Tracking the implementation of new essay questions in federal job applications
Postings with Scraped Questionnaires
-
With Essay Question
-
Percentage
-
Essay Questions
The Merit Hiring Plan requires applicants for GS-5 and above positions to answer these four essay questions (200 words max each):
"How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government? Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience."
"In this role, how would you use your skills and experience to improve government efficiency and effectiveness? Provide specific examples where you improved processes, reduced costs, or improved outcomes."
"How would you help advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired."
"How has a strong work ethic contributed to your professional, academic or personal achievements? Provide one or two specific examples, and explain how those qualities would enable you to serve effectively in this position."
Technical note: This tracker identifies job postings containing these essay questions by searching questionnaire files for the text: How would you help advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Agencies sometimes edit a questionnaire after posting, so the questionnaire of every open posting is re-checked daily, and a posting's status reflects the most recent check. Postings whose questionnaire asked the question when first collected but no longer does are listed as "EO question removed after posting" and are not counted as having it.
Data Coverage & Methodology
Understanding the Statistics
Total Jobs: All federal job postings in each category. A posting is one USAJOBS announcement (one control number), not one position: a posting can fill several openings, and one announcement split by location or grade is several postings. Postings an agency later canceled are included, since their questionnaire was still published.
Scraped Questionnaires: Postings whose questionnaire we successfully downloaded (a questionnaire shared by several postings counts once for each)
Jobs with Essay Questions: Postings containing the Merit Hiring Plan questions
% of Scraped: Percentage of successfully scraped questionnaires containing the essay questions
Service Type Analysis
Grade Level Analysis
Geographic Analysis
Agency Analysis
Occupation Series Analysis
Essay Question Usage by Job Opening Date
Weekly and monthly percentages of job postings with the essay question
Note: Percentages shown represent the portion of scraped questionnaires that contain the essay question for each time period. The "Total Jobs" column counts every posting that opened in that period, with or without a questionnaire; the percentages are of the postings in "Jobs with Questionnaires".
Job Listings with New Essay Question
Important Notes:
This table now shows ALL federal job postings from our dataset, not just those with the essay question
We only scrape questionnaires from USAStaffing and Monster Government sites
Other agencies (e.g., FAA, Intelligence Community) may have questionnaires on their own sites that are not included
Loading job listings (large file, may take a moment)...
Showing 0 of 0 jobs
* Questionnaire link not in posting: the open posting's text doesn't link a questionnaire, so we found it from the posting's announcement number or its USAJOBS apply page.
Tip: Press Enter to add a search term as a filter. Add multiple filters per column.