>> My name is Maria Alvarez, your moderator for this session. This session will cover understanding the federal application process. Presenting will be Ryan Mobley, human resource systems administrator, Nina Ooft, supervisor workforce development advisor, and Antonia Smalls-Sumpter, lead human capital advisor in the human resource office. If you have a question, feel free to add it to the chat, and we will respond to as many questions as we can following the presentation. Thank you very much, and enjoy the expo. Ryan?

>> Good morning, and welcome to the "Understanding the Federal Application Process" overview. Today, you will hear from me and my colleagues on how to develop a federal resume, information on developing a portfolio, how to navigate the federal hiring process, interview skills, and a set of resources for applying for federal jobs. It is my pleasure to speak with you all this morning, and to begin with my particular portion of the program, which will be about resume writing. During that process, I will spend a little time talking about several different topics, beginning with resume rationale, some resume wreckers, some resume remedies, some resume recommendations, and last but not least, some resume refinements. Let's go on and move to the next slide, please. When we think about resume rationale, we want to think a little bit about what is the purpose of a person's resume. Being a teacher, I always try to start things with some type of definition, and to provide some type of framework. Of course, your resume is a document that you create to present your background, your skills, and your abilities for various reasons to a prospective employer, but the main purpose of this document is to communicate relevant, position-based information about you, in your absence. When I was working as a career coach, oftentimes when I would have a resume-critiquing session, I would come across something on a person's resume that would make me ask, "What exactly do you mean here?" And they would respond almost always the same way, "Well, you know, Mr. Mobley, all I mean by that is," and I would stop them. I said, "Think about what's happening here. If this particular thing on your resume requires you to give an explanation, then the document is not serving you the way that you want it to. This document must be able to stand on its own, to communicate the relevant information about you in your absence." You will not be able to be there to explain various things about what's in that document when that person first opens it up. And with that in mind, you want to make sure that it is speaking in a very clear and concise manner in order to communicate exactly who you are, and what it is that you purport to bring to the table for the position in question. Next slide, please. Here are a few things that can get in the way of your resume having the impact that you might want it to have. Vague, ambiguous language, similar to what I mentioned before -- if you can't -- if something on your resume inspires questions, and you're not there to answer those questions, then the document is selling you short, and is not having the impact that you want it to have. Meaningless phrases and expressions -- this one is important to me. I laugh when I talk about it, because several years ago, many, many years ago, when I had my resume, I had a trusted friend critique my resume, and it's good to run your document by other pairs of eyes. And your own people will see things, and they can be a little bit more objective about some things that maybe you are a little bit too close to. I had some type of catchy phrase in my resume about my experience and education having well-prepared me for the workforce of the 21st century, and my friend kind of looked at me. And she said, "Ryan, let it go. That says nothing to this position that you're applying for." So be sure to run your resume by some other eyes, so that people can give you that type of honest feedback, and that you don't end up with things in the document that don't represent who you are, or what it is that you can bring to the table. Misspelled words, of course -- don't underestimated that, and even though spell check is real, and it does work, it doesn't correct things like syntax, and context. So make sure that you're -- again, that you are proofreading your document, and running it by other pairs of eyes as well. Distracting fonts, formats, attachments, et cetera -- all of these things can detract from your resume having the impact that you want it to have. In fact, I've often -- a couple of times, I've even opened up resumes and found pictures. Just be aware, and especially in federal employment, those types of things are unacceptable, and you should not have those on your resume. All right, next slide, please. Now that we've spent a little time talking about some of your resume wreckers, let's talk about some of the things that we could use to kind of remedy those types of -- those things. Speak to the position at hand. I don't necessarily advocate having 15 different resumes, though, different resume for every type of job that you apply for. You may have one real solid working document, but that document does need to speak to the position that you are applying for. As you're going through your job descriptions, and looking at jobs that you may be interested in, review your resume to see are you bringing out those skills that you possess that speak to that position. Maybe in your drafting of your initial resume, there was a skill that you didn't focus a lot of attention on in your resume that you have, and this particular job that you're applying for needs that skill. Then you might want to take and tweak your resume, and kind of update it to make sure that it is accurately reflecting your experience in that area. So make sure that you're speaking to the position at hand. Use your job description or your PD. The foundation of any good resume-writing is exhaustive brainstorming, what it is that you've done in your career, and how that will speak to your prospective audience. Don't be afraid to use some resources to kind of jog your memory. Pull out your old job description. Pull out your PD, and read through it. And I don't ever advocate to plagiarize or copy and paste something right into your resume, but it can do a great job at jogging your memory, and making you say, "Oh, yeah, that's right. I did do this," and get those types of things into your document. Don't write "References will be furnished upon request." This is something that I refer to as a resume bane tradition. When your references are required, providing them is not going to be an option. There's no need to waste any space on that document with the expression or the phrase "References will be furnished upon request." Use action verbs. I tend to be an advocate of bullets on a resume versus writing in narrative format. There's no right or wrong here, but do keep in mind that bullets tend to make a resume a lot more scannable. A person can navigate through it much more quickly. Don't get so bogged down, though, into the style versus substance. Out of those two different things, default for the substance. Whether or not you use a bulleted format or a narrative format, you want to get the substance into the document that's going to communicate about you effectively. And when you're using bullets, starting those bulleted phrase with a strong action verb can really make your document stand out. "Managed XYZ process," "coordinated," and so on, and so forth, "delegated these types of responsibilities to." Starting out with a strong effective action verb can really help your resume to have the impact that you want it to have with your reader. And be "tense" specific. This is where we talk about the difference between a chronological and a functional resume. For the purpose of federal employment job-seeking, I do recommend that you use a chronological resume. I won't go into a great deal of time speaking about what is the difference between a functional and chronological resume beyond saying that a functional resume kind of strips out the time frames, and groups your skills