Hiring Historians at the U.S. Army Center for Military History
Recent changes in the Army Personnel System have made it even more difficult to bring new professionals into Federal historical programs. Briefly, in an effort to expedite the overall Federal hiring process which as we know can take well over a year, personnel specialists have sought to automate the process. Army Civilian Personnel Operations Centers are now requiring all applicants for most Federal positions to use an automated resume generation and application process called "Resumix". All resumix applications are screened by an computer system and not by civilian personnel specialists or historians. The new system examines each electronic resume for exact matches to very specific keywords/phrases and then will automatically rank-order the applicants by how many of the keywords are found. Only the "top" candidates (according to this machine search) will be forwarded to the actual "selecting" (i.e., hiring) officials.
As a result, applicants for civilian historian positions anywhere in the Federal government, should know that their resume will be reviewed only by a machine and that simply cutting and pasting their academic vita, created assuming a certain level of knowledge of the reviewer, will NOT work. Applicants also need to remember to read the exact job description very carefully and then write complete and full descriptions of what they did during their course work, independent study, fellowship and dissertation work (i.e., "read primary sources," "conducted independent research," "did analysis of facts," "summarized historical data," "wrote complex paragraphs," "completed research and analysis project," and so forth) so that even a non-historian can understand their skills and abilities.
A number of Center of Military History (CMH) positions are also being hired under the Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP). Under this program CMH can accept applications (resumes and transcripts) directly from interested candidates who have not yet (or just barely) completed their dissertations. CMH historians can screen their applications, examine writing samples and recommendations, and, if they are a good fit, they may be able to provide a relatively quick offer of employment without the applicant using the resumix system. The positions often start at the GS 09 level in the excepted service (in essence, non-tenure-in 2006 they started at $44,856) but within two years they can be promoted to GS 12 ($65,048 in 2006). The FCIP program is thus ideal in identifying young historians with new Ph.D.s who want to work for the Federal government and allows supervisors to get them hired on a "trial" basis.
For more information about this program, or if you are interested in applying for historian positions in the Center of Military History, contact Dr. Richard Stewart, Chief Historian, U.S. Army Center of Military History, DAMH-ZA, 103 Third Ave, Fort McNair, DC 20319 or at Richard.Stewart2@us.army.mil.
