1. BLS Recruitment Presentation
IT Specialist Occ pations
Occupations

2. Agenda
 Introduction to BLS
 What is an IT Specialist?
 So what do IT Specialists do?
 What technologies does BLS use?
 What’s the work life like?
 What else do you want to know?
2

3. Who is the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics?
 Principal fact-finding agency for the
fact finding
Federal Government in the broad field
of labor economics and statistics
statistics.
 An independent statistical agency within
the Department of Labor.
 Part of the Federal statistical system
y
that includes the Bureau of Economic
Analysis (
y (BEA) and the Census Bureau.
)
3

4. What does the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics do?
Our mission is to collect, process,
analyze,
analyze and disseminate essential
economic information to support public
and private decision making.
decision-making
4

5. Yes, you have heard
about us….
us
 The Unemployment Rate
 Consumer Price Index (CPI)
 Producer Price Index (PPI)
 Occupational Outlook Handbook
 Monthly Labor Review
 http://www.bls.gov/
http://www bls gov/
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6. Some things you may not
know about us.
us
 American Time Use Survey
 Consumer Expenditure Survey
 Import/Export Prices
 Employment Cost Index
 One-time and special surveys
6

7. Why we do it ?
 Provide factual and reliable information,
information
not opinions, for use in decision-making
 Provide policy-makers with accurate
d l k h
data
 Provide information to researchers
 Provide information to job seekers and
businesses
 Provide information for the media
7

8. How is the Bureau
organized?
BLS Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
8

9. How is the Bureau
organized?
There are also 6 Regional Offices:
Atlanta Boston/New York
Chicago Dallas/Kansas City
Philadelphia San Francisco
Plus office locations in other U.S.
metropolitan areas.
9

10. Where and how do we get
our data?
 From direct collection of representative
industries and households across the
country
 From other government agencies
g g
 From publications and web sites
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11. Work at the BLS:
the big i t
th bi picture
Most BLS
Design
positions
involve direct or
support work
related Dissemination Sampling
to these survey
stages
Continuous
improvement Data
Analysis
y
Collection
Processing
Data
and
Validation
Estimation 11

12. What occupations are
available?
 Information technology specialists
 Economists
 Mathematical statisticians
 Other:
Program analysts, budget specialists, HR
specialists, psychologists, accountants,
p ,p y g , ,
procurement specialists
12

13. Agenda
 Introduction to BLS
 What is an IT Specialist?
 So what do IT Specialists do?
 What technologies does BLS use?
 What’s the work life like?
 What else do you want to know?
13

14. What is a IT Specialist?
 A trained professional who provides the
information technology support for one
or more surveys and products of the
Agency.
 In
I general terms . . .
lt
 Economists – Define what needs to be measured
 Math-Stats – Figure out how to make it happen
 IT Specialists – Make it happen
 Admin/HR Staff – S ppo t us all
St ff Support ll
14

15. IT Specialists
 IT Specialists work collaboratively with
other BLS professionals (Economists,
Math Statisticians, etc ) during
Statisticians etc.) during…
Requirements Gathering/Analysis and
Testing phases of software development
Production Operations/Maintenance – e.g.,
job execution trouble shooting
execution, trouble-shooting
15

16. Duties of IT Specialist
 S ft
Software D
Development
l t
 Server/Database Administration
 Network Administration
 Computer/Information Assurance
 Documentation, Requirements, and
Procedures management
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17. Minimum Qualifications
All positions require U.S. Citizenship and a
US
bachelor’s degree with 24 semester hours in
topics such as computer science or database
p p
management.
GS-7
GS 7 GS-9
GS 9
 Cumulative GPA of  Master’s degree, OR
2.95 or higher, OR  Combination of
 GPA of 3.45 or higher experience and
in major field of study education
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18. Desirable Education &
Experience
 Coursework or experience in programming,
k
database management, software
development
 Experience in working in a team environment.
 Experience in writing for different audiences.
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19. Agenda
 Introduction to BLS
 What is an IT Specialist?
 So what do IT Specialists do?
 What technology does the BLS use?
 What’s the work life like?
 What else do you want to know?
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20. Typical Day of an IT
Specialist
 Software Development:
Code and test software
Participate in peer reviews of code
f d
Participate in running or monitoring
production jobs
d ti j b
Collaborate with teammates and users
20

21. Typical Day of an IT
Specialist Cont d…
Cont’d
 Database/Network/Information
Assurance:
Evaluate/recommend/deploy new products
E l t / d/d l d t
or upgrades
Participate i
P ti i t in peer reviews of infrastructure
i fi f t t
designs
Participate in monitoring infrastructure
performance
Collaborate with teammates software
teammates,
developers, and users 21

22. Agenda
 Introduction to BLS
 What is an IT Specialist?
 So what do IT Specialists do?
 What technology does the BLS use?
 What’s the work life like?
 What else do you want to know?
22

23. Technologies
 IT Specialists use industry standard
industry-standard
technology to support key BLS
objectives.
objectives
Build systems to measure and report on
key BLS measures (Unemployment report
report,
Consumer Price Index, etc.)
Develop applications in-house
in house
Ensure network stability and security
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24. Technologies
(Hardware & Software)
 Software Development Methodology
 Rational Unified Process (RUP)
 Agile
 Enterprise Server Hardware
 Sun Servers running Solaris (Unix)
 Hewlett Packard Servers running Windows/Linux
 Enterprise Software Technologies
 Microsoft Internet Information Server/Apache (Web Server)
 Web Logic/Tomcat (Application Server)
 Microsoft Exchange/Outlook (Workflow)
 Open source products
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25. Major Technologies
Cont d…
Cont’d
 Development Languages  Tools
 Java
J  J Builder
 Extensible Markup Language (XML)  Microsoft Visual Studio
 Statistical Analysis Software (SAS)  Rational Rose
 MS Visual C++  Rational Requisite P o
Req isite Pro
 MS Visual Basic,  Eclipse
 Microsoft .Net (VB, C#)
 Active Server Pages (ASP)  Configuration Management Tools
 jRUBY  Serena Version Manager
 Adobe Flash  Serena TeamTrack/MashUps
 Adobe Flex
 Databases
 Oracle
 Sybase
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26. Agenda
 Introduction to BLS
 What is an IT Specialist?
 So what do IT Specialists do?
 What technology does the BLS use?
 What’s the work life like?
 What else do you want to know?
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27. Benefits
 Standard government benefits
Paid holidays, health & life insurance,
retirement plan, etc
plan etc.
 Work/life balance
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28. Training
 On-the-job
 Graduate school classes
 BLS-sponsored classes
 Participation in professional associations
p p
and conferences
 Certifications
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29. The Extras….
Extras
Nation’s Capitol
Sport Venues
Union Station
Fitness Center
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30. Career Path and
Promotional Opportunities
 Entry-Level
Entry Level Positions
 IT Specialists GS-7 & GS-9
 BLS employees in professional
positions can advance from GS-7/9
levels through the GS-12 level
g
 Non-competitively
 With acceptable performance
 With one year in each grade
 Beyond the GS-12 level, technical and
supervisory positions are available on
a competitive basis 30

31. IT Specialists Salaries
Washington, D.C.
$74,872
$60,344
Salary
$54,032
$62,467
$45,872
S
$51,630
IT Specialists
$42,209
$42 209 Everyone Else (almost)
GS-7
GS 7 GS-9
GS 9 GS-11
GS 11 GS-12
GS 12
Grade 31

32. Agenda
 Introduction to BLS
 What is an IT Specialist?
 So what do IT Specialists do?
 What technology does the BLS use?
 What’s the work life like?
 What else do you want to know?
32