together, and it is a viable document. But for the purposes of federal job-seeking, you want to use a chronological resume, and that's going to be more apparent why that's necessary as the presentation goes on. And when you're using that chronological resume, you should be "tense" specific. Your present job should be in present tense, and your past jobs should be in past tense. Next slide, please. All right, another good thing that you could do to kind of help your resume have the impact that you want it to have is to think about the use of a professional summary. A professional summary is what I call a snapshot of you, a brief snapshot of who you are right up front, to kind of set the tone and the pace for your resume. It can be done in paragraph format, or it can be done in bullets. As you see here, it is you at a glance, and if written well, it ought to grab your reader's attention and entice them to read the remainder of the document. You can use it, again, in various ways, and your language should capture amounts of time and/or relevant experience by using summary-style language. X amount of years experience in, extensive knowledge of -- this is summary-styled language. Broad background in, knowledgeable of -- you want to use that type of language in your professional summary. Next slide, please. When it comes to your education, something that I tell people all the time is, lead with your degree, and not with the school. Month and year, not tenure, is all that's needed as far as dating is concerned. It is permissible, of course, to also include your GPA if it is above a 3.0. And always remember to reflect whatever your GPA was out of the range that was used. Sometimes I will see this particular item inverted. You'll have the school submitted first, or something like that. Only in those rare situations where maybe you went to a school that -- and you're applying at a firm or a corporation that typically recruits from that particular school. For most purposes, then go ahead and just lead with the degree, what was conferred upon you. Tell us when, tell us where from, and then, if your GPA meets the requirements for being put onto the document, feel free to go ahead and add that as well. Next slide, please. Another way to really make your resume effective, and to cause you to stand out, head and shoulders maybe above some of your competition, is to think about getting some added value into it. Don't allow your resume to spiral down into nothing more than a reiteration of a bunch of tasks and duties that you performed on the job. That is what everybody else's resume does. If you want your resume to stand out a little bit from the crowd, make sure that you're also bringing attention to your accomplishments, your achievements, results in the positions that you've held. This is an example that you're looking at right here, and this one separates out those accomplishments, achievements, and results. You can also word those accomplishments, achievements, and results right into the expressions themselves, right into the statements themselves. Either way is effective, but you do want to make sure that you're getting that information into the document, and that you are highlighting your accomplishments, your achievements, and your results. Next slide, please. This is a great example of what I mentioned just a second ago, about getting that added value right into the statements themselves, as opposed to separating them out. Either method is effective. The point is to get it in there. You could even underscore things that you want to stand out, put it in bold print, any of those things that will make it stand out with your audience. "Worked with original equipment manufacturer to exercise warranty coverage," and there it is, "resulting in quarterly" -- -- there are -- I'm sorry, my phone was muted for a second, but "resulting in quarterly cost savings of $15,000." So that's how you would get, again, those achievements, those accomplishments, those results into your document. Next slide, please. Now we're going to talk about your professional experience, and how do we reflect that as a resume recommendation. Click, please, for me. When it comes to federal job-seeking, there are some things that stand out, and they are a little bit more important to highlight in your resume than it may be for private sector, not the least of which are the items that you see indicated on this particular slide. You want to make sure that you are indicating what is your series, if you are a current federal employee, what is your series that you're in, and what grade you hold. You want to make sure whether or not you're a current federal employee or not, make sure that you indicate how many hours per week that you perform the current job that you're in when you're putting together your resume. This is important for, again, applying for federal positions, and when you're stating your tenure, make sure that you use preferably, at the very least, month and year. If you know month, day, and year, that's even better, but at the very least, put month and year. Federal job employment counts how much time you've spent in a job, and that matters when it comes to the qualifying process. A lot of that will be covered a little bit later, but just know that these items are very important to be on your document if you are seeking federal employment. And just FYI, to give you an example of how important it is, if this particular document that you are looking at simply said, "May 2015 to April 2016," the way that that most likely would be interpreted is, they would give you credit for the last day of May, 2015, through the first day of April the next year. That doesn't equal a full year of employment, and so, that could disqualify you for a job. Next slide, please. Click one more time for me. Thank you. Another thing that you want to make sure that you're using to accompany your resume is your SF-50, or notice of personnel action. I won't go into much of this, because, again, some of these will be covered a little bit later in the presentation. But again, for federal job-seeking, these types of things can be very important, especially if you already hold a position in federal government. On this particular example that you see on the screen, John Doe, you can see, received a within grade increase. One of the things that that indicates is that John Doe has been in this GS-12 position for at least a full year, because that's how he got his within-grade increase, which is, of course, different from a QSI, a quality step increase. A QSI would not necessarily indicate that he has been in his position for a full year, but this particular SF-50 does an effective job at demonstrating to HR that Mr. Doe has been in this position at this grade for a full year. Next slide, please. Likewise, with the grade and the tenure, you want to make sure that you take a look at the bottom part of your SF-50, more specifically the tenure box, box number 24, and the position occupied box, box number 34. Most jobs that you will see for federal employment require for a person to be competitive. That would be a number one in box number 34. It also will require that individuals either be in a career conditional status, or a permanent status. That would be number one or two in tenure box number 24. So these things are important. Just going over this to acclimate you a little bit more to your SF-50. Some of this, again, will be talked about a little bit more in the presentation, but we wanted to make you at least aware of them, so that you can start reading your SF-50, and making sure that when you're submitting it, it is giving the HR representative the information that they need in order to get you through to the hiring official. Next slide, please. Specialized experience -- when you are doing your job-seeking, you're looking for jobs typically on a site like usajobs.gov. What you want to focus on are, look for in the vacancy announcement is something that talks about specialized experience. You will have some rare types of reiterations of that, but for the most part, you want to key in on what is the specialized experience