The terms noted below are used by the Office of Personnel Management to classify federal jobs.
What it is: The Occupational Series Code and Title columns are essentially the job code and title. They are much like military occupation code and title. An occupational series is a subdivision of an occupational group or job family consisting of positions similar as to specialized line of work and qualification requirements. Series are designated by a title and number such as the Accounting Series, 0510; the Secretary Series, 0318; the Microbiology Series, 0403.
Why it’s important: They define the job and how it’s categorized within the civil service. There may or may not be specific pay grades, education requirements, experience requirements, etc. associated with the occupational series. Sometimes they are specified for the job family (discussed above), sometimes they are specified for the occupational series, and other times they are specified within the job opportunity announcement that is posted by the federal agency on the official federal job search site – www.USAJOBS.gov.
What to do: Click on the link in the Occupational Series Title column to read a description of the occupational series and find out more about its requirements. Keep in mind that the specific agency requirements may override the general requirements described in the occupational series. Thus, you should carefully review the job opportunity announcement on USAJOBS. Vacancies for the listed occupational series are discussed in more detail below and are accessible from the last column of the table.
What it is: This column lists the Occupational Series Type. OPM classifies jobs into one of three types:
Why it’s important: The occupational series type can give you a sense of the potential job qualifications, working environment, and type of pay. Often occupations in trade, craft, and labor perform manual labor. They can be skilled or unskilled and there is typically a less requirement for formal academic education. Many of these jobs require only a high school degree or GED although they may have some specialized work experience requirements.
White collar workers, on the other hand, are typically salaried professionals who perform professional office, administrative, and sales coordination tasks. They often work in an office environment and the positions typically have formal academic requirements, such as a college degree.
Vessel workers, by nature, work on boats and ships and may perform a range of duties similar to those performed by trade, craft, and labor workers. It's important to note that vessel jobs are not as widely available in the federal government as White Collar and Trade, Craft, and Labor jobs.
What to do: Use the occupational series type to gauge whether that occupation is appealing to you and whether you meet the general requirements described above for that type of position. Keep in mind that the specific agency requirements may override the general requirements described in the occupational series. Thus, you should carefully review the job opportunity announcement on USAJOBS. Vacancies for the listed occupational series are discussed in more detail below and are accessible from the last column of the table.
What it is: This column lists the federal job family associated with the specific occupational series. A job family is a broad grouping of related occupational series.
Why it’s important: You might see other occupational series in the job family that are of interest.
What to do: Click on the link in the Job Family column to find out more about that job family and the occupational series it includes. If you see other series titles that are of interest within the family, you can search for them by series number, title, or keyword on the official federal job search site - www.USAJOBS.gov.
What it is: This column provides a link to USAJOBs, which is the official jobsite for the US Federal Government. This is where federal agencies post their job opportunity announcements. USAJOBS contains listings for thousands of available federal jobs.
Why it’s important: The job opportunity announcements contained on USAJOBS list the detailed qualifications for a specific job vacancy. This is where you should go to determine whether you meet the specific job qualifications.
What to do: Click on the link in this column to search for the specific occupational classification series listed in that row on USAJOBS. From USAJOBS, you can filter your search to specific locations, salary, grade, agencies, etc.