Government Plans On-the-Spot Hiring Event for Cyber, Tech Positions

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Agencies aim to plan to make offers on dozens of open tech positions to pre-screened applicants.

The government will host its first major tech and cyber recruitment event in November in an effort to fill hundreds of open jobs across at least 20 federal agencies, the General Services Administration said Thursday.

Applicants who register in advance and go through pre-screening could be offered tentative positions on the spot, a senior administration official told reporters.

Those job offers will still be dependent on security clearance requirements, however, which vary by agency, the official said.

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Participating agencies include the Defense, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services departments and the Social Security Administration, National Archives and Small Business Administration, an official told reporters.

Other agencies may join before the event, the official said.

Most positions filled during the event will be advertised on the government jobs board USAJobs.com between Sept. 15 and 29, according to a news release. People who are interested should apply during that time period to allow time for screening, the official said.

The FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will also be recruiting at the event and advertising open jobs on their own websites, an official said.

Open job positions include data architects, computer scientists, cyber analysts, engineers, mathematicians, and project managers, according to the news release. The jobs range from General Service level 7 to 15, the senior administration official said.

The event will be heavily modeled on cyber and tech job fairs, the Homeland Security Department has held in the past, the official said.

The government has historically struggled to fill and retain tech and cyber jobs because of numerous impediments including budget uncertainty, the lag time on security clearances and higher wages in the private sector.

The event will be held Nov. 6 and 7 at the Silver Spring Civic Building at 1 Veterans Pl, Silver Spring, Maryland.