for that particular position. The specialized experience is what the HR department and the hiring manager are going to be looking for, to see if you possess these skills, and if you bring them to the table. They could be stated the way that you see it right here. For a GS-13, you have to have at least one year of equivalent experience at the GS-12 in the federal service, such as -- and there you have it. This is what this job requires. If you don't possess these bullets, the specialized experience, then you most likely are not going to make it through to the selection process. Please, ma'am, please, sir, look out for anything in that job description that talks about specialized experience, and if you possess these skills in your background, take a look at your resume, and make sure that they can see that experience clearly in your document, because this will be what will get you over to your selecting official. Next slide, please. Whether it's done in bullets or it's done in paragraph format, either way, still, look for that specialized experience. Applicants must possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 grade level in federal service, and it goes on a little bit more about what specialized experience is. And then it says "to include" -- there we go. That's the specialized experience that this hiring manager is looking for, for this particular position -- "planning, conducting, and analyzing scientific studies or surveys related to public health programs." You want to key in on the specialized experience, and make sure that if you have this experience, you are demonstrating it in your resume. Next slide, please. As we kind of come to a close, we want to talk about a couple of things that can really help your document to represent you the way that you want it to, or some things that you can use along with your resume, like using a portfolio. The purpose of a portfolio is to showcase your accomplishments, expertise and range, quality of work, and creativity. You use it during interviews and informational sessions to justify any promotions, bonuses, or annual appraisals, and academic admissions and scholarships, and applications. You pull these things out at those particular times because they -- again, they not only show the reiteration of tasks and duties that you may have performed. They do -- or they go a long way to express what have been some of your results, what have been some of your accomplishments, what have been some of your achievements. Make sure that your portfolio is organized and up-to-date. Make sure that it has -- that you have additional copies of your resumes available in the event that you need to hand them out, and make sure that your portfolio showcases a variety of things -- projects that you've worked on, certificates of accomplishment, and any other items that, again, help to highlight your skill set, and show how you have established yourself, and you've stood up head and shoulders above your competition. These things will serve you well in those types of situations. Another thing that I want to leave you with is, when it comes to your references, I know this may sound a little bit funny, but make sure that you check with your references before you put them down and submit them as your references. You wouldn't want someone to call someone that you listed as a reference, and they weren't aware of, or they weren't prepared to be receiving a call about you. So make sure that you check with your references, that you have your permission from the people that you would like to use as references. Make sure that you have their permission to do so, and make sure that you keep your references up to date also. And remember what I said before -- no need to put on the document "References will be provided upon request." When it is time to submit them, supplying them won't be an option. Next slide, please. All right. So at this particular point, I will yield the floor over to my coworker, Ms. Celeste Smalls-Sumpter. Ms. Smalls-Sumpter, the microphone is now yours.

>> My name is Celeste Smalls-Sumpter. So we're going to --

>> So that's your -- yeah, you're a little bit low. Can you bring up your volume a little bit? You were a little bit low. Thanks.

>> -- all right. Well, I guess they actually have everything going on in the poll, so the myth buster was, "Resumes are scanned for key words by an automated system, true or false." So look like the results are 83% true, and false, 17%. So the correct answer is it's not scanned for key words. So the correct answer is false. Here at CDC, the HR specialists review all resumes that come in when you apply for the positions. Thanks. Next slide, please. So as we go and talk about navigating through federal hiring process, just want to give you some updates to help you navigate -- I know it's possibly a little difficult, but we're here to assist you. Next slide, please. Okay, as you navigate through the federal hiring process, you're going to go with usajobs.gov and identify your vacancy announcement. So what you do -- we would like for you to review the entire announcement. Review the assessment questionnaires. There will be some other questions for you to complete, and answer, and based upon how you answer will determine whether you're screened out, or you're able to go through to the next process, to submit your application. Also, when you're submitting your application, I would like to suggest that you use a resume builder, or you can upload your resume. But if you use the resume builder, it's a tool to assist you in making sure you put all the information needed into the system correctly. Like Ryan said, you want to make sure you put the dates, because that will help us determine -- and the specialized experience if you have that when your specialized experience needed for any particular position you're applying for. So you want to make sure you put the month, day, and year in there, okay? Also, it will ask you to upload required documents, like your transcript. We don't need your official transcript. If you have a copy of your transcript, upload it, and if you're currently in the federal government, please upload the most recent copy of your SF-50. And if you have a DD-214, upload that as well. As far as Schedule A letters, and also if you have a disability letter, if you were in the military, you want to upload all the information. Because when you read the announcement, it will tell you the required documents that you need. So you want to make sure you attach them all, okay? Now, when it gets to your application is reviewed and rated, okay, now, once you answer all the questions, you upload your resume, you upload your documents, there's an assessment questionnaire that asks you various questions about the duties. Where did you do it, the title you're in, the position where you held those duties, the time span as well. You would like to enter all of that information. So if it asks you where you held it, you would put the employer's name. You would put your position title. You will also put the number of years you completed those duties. You want to make sure you answer each and every question. It's extremely important that you do. Qualifications review -- basically, they're going to review everything that you indicated, and you will be rated per how you answered all of the assessment questions, okay? And that will put you in a category where you're actually rated the best-qualified, well-qualified, qualified, or minimally qualified. And of course, the best-qualified and well-qualified would be the individuals that will be pushed on due to the hiring manager, okay? And once you're pushed on to the hiring manager then it's more or less in reference to, rather than a review, all the information, your resume, and make sure you're the most qualified candidate, and that's if you're offered an interview. Then you will be contacted, okay? You'll be notice -- it's like notice of results. Those are NORs letters. So once you apply for a position, basically you'll get a notice stating that we received your application. That will be the first notice. Now, if you're considered for -- considered to be sent to the hiring manager, you'll get a notice on that as well. If you were considered not to be eligible, you would get a notice on that as well, okay? And then, if you're selected for an interview, then they will call you in. Next slide, please. Okay, so now, the process -- after the hiring agency, the hiring manager reviews all applications, they will send the highest-qualified applicants to the hiring official, okay? During the interview, if the hiring official reviews the highest-qualified applicants and select applicants to be interviewed based on the agency policy, the hiring agency will contact the applicants directly to schedule the interviews. Now, with the interviews, it may be several different types, okay? So they could use a panel interview. That's when they have more than one. It could be a panel of four or five individuals. They can do an in-person interview, one-on-one. They can do video interview. At this time, we do a lot of Zoom, or Skype, or MS Teams, by using those various avenues to do interviews, or it could be a phone interview. But you'll hear more about the interviewing process later on in the presentation, okay? Now, how long will it take to schedule an interview? That's a great question. It may take some time to schedule interviews, depending on the number of applicants that's being interviewed. And then, we will move to selection. So after the agency completes all the interviews, they will select candidates and contact them to start the job offer process. For those not selected, they will receive a letter letting them know that they were not selected for the position. And the person that's selected, HR will extend a tentative offer to the candidate that was selected, and the process with that will go into background clearance and everything of that sort, okay? Next slide. So the chart that you see -- that's the process chart that we have. It's just a flow of what we just went through with you, applying through usajobs.gov, going through the agency database, HR staff reviewing all the applicants, and the resumes, and the applications that come through. They rate and rank them, where they get a score, and then, if the individuals didn't meet the scores, those individuals are eliminated at that time. And they would receive notification. Selecting official would select who they want, will set up interviews. The individual who gets hired -- and then, the process will begin for background checks and getting that individual onboarded. Next slide, please. Okay, so now, are you ready for another myth buster? Some job announcements appear to be written with someone already in mind. True or false? Okay. So that's still coming through. So we have 47% -- well, 46% that said true, and 54% that says false. Okay, so the answer to that, ladies and gentlemen, is false. The job announcement is written by the hiring manager as well as the HR specialist. So we don't have an individual in mind, and once we write it, we post it. And that's when individuals apply. Thanks. Next slide, please. Okay, so this is a picture of the usajobs.gov, the fore front. Next slide. Okay, now this is a sample copy of the vacancy announcement. This is for a public health analyst. So by looking at this, you're looking at all of the information, once you go and you see an announcement out there. They give you the title. They give you the agency that's posting it. You got the summary, so you know a little bit about what's going on, who the job is open to, and then, if you see internal to agency, you know that's current federal employees. It shows you how to apply. You'll see the overview, as well as the opening and closing dates of the position. So definitely pay close attention to the opening and closing dates of those positions. So you want to make sure that you apply during that time. Don't wait until the last day, because 11:59 p.m., that announcement will be closed, whatever date they have that is closed. So you want to make sure you prepare yourself, give yourself time to get your resume together, to complete the application, and what I do -- I'll go back through it once I answered all those questions. I'll go back through, review once, twice. Third time is the charm for me, just to make sure I've answered everything correctly, okay? It tells you the salary. It tells you the pay scale and grade. That's the GS-11, and you can always go to OPM.gov and research on the GS-11, on the salary scales, okay? It'll give you the location as well, and the telework eligible. So make sure if it had various locations, make sure those are the locations that you're interested in applying to, okay? Next slide, please. Okay, so just a reiteration of what I just told you, the vacancy announcement sections give you the job title, includes agency, CIO, the summary, position summary on who can apply, the overview, the open period, duties, description of duties, requirements, conditions, qualifications, including the specialized experience. So make sure whatever position you're looking for, tailor that resume to the job you're applying for, and make sure you qualify by reading the specialized experience, the duties, and the qualifications. So make sure that you have those, and you're qualified for the position. Then it also tells you how you will be evaluated, required documents, how to apply, okay? So make sure you really take time out to read, even print out your announcement, so you can review things at your leisure, and make sure you understand everything that's required of you, and of that position, if you're interested in applying. Next slide. Okay, so types of federal employment -- so we have the competitive service. We have the senior executive service, and we have the excepted service. So basically, the competitive service is most civil positions, employees selected based on their merits after a competitive hiring process for positions open to all applicants. Senior executive services -- that's non-competitive. That's for senior leadership positions, filled by career employees or political appointees. And our excepted service -- that's civil service appointments that do not provide competitive service. Now, we have some hiring authorities under Schedule A, B, C, and D, allowing agencies to hire for. So basically, when you see things like that, that will also be an announcement. So make sure you pay close attention and read that information. Next slide, please. Okay, so hiring authorities -- basically with that, the law, executive order, like I said, where we have some hiring authorities that we have listed as Schedule A, and that's for persons with disabilities. We have direct hire authority as well. We have several positions that's under the direct hire authority. That basically -- and it's just a shortage of candidates. So these are positions that we can fill immediately, and some of those positions are physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and IT specialists with parenthetical and info security, okay? So those are like some of our direct hire authority positions, and then, also, with the veteran hiring authorities, that's like the VRA. That's the veteran recruitment appointments, 30% of more disabled veteran appointments. And then, we have the Pathways Program for students and recent graduates. So if you have graduated recently, within the past two years, you can be considered as well for some positions that we have available. So we have some of our documents that was listed on the micro-site. So many of the students, when you registered, you should've gotten all of that information, letting you know how to apply in the process, and basically some USA Job -- our FAQ sheet that we use with some of our information. So you can familiarize yourself with that as well. So take this opportunity to kind of write down what -- you know, the pointers you got, any questions. We'll definitely answer those questions for you. Ryan gave a good presentation on resumes, and then, I just told you how to navigate through the federal hiring process. So now, we will have Nina Ooft that will tell you more about interviewing skills. So, Nina, the mike is yours.

