Usually the 12 positions are offered in many high priced areas that are hard to fill. Keep trying if it is what you want. If it is open to US Citizens, you should at least have a fighting chance. I think alot of the OPM folks are traveling alot and being forced to take a few overseas trips. Yeah it is nice in Europe, but with things being the way they are, not sure too much sightseeing could be accomplished.

Wow. They probably didn’t want to pay you…

They are open for GS 11/12 right now in the DC area. I am assuming all those positions will go to the current feds moving up from the GS 9.

Vet status means nothing–I am a 20 year vet, served in 5 campaigns, supervised over 300 people at once and have disability and 26 years experience in the investigative realm and was passed over for someone with 4 years experience and no vet status. In my humble opinion, you are better served as a contractor. Their only advantage now is a pension, which is investment based. They appear to be hiring at low pay rates.

Missed one–it is a fact OPM will increase it’s workload capacity, but to what end, I’m not sure. I think, for now it would not be so extreme that we lose our jobs or anything of the kind. They do have a country-wide hiring push, but I believe alot of that is also due to attrition/retirements. And, yes it is cheaper to use contractors if for anything, our junior inv’s make squat in comparison to an OPM inv, who may be a GS-12 within a year, making more than 68k while ours make about 36k.

At anytime the govt can “In Source.” Do they have the capability? Yes–you bet they do. They can roll-over contractors into their roles or simply add less experienced staff and save money upfront. If you are wondering about us inv’s, the answer, in my opinion, is no–not all of us. I think the govt woulk love to eliminate all contractors, but this blows in with an administration and blows out during the next. Anyone who can do simple math can show it is clearly cheaper to keep contractors and much more efficient. We have to earn money to survive–they don’t. I’ll make a prediction–within a few years there will be a govt-wide reduction in force and they will return to the use of contractors across the entire spectrum of jobs. They simply can’t afford it. The long term projections with benefits and pensions will kill them. I will tell you in my area at least 60-70% of all contractors are already being converted, but not us–mainly DoD folks. I think we are safe if you work hard, but don’t slack as the words “Inherently A Govermental Process” is being thrown around about investigations. If it goes back to OPM, I will also predict it will once again take 2 or more years to be cleared–will not be OPM’s fault, but in my opinion, large govt workforces are somewhat lazy and non-productive. May not happen right away, but it will happen.

Is it a clear known fact from OPM that they plan to in-source significant portion of investigations? Do they have the budget and the capability to do so? And isn’t it much cheaper to outsource

Keypoint is not part of the deal as Keypoint is stand alone and not part of Kroll anymore. Kroll is still around just not the government services side, which was investigators.