Veterans Service Representative - Pathways Recent Graduate - Chicago, IL

• Overview Summary Vacancy Identification Number (VIN): 2029255 OUR MISSION: To fulfill President Lincoln's promise ? "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan" ? by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans. How would you like to become a part of a team providing compassionate care to Veterans? The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) provides a variety of benefits and services to service members, veterans, and their families. VBA has been undergoing a major transformation that is people-centric, results-oriented, and a forward-looking integration of solutions that will ensure total lifelong engagement with service members, veterans, and their families. For more information on the Department of Veterans Affairs, go to: - This position is being filled under the Pathways Recent Graduate Program. This program is designed to allow recent graduates to enter VA in career positions that emphasize long-term training and development. Successful applicants are placed in a dynamic developmental program with potential to lead to a civil service career in the Federal Government. The program lasts for one year or more. You can find more information about specific opportunities with the Pathways Recent Graduates Program on: - Duties This position is located in the Veterans Service Center (VSC), at the Chicago Regional Office, in Chicago, IL. As a Veterans Service Representative (VSR) you will work on veterans benefits claims and provide comprehensive services to America's Veterans and their families. The Veterans Service Representative (VSR) explains benefit programs and entitlement criteria, conducts interviews, identifies issues, gathers relevant evidence, adjudicates claims, and inputs data necessary to generate the award and notification letter to the veteran describing the decision and the reason for it. As a VSR you will: - Serve as a primary contact for the veteran and his/her representative or advocate and the decision-maker for compensation or pension claims. - Explain the full range of veteran benefits and all related programs. - Make determinations as to eligibility for the type of benefit sought and fully analyzes, develops, and requests required evidence for certain claims requiring a rating decision. - Decide the necessity for and type of examinations, reexamination or opinions to determine the existence of or to evaluate disabilities resulting from diseases or injuries. - Develop comprehensive requests for these examinations/opinions to ensure appropriate evidence is received from which to adjudicate the claim. - Prepare correspondence to members of Congress and special interest groups on case assignments and other "controlled" correspondence. - Rotate through the Cross-Functional, Intake Processing Center, Direct Contact, Appeals, and Quality Review teams to gain experience in all aspects of the Transformation Initiative. - Utilize various electronic data processing (EDP) systems for inputting data related to claims adjudication, processing, monitoring, and correspondence preparation. - Act as an advocate for veterans and their beneficiaries in their dealings with other VA elements and organizations that affect their claims. Work Schedule: Regular office hours Monday-Friday; Alternate work schedules may be available. Position Description Title: Veterans Service Representative - Pathways Recent Graduate GS-0996-07/07 full performance level 10 Promotion Potential: The incumbent may be promoted to the full performance level (GS-10) without further competition after meeting time-in-grade and specialized experience requirements. Upon attaining the GS-10 grade level, the incumbent will be required to take the VSR Skills Certification. Selection at a lower grade level does not guarantee promotion to the full performance level. - $45,703 $59,412 Job Details Application Open Date 4/24/2018 Application Close Date 4/25/2018 Organization Veterans Benefits Administration Who May Apply United States Citizens Status Full Time - More About VA - The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be well-qualified, applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors if applicable, and must be proficient in most of the requirements of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website Position Sensitivity: This position has a position-sensitivity level of Public Trust - Low Risk. Selections made under this announcement are considered upon favorable adjudication of a National Agency Check with Written Inquiries (NACI) per VA Handbook 0710; an investigation will be conducted after the effective date of the selection. An individual currently holding the appropriate clearance may not require additional investigation. An individual receiving an unfavorable adjudication will be ineligible to remain in this position. More information regarding investigations can be found: here Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by selecting from this posting. The position may be otherwise be filled by promotion, reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. - Qualifications - To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. Note: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Pathways Recent Grad Program Eligibility Requirements: The Pathways Recent Graduates Program is open to recent graduates who are legally permitted to work in the U.S. To be eligible, you must have completed, within the previous two years, a qualifying associates, bachelors, masters, professional, doctorate, vocational or technical degree, or certificate from a qualifying educational institution. Veterans unable to apply within two years of receiving their degree, due to military service obligation, have as many as six years after degree completion to apply. Upon completion of the Pathways Program, the selectee may be converted to a permanent competitive service position contingent upon meeting program requirements and the needs of the agency. Specialized Experience: To qualify, applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-05) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization interpreting regulations and applying laws required to explain, evaluate and recommend determinations of eligibility to claimant requests for services and benefits. Specialized experience is defined as work that involves: (1) Requesting relevant medical or administrative evidence to make eligibility determinations; (2) Analyzing medical evidence, benefit and/or legal evidence to identify and recognize required actions for claim development, and (3) Experience explaining program benefit entitlements and requirements. Or applicants may substitute education for the experience required at the GS-07 level: Successful completion of one (1) full year of graduate level education (18 credit hours) in an accredited college or university which demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work or superior academic achievement during completion of a Bachelor's degree. Superior academic achievement can be based on one of the following: a. Ranked in the upper 1/3 of your college class or major subdivision at the time you apply; OR b. Earned election to a national scholastic honor society that meets the requirements of the Association of College Honor Societies other than freshman honor societies; OR c. Earned a grade point average (GPA) of 2.95 or higher on a 4.0 scale based on all completed undergraduate courses, or all undergraduate classes completed during the final two years; OR d. Earned a GPA of 3.45 or higher on a 4.0 scale based on all completed undergraduate courses in your major, or all undergraduate courses in your major completed during the final two years. Please note that if more than 10% of your undergraduate course work (credit hours) was taken on a pass/fail or similar basis, you can qualify only on the basis of your class standing or membership in an honor society. For more information on calculating Superior Academic Achievement and combining education and experience to qualify for positions please visit: www.opm.gov Or applicants can combine graduate education and specialized experience to qualify at the GS-07 level. If you have some, but not all, of the graduate education AND specialized experience described above, you may still qualify by combining the amount of creditable education and experience that you do have. To do so, first calculate the percentage of qualifying education you have as a percentage of the education required. Next, calculate the percentage of specialized experience you have as a percentage of the experience required. Then, add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100% for you to qualify for the position at the GS-7 grade level. For example, an applicant who has 9 semester hours of graduate education (i.e., 50% of graduate education required) and 6 months of acceptable specialized experience (i.e., 50% of the experience required) would satisfy the qualification requirements for the position A transcript with a completion/conferred date must be submitted with your application, if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Transcripts without this information are not complete. - Benefits - VA offers a comprehensive benefits package. This link provides an overview of the benefits currently offered: http://www.vacareers.va.gov/why-choose-va/benefits/index.asp VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework.? Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. - How To Apply - All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the View Occupational Questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 to receive consideration. 1. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USAJOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. 2. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the more information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete. Faxing Applications or Supporting Documents: You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application. If you are unable to apply online or unable to upload your supporting documents to your online application, follow the directions located at the following site: Fax Options. The Vacancy ID of the job opportunity announcement is 2029255. Please note the following information about applying via fax: - If you applied online and your application is complete, do not fax the paper application (1203-FX) as this will overwrite your prior online responses will result in you being found ineligible. - In Section 25 of the occupational questionnaire, you may notice that the numbering restarts with number one. When entering your responses on the 1203-FX form please continue to enter your responses on the next available number within this section. The numbers on the 1203-FX will not match the Occupational Questionnaire once it restarts with number one. - When completing the 1203-FX, be sure to select only one response for each question. Selecting more than one response for a question may result in your application package being rated ineligible.