>> Thank you, Celeste, and thank you, Ryan. And welcome, everyone, to the career expo today. My name is Nina Ooft, and I am the supervisory workforce development advisor for the CDC human resources office, diversity and inclusion recruitment team. And we're going to talk a little bit about the interview process. Celeste did a great job in covering how to conduct a search through USA Jobs for federal positions, and Ryan talked a bit about how to construct your resume to prepare for federal applications. So you've done your resume. You've done a search in USA Jobs, and you've applied to a position. Now, you've made that referral list, so give yourself a pat on the back for that. What you now are looking at is that you were referred for a job, and you want to nail that interview. So let's understand just a little bit about the types of interviews that you could be involved in. Next slide. So there are several types of interviews that we have, that we use at the CDC. We have the informational interview. We have a behavioral interview. We have situational interviews, and then we have phone interviews, video panels, and panel or committee interviews, as well as one-on-one. Next slide. An informational interview is a conversation in which the person seeks information for a career path, or an industry. It's usually opportunity for you to engage with the hiring official to get some advice and some expertise, knowledge in the area of interest. It also can be more formal, but it allows the opportunity for the job-seeker and the interviewer to provide information not only to assess whether the individual will be a good fit, but to learn a little bit more about the context of the job, and the specific industry. Some key elements to this would be to set a time when you're doing an informational interview, roughly around 15 minutes, compare and ask for questions, answer and ask, ask to connect with additional people within their office, but make sure that when you're doing that, you ask for permission to use that contact name in order to reach out to additional persons within the office. And you want to also thank the individual for their time, and make sure that you follow up. Next slide, please. So in a situational interview, these are more like behavioral interviews, except the behavioral will be focused more on a situation or a hypothetical issue. For example, what would you do if you were working on a report, but your manager's supervisor wanted you to work on a different report that was time-sensitive? This would be an example of a situational interview where you would have to ask or answer that question. Next slide, please. A phone interview is an interview or phone screening where recruiters or hiring managers sometimes use this as a way to evaluate a candidate's fit for the job. Success in a phone interview oftentimes leads to an in-person interview, or the hiring manager using the phone screen-out as a way to eliminate candidates who may not necessarily be qualified for a position. Some key takeaways here are, enunciate your words and speak slowly, smile, and regardless of if you are doing a phone interview, you want to address as if you are in-person with the individual that is interviewing you at the time. So you want to make sure that you are prepared. You want to also print out any job postings or any materials that you will need for the interview. Next slide, please. A panel interview is a conversation with two or more members of a hiring team. The key tips here are to remember each panel member's name as you're introduced. You want to make sure that you make direct eye contact, and watch your body language. You want to also come prepared with questions. You want to also make sure that if you're asking questions or answering questions that you take a look at if they're going to be situational, or if they will be on any hypothetical incidents or issues. Next slide, please. A video conference allows the hiring manager to review or use a conference call in order to do a face-to-face interview with the job seeker. A lot of times, the video conference will drastically cut out on the travel costs and time wasted in in-person interviews. The key tips to a video conference are to have appropriate background lighting, make sure you check the audio or visual in advance, and consider using a headset. One-on-one interviews are the traditional approach to interviews. This is one hiring manager with one interviewee, and the questions are more directly related to the person. And this format is actually easier for the interview to ask any additional questions, to gauge whether you understand the networking and the operations that take place in a center or office. One of the tips to remember with that is to be prepared with unique questions about the interviewer's management style, and if they have any questions or hesitations about hiring you, you want to find out if there are any issues or items that you need to review with that individual. You want to also go over the application process in their timeline as well. So let's talk about -- you're going to the interview, and you want to make sure that you impress. You want to be prepared to dress for success. So whether that is a phone or video interview, you should always dress for the position that you want, and when in doubt, you want to make sure that you dress more formally, as you see in the example on the screen. Next slide. Always make sure that if you're preparing for an interview, that you do your research, that you copy the job description, a provide a copy -- bring a copy along with you, if you have questions, and you want to make sure that you paste that to a Word document before the announcement closes. As Celeste mentioned earlier, at 11:59 p.m. of the announcement, they do close on USA Jobs, but you want to make sure that you've gotten a copy of that announcement, so that you have all of the information that will prepare you for that interview. So let's talk about some sample questions that can also prepare you for the interview. So think about a few things that you can ask. Some of those could be, "Tell me about yourself." So one of the things that you want to make sure is that you have a short, 90-second elevator pitch that highlights your career and how it matches to the role that you're interviewing for. Another question could be, ask yourself this, "What is your biggest weakness?" Now, one of the things that you want to make sure that you do is, you do not fall into the trap of mentioning a critical competency for the current job that you're interviewing for. You may want to look at an irrelevant skill set that you have addressed in the past to answer this question. Additionally, you could think about another question, "What is your leadership style?" This may be a question that would possibly be asked during that interview as well. Next slide, please. So some key tips about the interview styles are to make sure that you take a moment and take a breath. Breathe. You want to congratulate yourself for making it this far, as we know the federal application process can sometimes be daunting. So you want to congratulate yourself for making it this far to the interview round, but you also want to make sure that you do your research, come prepared, as well as prepare yourself in the event that you are doing an in-person interview for any areas where there may be traffic that you have to map out. Or if there are virtual interviews that are taking place, or a phone interview that you troubleshoot in advance any technology issues so that you are prepared day of. Next slide. So we're going to talk about two interview structures that help provide you some responses to interview questions. These are typically methods in which we use at the CDC, and this will sort of engage on how you're able to answer questions when they're asked. The first method is the STAR method. The STAR method is situation, task, action, result. So the situation could be, "What happened to lead you to the example that you're providing?" So you want to respond with that response of a situation. You may want to ask yourself, for the task, "What did you overcome to resolve this example?" Some examples of this could be budget cuts, time, people, short deadlines, or new goals from upper management. What was the action? And be very specific about what the action was that you took. And then, final, what was the outcome? In this example, you want to make sure that you use percentages, or numbers, or grades. Remember that you want to show what the impact on the final result was from your situation. So that's the STAR method. Next slide, please. So we're going to talk about the CCAR method, which is challenge, context, action, and result. So in the challenge, very similar to the STAR method, what did you do to overcome or resolve an issue? Again, such as budget cuts, time, people, deadlines, new goals, et cetera. Context -- what happened to lead you to the example that you're providing? What did you have to solve? How did you respond? How did you handle? What was your role? Again, action -- what steps did you take? And in this example, please be very specific, and then again, result -- what did you do? What was the final outcome? And you want to make sure that you use numbers, percentage, grade, as you want to make sure that you're identifying the impact of your actions. Next slide, please. So, on the screen, you'll see a few examples of the STAR method that you can use. We won't cover fully through those. The examples are available on our resource page, as Celeste alluded to earlier, as well as Dia. We do have the micro-site that is up, where you can get examples of those STAR methods. So we're going to move on to the next couple of slides. Here is an example also of the STAR method, and how you can address a question that directly comes from the USA Jobs specialized experience statement in USA Jobs. Next slide. And this is just a table that is identifying some questions that are in the USA Jobs application portal, that directly go to the knowledge, skills, and abilities specific to a job series. Next slide, please. Same with the example three, and same with the example four. Next slide. So with this, we want to go to the closing, the things that you might need to reconsider is just to make sure that you reinforce your suitability for the job. Ryan actually mentioned a portfolio. A portfolio is a body of work in a specific area. You want to make sure that if you have a portfolio, that you lead that portfolio with the selecting official, and then also, come with interesting questions, such as, "How did COVID affect the work morale amongst the team? What does success look like for the next 90 days for this role that I'm interviewing for? What competencies are critical for this role that I'm interviewing for, and what is the projected timeline for making your decision?" So we want to place in the chat two items that are available, or two levels of resources. One is the USA Jobs federal employment site, as well as the OPM types of hiring authorities that Celeste just earlier mentioned. Again, I also want to mention that the website is up and available that also has resources. There is a tab that provides you information on the definitions that are identified in USA Jobs, as well as information on SF-50 that Ryan talked about earlier. Additionally, you can use the resource tab in usajobs.gov. There is a resource tab to provide you additional information and links on different hiring authorities. So we wanted to say thank you for this portion of the presentation. I am now going to turn it over to Roberto Ruiz, who will be providing you a presentation on professional development. We thank you for your time.

