Invitation to visit careers.science.gov pilot website

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science and five other agencies (DHS, NASA, VA, Department of State, and Department of Labor), in collaboration with the Partnership for Public Service, have developed a pilot website (http://careers.science.gov) to highlight science and technology (S&T) careers in the Federal government and provide a collection of resources of interest to students and professionals considering an S&T career in public service.

As you may know, Federal agencies face many challenges in recruiting S&T talent, including:

• the lack of general awareness and understanding of the outstanding career opportunities in the Federal government for scientists and engineers;
• the growing retirements of the "baby boomer" generation, which will lead to increased vacancies of key S&T positions across the Federal agencies;
• competition with the private sector for top talent in S&T fields; and
• the limitations of USAJOBS.gov—the primary avenue for applying to science and engineering positions for most Federal agencies—for communicating what jobs are available and what these jobs are really like.

The pilot website will be available through February 2012. A Feedback Survey developed with and hosted by the Partnership for Public Service will help provide insight as to how the Federal government might improve its recruitment of S&T professionals at all levels.

The participating agencies invite you to look at the website (http://careers.science.gov) and complete the short survey.  Feel free to share this message with your colleagues and students.