January 23 Launch Date for New USAJobs

Brittany Ballenstedt points out over on Wired Workplace that the Office of Personnel Management has set January 23 as the launch date for a new iteration of USAJobs, the government's famously impenetrable job-listings website. Among the functionalities the new site is expected to feature is the ability to share individual job listings through social media sites. I think this is a particularly smart step forward.

On a fairly regular basis, I get asked to give federal career advice to recent college graduates or friends switching jobs or looking for internships before graduate school. And it's really difficult to tell them where they start. Most of them have little idea of the breadth of agencies, much less offices within agencies out there, making it difficult for them to pin down where they'd like to work, much less what they'd like to do when they get there. Allowing folks to push out individual listings will give folks a much better idea of what kinds of jobs are available in the federal government. For folks who are curious about public service but confused about where to dive in, it's an important place to start. Now we just have to hope that folks take advantage of these tools to spread the word and information.