>> Hello, good morning, buenos dias. So I am Carolina Luques, your moderator for this session. This session will cover professional development. So presenting will be Roberto Ruiz, senior advisor to the director of the talent development and workforce solutions office with the human resources. And moderating with me are Drs. Charmia Salvaria Pena and Andres Berruti. During the presentation, please add your questions to the chat, and we will try to respond as many questions as we can. Thank you.

>> Thank you, Carolina Buenos dias, como esta, todo el mundo . Good morning. So that's the bueno dias part. Bienvenidos, welcome to CDC, whether you're from CDC, outside of CDC -- and I see we also have some international callers, which is fantastic. But welcome to our expo today. A lot of people put a lot of time to put this together for us. So what I want to reemphasize before I start is that you pay attention to what the previous session and the information that they gave you around resume-writing, around interviewing, around the application for federal jobs. All of that information is extremely accurate by these professionals who just presented it to you. I will be reemphasizing some of their points, not from the repetitive perspective, but more so that you remember that it's an important aspect of how you process an application through the federal government, regardless of whether it's CDC or not. So my name's Roberto Ruiz. I'll give you a little bit of background about myself. I do go by Bob, and I am Puerto Rican, from Brooklyn, like my colleague, Maria. And I am the senior advisor for the talent development and workforce solutions office, under the leadership of Kenneth Quintana, who you will be hearing from later on today. I want to also thank all of my -- the leaders that went before me, from the assistant secretary for administration at HHS, Dr. Walensky, Robin Bailey, Dia Taylor, et cetera, who I'm going to tell you -- these folks are very passionate about professional development, leadership development, and the development of diversity at CDC. They understand very clearly the importance that Dr. Montero mentioned around the changing public health population in this country, and the need to have not just people who can speak Spanish, but people who understand and have what I call cultural empathy. And so, it's going to be important to really recruit that kind of person, and if you are one of those, we want you, right? You remember that Army commercial, that Army poster. So anyway, let me go to why, because one of the things I came across is, when I was asked to make this presentation, I just said, "So why professional development and career development session?" Well, the purpose of it, number one, is to inform all of you that there are opportunities at CDC. There are many, many opportunities, and I'll talk about a couple of them that were significant in my career. The learning objectives that I really want you to walk away from my talk is your self-awareness. Who are you? What are you? What do you want to do? What do you want to accomplish? Where are your passions, and how do you address those passions relative to your actions? And Mr. Bailey talks about execution. How do you execute on those desires and those passions for your work, and what are your goals? And the expected outcome, to be honest, from -- with you, and outputs are, I'd like to see an increased Hispanic/Latino representation at CDC. Dr. Montero and others had mentioned the 3, 3.1, 3.2% level of representation at CDC. That's unacceptable to the leadership. It's unacceptable to our Unidos group, whom I advise also, and just -- I think that together, unidos -- right? That's what the word means, "Unity," that we can accomplish these tasks. We can accomplish these things, but let me tell you. Leadership can't do it alone. They need us, you and me, to work with them, to get them any ideas, to give them the structure to develop a framework to get this work done. So that's kind of the expected outcome, is I'd love to see an increase in our diversity, to include Hispanic Latinos and other diverse ethnicities and races, as Dr. Montero had mentioned earlier. And so, with that, next slide, please. I'll give you a little bit of overview of who I am, so that you understand where I'm coming from. First of all, this is my second career, okay? I served 23 years in the United States Coast Guard [foreign language]. When I was 17 years old, I joined in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and I went into law enforcement and other things in the United States Coast Guard, and eventually went to their clinical practice schools up in New London, Connecticut, where I learned, you know, clinical medicine, minor surgery, x-ray, lab, all of those ancillary clinical services that you receive when you walk into a healthcare facility. So I did that for many, many years, and I became a very senior healthcare administrator, where I was running -- actually running clinical operations across the country. And I loved that career. I loved that career. I was passionate. I loved dealing -- working with people, and making people better, and getting them to feeling better, and recovering as quickly as they can. But I retired from the United States Coast Guard back in 2000, the year 2000, and I came into the Presidential Management Intern program. And if you don't know about the PMF program -- back them, it was called PMI, back in 2000. It has changed names to PMF, and it is one of those special hiring programs. Look it up at the OPM, the Office of Personnel Management website, and you can learn more about how to apply to the PMF program. It's a good way of coming into the federal government, regardless of whether it's CDC, or wherever it is. It's a great mechanism. Let me tell you a little bit about my CDC assignment. So when I got to CDC in 2000, I was an intern, basically. I did a lot of rotations across the scientific centers that we have, which are centers of excellence, every one of them. I spent some time in infectious diseases, learned about ebola, learned about Rift Valley fever, hantavirus, and all those other diseases that our virus detectives work on. I learned about preparedness and response, in particular right after 9/11, when that incident happened in Manhattan. I started evolving into the preparedness and response arena. Then I kind of transferred over to chronic diseases, where I learned about diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and things -- anti-smoking, things that affected our overall long-term health across the country. I wanted to understand what the nation was going through. Then I transferred over to our birth defects center, where I really learned about some international efforts around folic acid and prevention of birth defects, amongst other things that I learned from that -- blood disorders, et cetera. And then, I was very, very lucky as a Latino and someone who'd not been at CDC for very, very long to be selected to attend the senior executive service and career development program, along with my colleague, Dia Taylor, who just spoke, and our chief of staff, our current chief of staff, Ms. Sherri Berger. Unfortunately, she was busy and probably couldn't participate here, but an excellent source of information, both of those young ladies. But from the SES program, I came back to CDC. I became the director for the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, where I got really interested in diversity, really interested in equal opportunities, and managing those types of issues that would come up in the workforce. Then I went over to the National Center for Injury Prevention, where I learned about obviously preventing injuries, but also the new challenges that we face