[fintstone]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

As some of you might already know the federal GS schedule is a playground. GS 11 has an education requirement of a PhD, or three years of graduate school leading to a PhD. I was flown out for an interview for an agency. They seem to like me as I was given a verbal offer but at a lower GS scale than what I was expecting. The offer was from the main supervisor for a 9, which will be bumped up to a 11 after a year… is it worth it to fight for the 11? Is this an HR issue?


Any advice would be appreciated.

Rules are much like union...where experience is key. You mut have a year of experience to compete for a job at a level beyond entry (for the degree).

You are being offered a position on education alone. The education requirements for grade are only if you are entering a position without experience. If you have a PhD and no experience, Grade 9 is the maximum. You need an equivalent of a year's experience at a 9 (or comparable in the private sector) to qualify for the 11. If you had a year's experience in a similar job at the GS 13 (private or Fed), you could compete for a 14 or lower in that series.

If you have experience at the next lower grade (or a higher grade) in the private sector, you can negotiate for a within grade step that pays up to one step more (3%) when entering civil service (f the hiring official is willing/wants you badly). If your previous pay in the private sector was GS-9, step 6, you could negotiate for as high as GS-9, step 7.

If the 9 you are looking at promotes to 11 without competition in a year, that is called a developmental position. Sometimes they tell you that you will get promoted (but it is not automatic) ...unless officially a developmental position. They often call these positions "9 target 11_ or similar depending on the grades.