Introducing 'CareerHere,'
a Job Hunter's Dream
By
Gregory Roa
April
20, 1999
Applying for
a job at the National Institutes of Health is a lot easier thanks
to CareerHere,
a new Web-based tool announced by the Center for Information Technology
and the Office of Human Resource Management. Anyone can search for
job openings, obtain complete vacancy announcements and submit applications
with resumés entirely online.
CareerHere
allows visitors a number of ways to search for job openings — by
position title, series, grade or other options. Users can then view
full vacancy announcements at the touch of a button.
But what should
excite most job hunters is the ability to build a resumé
and apply online through CareerHere. Helpful links appear
at every stage of the process to assist applicants, including nonfederal
job seekers, complete each section. Applicants can even copy and
paste entire resumés from a word processor right into the
application.
And no more
endless retyping whenever new openings come up — CareerHere
lets applicants update their information and apply for other vacancies
as needed. For each application submitted, the system automatically
replies with a notification of receipt.
As an added
feature, CareerHere posts the applications into a database
available to human resources offices at every institute. That way,
should a manager want to advertise a new position, HR can easily
search for highly qualified candidates whose resumés are
already on file. Privacy across the entire system is safeguarded
by password protection and other security methods.
Such user-friendly
features are the result of extensive pilot testing done by five
institutes. Participants fashioned the kind of powerful, intuitive
tool initially envisioned by the National Academy of Public Administration.
NAPA has been working with the pilot group to improve human resources
programs at NIH. In the first phase, CareerHere replaces
the NIH Automated Vacancy Announcement System. When combined with
other improvements designed at NIAID with additional OHRM funding,
CareerHere will form part of the most comprehensive federal
recruitment and staffing product yet developed.
Human resource
staff stand to benefit from CareerHere's features as much
as job seekers, for good reason. During testing, a special user
group of HR officers from several ICs met frequently to advise designers
and suggest modifications. Pilot users have commented that CareerHere
saves many steps in creating and posting vacancy announcements.
Not only is it faster to cut-and-paste vacancy announcements online,
but also the new program automatically provides a direct link to
OPM's USA Jobs Web site.
By making it
easier to apply for NIH jobs, the new automated vacancy announcement
system could improve NIH's ability to recruit top scientists and
administrators. Developers expect job hunters will appreciate the
advantages of having their applications available to multiple ICs,
as well as the ability to modify their resumés for each new
announcement that opens.
Now may be
a good time to polish up your own resumé and get it online
at CareerHere.
_
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This story
appeared in the April 20, 1999 issue of The NIH Record, an
employee newsletter at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
MD, For more information, call the newsletter office at (301) 496-2125.
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