with the opioid crises across this country, which most of you I'm sure are very familiar with. So based on my experience, I went back to preparedness and response, just maybe eight years ago, as a senior executive, and led that group for almost eight years. Fascinating opportunity, and I tell you these assignments because I want you to understand that it's okay to move around. It's okay to experience and explore, and expand your portfolio, as Nina had talked about, and Robin talked about. You want to expand that portfolio through experiential experiences, and you want to be able to talk about what you did, and what impact it had, and what was the outcome of that, of your contributions you led, you executed, you participated in, or you created, et cetera, et cetera, those verbs that Mobley was talking about. So, next slide, please. So the opportunities -- there are more than just are listed here, but -- I mean, I could probably talk to you about this for weeks, but there are a lot of opportunities. Advancing your passion to me is probably one of the most important ones. It's an opportunity to come into an organization that is passionate. It's based on data, and science, and fact, and the truth, which is what I want to know, is the truth. What's happening? What do we know? What don't we know, and what do we tell our constituents and our leaders, and the people that we serve, most importantly, the public? Opportunities for leadership training -- I mean, I've been -- I have been blessed to be able to go to Harvard twice, to the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, to the Federal Executive Institute, very much like many of senior colleagues that talked earlier today. Those are extremely developmental, and you learn so much. It just completes that portfolio. Opportunities to be in position with significant responsibilities, people responsibilities, program responsibilities, scientific responsibilities, et cetera, et cetera -- that's important. Cross-cutting project engagement -- I love to kind of work outside my comfort zone a little bit. I call them stretch goals. So stretching yourself is very important. There's opportunities to do that at CDC Program reviews -- understanding what public health really is, and how it impacts the work that Dr. Montero does with the state, local, and tribal organizations, and how we support, as an agency, support those efforts through programmatic financial resourcing, and scientific data. Working closely with and with other senior leaders -- I learned from my senior leaders. I've worked for many of the speakers that talked today, or a couple of them, and learned a lot from those speakers, just watching them, and watching how they conducted themselves. And I'll talk a little bit about executive presence here shortly Learning other programs, of course, that diversity of your experience, and engaging in the Office of the Director -- I'll try to explain these acronyms. We have a lexicon of acronyms at CDC. So from the OD-sponsored, Office of Director-sponsored projects, where Mr. Bailey would -- might engage a group of very diverse people with diverse talents and skills to help him solve a problem that he may have encountered, or has been brought to his attention. So he needs that support from us, and there's an opportunity to do that, too. And all of these things really just provide network exposure, and networks are extremely important, as well as building relationships. And I'll talk about that in a little bit. Next slide, please. Lessons learned -- for me, I kind of chose these. Make yourself valuable, but not indispensable. Be valuable. Add value to -- and contribute to the solution, whether -- not every answer's going to be right or wrong, or it can contribute, or spark, or ignite someone else's thought that may be the solution. Deliver on your commitments. Do what you say you're going to do. That's critical. Get a mentor or coach, and I'll talk a little bit about that, and also, there's going to be a separate flyer that Carolina helped me get distributed, along with a reading list that I can talk about. But get a mentor. Get someone that you trust, that you -- that can listen to you, and give you some advice. And there's a difference between a mentor and a coach, okay? So a mentor is more about listening and helping you run through a career, or a challenge that you may have. A coach is more specific. I am a certified professional coach, and I am actively coaching. I coach people who come to me with specific, targeted issues that they want to overcome. Emotional intelligence -- man, you've got to know who you are, and what -- you know, what buttons ignite -- so you got to understand that. Seek feedback. Don't be afraid of it. It's okay, good or bad. Good or -- negative or a positive, it doesn't matter. Get some feedback, because you don't know what you don't know. And the only way you're going to know what you don't know is to find out. So communicate clearly is the other thing. I mean, someone posted on a very interesting -- I think it was Erin or somebody about accents, and you notice Yo te hablo, bien. Yo soy puertor riqueno but I don't have an accent that I know of, probably because I'm from Brooklyn. Nonetheless, the accent may be a bias. I'm not sure, but I think that if you can articulate yourself clearly, the bias will be a moot point. It's irrelevant. Seek to understand others. So I want you to listen, as opposed to just hearing. You know, listen carefully, and listen to understand, all right? That's why you're listening, and I want you to ask more questions and make less statements. Most of us -- I grew up, you know, making statements. Well, this should be like this. Well, not necessarily, because I didn't know the other half of the story. So I had a leader that I worked for that taught me that concept, to ask more questions and make less statements. Next slide, please. I'll try to move this along. I know we're running late. Professional -- are you in transition? We are all in transition at one point or another. We're in transition right now in this country. We're in transition internationally. We are always in transition, so you must think about where are you in your career. This is my point, and then, where do you want to go? And then, how do you get there? Again, that word "execution" comes to mind. Are you on track with your career success? Are you happy with what you're doing, and where you are, and do you see the light at the end of the tunnel? Do you enjoy that work? Does it bring you -- does it get you up in the morning? When I used to get up in the morning and wear my suit, which I'm wearing today, you know, it just made me feel like I was going to go do something important, and I was. I was driving into CDC to try to make a difference every day of the 21 years that I've been there to date. And organization and self-analysis -- you know, the positions that you're applying for, do they meet your passion, or are you just applying? I mean, it's a question you need to ask. Next slide, please. Mentoring -- here's the difference between mentoring and coaching. I've kind of mentioned it before, so I won't go through it. You can see it on the slides, which I believe are going to be shared with all the attendees, and I'm really happy to see that there's 226-plus people on this call. Thank you so much for joining us from everywhere in the world. Next slide, please. Your resume -- so Nina talked about that resume, very important. Just listen to what she said. What she said was very specific, very true, and on-target. Tailor that resume. Be concise. Tell your story. I don't want to hear your autobiography. I want to hear your story. What did you do? Use numbers and highlights the accomplishments, quantitative, qualitative