The NY Times published an article titled "300,000 Apply for 3,300 Obama Jobs." If you want to be 300,001, just head on over to change.gov and throw your hat in the ring. There you'll be asked a few basic demographic questions. After you submit your information, you'll receive an email with a link to the job application site. (When I did this last month, the email came a day later.)
This job process is not as transparent as other government jobs, but that's okay.
Ever been to usajobs.gov? This is the central job site for nearly all non-political federal jobs. You can do keyword searches, searches by agency, etc. For example, 170 jobs show up if you search for database administrator.
Now let's go to change.gov and see and search for...oh wait, you can't search for jobs. What the hell? This is change we can believe in? What year is this, 1994?
Settle down, Beavis.
Political jobs are listed in the Plum Book, which is available in a PDF file. It's called the plum book because of the cover. The fact the some of these jobs pay well is of course, purely coincidental, I guess.
A search within the PDF file for "Database Administrator" returns 0 hits. A search for "database" returns one hit: "Director, Enterprise Databases Group" for the Dept. Of Health and Human Services in Woodlawn, MD (just west of Baltimore). It's an SES job (big bucks, at least as far as government jobs.)
Civil Service jobs at USAJobs.gov follow a set pattern, with the following sections:
Overview
Duties
Qualifications & Evaluations
Benefits & Other Info
How to Apply
For example, there's a Database Administrator job in Chicago for the Railroad Retirement Board. Under "Qualifications and Evaluations" it has the following:
Serves as an agency-level technical expert in the implementation, maintenance, and enhancement of databases in the OS/mainframe and Windows environments. Coordinates with other IT staff to support database management systems and works with programmer/analysts to enable applications to interface with databases on all platforms. Plays a key role in extending database capabilities to support Internet, Intranet, and other special functions. Provides technical guidance and assistance to other data processing personnel and users on the most complex projects and problems and personally resolves the most difficult issues. Provides input on new and revised guidance to be incorporated into the agency's ADP standards. Evaluates, develops, and defines disaster recovery and contingency plans for database operations on all platforms. Plans and coordinates all phases of product upgrades for database management system software including installation, implementation, and maintenance. Evaluates and recommends measures to improve overall database system performance and implements accepted improvements. Monitors database use and maintains and controls database management systems by serving as troubleshooter, testing the systems, identifying and resolving problems, being available and on call, and assuring the system is operating properly. Provides guidance to applications development personnel regarding interfaces between application programs and the database management systems, client-server interfaces, and system-to-system accesses. Coordinates and develops security strategy for the database management systems. Conducts, coordinates, and oversees activities to ensure the integrity of the data and database management systems.
All hail governmentese!
Sometimes these sections have a link to a questionnaire where applicants are asked multiple-choice questions and/or essay questions.
Now, back to that "Director, Enterprise Databases Group" position. What are the duties? What are the required qualifications? Damned if I know. So what criteria will the Obama administration use to fill this slot? Any one they want to. They could give it to a big fundraiser's niece if they so choose. Is this right?
On the other hand, Obama needs people who are loyal to him to and are going to carry out his agenda. Political appointees act as the bridge between civil servents and the President. At least in theory. Some are lazy, some are hardworking. But when tough things need to be done at higher-levels, you need someone who's working the political angle in order to be successful. There's lots of people who will want to kill initiatives, and there are plenty of civil servents more than willing to torpedo an initiative.
So change.gov isn't completely transparent. Big deal. What in live is? Hell, we're a community of imposters - how many of us use our real names for or DKos ID?