiring paths?
You can click on each hiring path to select or unselect it, if you think you fall or don't fall under a particular path.
Why do I need to choose a hiring path?
Choosing the hiring path(s) that best fit you will save you time, because we'll only ask questions relevant to you.
Plus, we'll use this information along with your job search preferences to help you find jobs you're eligible for. 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 listed on the job announcement. If you're not eligible, the hiring agency will reject your application.
For example, some jobs are open to the public—this means if you're a U.S. citizen or national, you're eligible (sometimes non-U.S. citizens are eligible too). Other jobs may be open to a current student or recent graduate—if you're not a current student or recent graduate, you're not eligible.
Learn more about eligibility and hiring paths.