analysis, or data. Use that to convince, persuade the reader that you are someone to consider for this position. When possible, have a cover letter, and of course, we talked about the portfolio, and how important that is. Next slide, please. All right, so this is, again, some tips for your resume. Use your words wisely. You only have so much space. Make your message stand out. That -- I think it was Mobley who said at the beginning, you know, tell them who you are. You have a really brief elevator type of approach to what it is that you're trying to accomplish. I think that's a very wise advisement. Focus on the outcome. What did you do? Don't tell me what your position was. Tell me what you did with it. What actions did you take? What did you lead? How did you make the change? How was it? How did it feel? Showcase your individual leadership and supervision. Show and tell, and use examples. Again, I use stories, and those two methods that Nina talked about, STAR and CCAR, or C-CAR, are perfect ways to shape or frame your experiences. Illuminate your resume. No repetition, and make it compelling. You know, make me want to read those three pages, or two and a half pages. Resist additions to certificates, awards, and diplomas. As someone had mentioned, you know, "references available upon request." You don't need to make that statement. Of course, they're going to be available upon request, right? You're going to provide them, if you really want the job. Next slide, please. Interviews -- you know, this represents your career, as you have heard in that first section. What do you want to work -- why do you want to work in this program? That's a question that I asked people when I was conducting interviews in my senior position. Why do you want to come work for us? You know, what motivates you? You know, what do you want to accomplish, and how can you benefit the program? Next slide, please. Other interview targets -- of course, you know, the interviewer's going to want to know your technical and your experience, your leadership and management skills, in particular your people skills, such as your interpersonal, analytical skills, any multi-tasking or problem-solving. You know, can you manage more than just one project at a time? And prepare your portfolio, as I mentioned before. Next slide, please. So some of my recommendations in the interview, whether you're online, in a video, or you're on the phone. Obviously, you can't make eye contact on the phone, but if you're on a video or in person, eye contact's important. But I want you to understand something. I don't want you to stare down the interviewer. Do not do that. Engage them in eye contact that is engaging, right, that draws their interest, and notice in your perspective -- notice how your interviewer reacts, or panel of interviewers may react to your voice, to your expressions, to your movement, to your body language, to your responses to their questions. Be precise and clear, and, at the end of the day, answer their question, and be gentle. You know, there's no reason to go in there and -- to go into an interview and be aggressive, or overly assertive. Be yourself, and I'll talk about authenticity here in a second. Next slide, please. Executive presence -- this is one of my hot topics. It's how you present yourself, right? First impressions are everlasting. So your passion, your emotional expression. Hopefully, you hear that in my voice as I lean forward into this monitor. Poise, unflappability -- man, they can't shake you. You've got this. You've got this. You have the courage to be in there. You have the right to be in there, because you've passed all the qualifications, and you're in that interview. Rule it. Control it. Manage it. Convince it, and then you'll walk away at least satisfied, if not with the job. Self-confidence -- be optimistic, assurance, and show your strength and resources, and resolve to get the issues done and taken care of. Communications -- be candid, be clear, and be open. Next slide. So what you can today, what I teach my clients in my coaching is record yourself, video. You ever video yourself and look at yourself? You probably laughed the first couple times, but after a while, you start to actually analyze your body movement, such as my use of hands, right? So, you know, that's just the way I speak and express myself. So record yourself. Review that video by yourself when you're comfortable, or with others if you want to do that. Get professional assessments done. So if you have a coach, you'll have some of these assessments. EI is emotional intelligence, the DISC profile, the Myers-Briggs, Gallup Strengths that shows your strengths. There are 34 of them, and 360 assessments are assessments where other people kind of give you input as to their observations of how you present yourself throughout the workday. Practice in front of a mirror, with others. I mean, I don't -- I just don't look in the mirror to make sure my hair's okay, right? I actually look in that mirror in the morning, and I say -- and my wife's near me -- you know, "What am I going to do today? What difference am I going to make, and how am I going to go about that?" And that could change throughout the day of course. You know, every time we go into work, we're bound to face chaos, and most importantly, remember authenticity. Be yourself. Be confident. Confidence is very, very revealing. So be yourself and authentic, and genuine. Next slide, please. And I believe that's the end of the data that I wanted to give you, but there's a drawing for professional coaching with me. I believe there were two. Carolina, is that correct?

>> There were, and I think the next slide has the names.

>> So Arnulfo Murales and Marilyn Baez are the winners. Congratulations to both of you, and we will connect after today. And we will coordinate a session for you, so that you understand, if you've never been coached before, what coaching is all about, and how it can apply to your particular situation. Like I said, coaching is very specific, where mentoring is a little broader perspective. Next slide. So I leave you with this aircraft. We are Unidos. We're all on this plane, all 200, 250, whatever the capacity is. We're all on this plane, and we need to fly this high to where we want to go. And we need to help leadership, as I said before, accomplish that. We know what needs to be done. They want to hear it. Not only do they need to hear it, they want to hear it. Believe me, I've talked to these leaders. They want to hear it, so let us give them the ideas, the recommendations, the process that we would use or we'd recommend. Let's give them some options, and then some recommendations. That's usually how I treat people that I work for, is here are the options. Here's my recommendation, and I may have more than just one. So with that, I leave you with -- and I provided a reading list to the professionals that put all this together. And I want you to pay particular attention. It is kind of a list -- it's multiple pages. That's why I didn't include it here -- that includes books that I have read over the years that have shaped or helped me shape my leadership methods and philosophy, and how I approach people, how I approach passion, how I approach the job. And there's one book that I will kind of draw out. It's written by Robert Staub II. It's called "The Seven Acts," seven, five-two, "Seven Acts of Courage," and I'd like you to each try to pick it up to read it. It's an easy read, small book. You can buy it on Amazon. Obviously, you can buy anything on Amazon nowadays, but it's a good fundamental read about courage. And it's about your self-courage, okay? So with that, I will close out, and turn it back over to my competent leaders. Thank you.