When it comes to starting a new career in the Federal Government, how does Veterans Preference work?

I just retired from the federal government after 15 years plus 11 years of active duty time purchased for retirement.

The present administration , contrary to all of its posturing, is NOT a veteran friendly environment. This is especially true in DHS where I have worked for GS-15's who barely had a high school education while their subordinates had advanced degrees including several JD's and PhD's.

The present federal government system has an attitude of hiring who they want and if they ignore a veteran too f-king bad. They have no hesitation to force you to go through the grievance and appeals process knowing full well that it will take at least 2 to 3 years before you get an adjudication to your complaint.

I had applied for a GS-14 job within the same agency for a position that, when it was initially created, I was supposed to have been supervising. I was a 14 at the time so it was really nothing more than a lateral transfer. The announcement had the verbiage that they would hire from TWO lists...one internal and one for special hire (vets and ALL of the rest of the special people). I submitted all of the documentation to support a veterans preference and they promoted into the job a junior grade an employee who as NOT a veteran and had no military service. Additionally, the job required the successful hire to move to the city where I was already stationed at no expense to the G. The guy lived 250 miles away and they allowed him to work the assignment from his home without moving.

I claimed vet preference violation and the state department of labor ruled in my favor. The DHS ignored this and forced me to file with the MSPB. After 18 months, the MSPB ruled that I should have filed TWO SEPARATE applications and as the morons at DHS gave the excuse that "they didn't know which list I wanted to compete from". I guess it takes a special kind of moron to look at 3 DD Forms 214, a VA disability letter, and an SF 15 to conclude that this applicant must be a veteran.

The whole system is now a sham. Don't waste your time going to work for the USG, especially DHS. They are clearly the gang that can't shoot straight!

The Feds hire on a points system. You have to meet the basic qualifications for a job. (Education, experience etc) Then they look for "key words" in your resume/application that indicate your experience level and they add up all the "points" they calculate. Then they add in vet pref points. All of this happens Before you even get an interview. So if you weren't detailed enought in your resume (and I mean really detailed) you might loose out before they add in vet pref points. Anyway then the top scorers get the interviews. When I applied to the BLM as a wildland firefighter, I met all the basic qualifications, but I didn't have any experience. I ranked higher than another individual who had fire fighting experience, but lacked a vet pref. I was hired and he was not. I received the training that he already had. Experience counts, but is not always necessary when it come to vet pref. the supervisor didn't want to hire me because of
My lack of experience, but he couldn't not offer me the job first based on the vet pref. I took the job and worked the next 5 years as a firefighter and worked up in the ranked as well.

Not very well.