PolyWogg’s (Completely Informal and Totally Unofficial) Guide to Competing for Jobs in the Canadian Federal Government

To be reworked with Chapter 1 & 2, added to understanding process

Finding out about jobs in the Federal Government

Two main sites:

1. IF YOU’RE OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT – http://jobs-emplois.gc.ca/
   • This is the main site for external applicants. When you go there, you can create an account and/or sign up for job alerts of new jobs, but primarily the first page is a search engine. You enter some key words (what type of work you want to do) and the location, and click search.
   • Alternatively, you can review info grouped around the Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP, which operates like co-op for students who aren’t in co-op), students in general, graduates or even inside government.
   • The site also explains the application process in basic HR-ese which is to say it tells you what to do in general terms, but not how to tweak things, avoid traps, etc.
   • And, if you’re so inclined, it also includes profiles of various public servant jobs and what they do in a normal day.
2. IF YOU’RE ALREADY IN GOVERNMENT — https://jobs-emplois.psea-lefp.publiservice.gc.ca/ind100.do?lang=en
   • This is the main site for internal applicants. While internal applicants can also apply for external competitions,thevast majority of jobs are open to internal applicants only. As noted above, most jobs look for experience at lower levels of the hierarchy as demonstrating ability to do the higher level jobs. This site is extensive and will let you do three things:
     1. Search for jobs by various criteria including location or category;
     2. Create an account and apply to jobs online;

• Set up alerts with multiple criteria and receive job alerts in your inbox every day.

• As this site is restricted to internal applicants, you generally have to access the listings from a computer connected to a government network rather than a personal computer at home.

Other jobs for unique departments and particularly those agencies that are not part of “core public administration” (as outlined above) also frequently post notices directly on their own website rather than the above portals. As such, if there is a specific agency you are interested in, their website will be the best source of info about open positions.

Now for the bad news. Remember that I said above you didn’t need to know anyone? That is true for the most part. However, one area where it isn’t as true as it should be is in the area of deployments at level (i.e. simply moving around) or temporary assignments. These are generally only open to those already in government and are rarely advertised. As such, the only way to find out about them generally is through networking. Don’t worry, that’s not a huge problem as those jobs are nowhere near as numerous as the formal selection processes, and I’ll deal with it at the end, partly because it has very few formal “steps”.