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**working for the usg after retirement**

\- Prepared by the CTC Staff and published in the July 2005 CTC
Newsletter

For Civil Service & Foreign Service there are several ways to be
re-employed by the USG after retirement. Some are better than others!

**[Re-employment As A Direct-Hire Civil Service Employee]{.underline}**

You can be re-hired as a Civil Service Employee. This option is
available to both Foreign Service and Civil Service Retirees. Unlike the
Foreign Service, there is no mandatory retirement age for the Civil
Service. As long as you receive satisfactory performance evaluations and
are able to perform the required duties of the position, you can work
until you die at your desk. But, your retirement annuity will be
suspended and you will have to work fulltime to earn only the salary of
the position.

**[Employment As A Personal Services Contractor]{.underline}**

Again, this option is available to both Foreign Service and Civil
Service Retirees and there are no age restrictions. There are also no
restrictions on how many hours you can work. Best of all, PSC employment
does not affect your retirement annuity. There is even a possibility
that some benefits might be involved. So, you would earn your annuity
plus whatever salary you are offered as a PSC. A pretty good deal.

Few State Department bureaus have PSC authority. The ones we know that
have PSC authority are:

-   CA - Consular Affairs

-   INL - International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs

-   OBO - Overseas Buildings Operations

-   DS -- Diplomatic Security

We have invited all those bureaus to advertise their PSC vacancies with
us, but have only received one response so far. You may have noticed
several OBO PSC job leads lately. Hopefully, other bureaus will join
them -- after all, we're free! Advertisement of State Department PSC
vacancies varies by bureau and by position, but may include:

-   FedBizOpps - [www.fbo.gov](http://www.fbo.gov/)

-   Military Officers' Association of America -
    [www.moaa.org](http://www.moaa.org/)

-   USAJobs - [www.usajobs.gov](http://www.usajobs.gov/)

-   Monster.com -- [www.monster.com](http://www.monster.com/)

You can monitor those websites periodically, but, the best way to find
out about their vacancies is to let those bureaus know you are available
and what your skills are, then keep in touch with them over time --
Network, network, network!

USAID hires PSCs to work in a variety of fields both in Washington and
in USAID Missions worldwide. They usually advertise in FedBizOps
([www.fbo.gov](http://www.fbo.gov/)) or on their own website
([www.usaid.gov/business/business_opportunities/](http://www.usaid.gov/business/business_opportunities/)).

![](media/image2.png){width="1.070138888888889in"
height="1.375in"}**[Employment As A WAE]{.underline}**

This option is available to Foreign Service Retirees

and means "When Actually Employed." It is

temporary, part-time, intermittent work and, even

after you sign up with a bureau, there is no guarantee

of employment.

Both geographic and functional bureaus in State

Department hire WAEs, but their ability to hire is

limited by, you guessed it, their budgets. Again, the

best way to find out about these jobs is to network.

Very occasionally a bureau will ask the Career

Transition Center to advertise a WAE vacancy, but

they generally draw on their own stable of WAEs.

USAID has begun a very similar program to meet their staffing demands.
It is called the Surge Roster. It is available to Civil Service and
Foreign Service Retirees, but only to those who retired at the GS-13 or
FS-2 grade or above. We believe that they have the same limitations on
hours and pay as State Department has on WAEs.

Those limitations are:

-   Your work hours are limited to 1040 maximum per appointment year

-   You are paid only for the hours you work

-   You are appointed for only one year at a time

But, if you can get work as a WAE, you can earn your annuity plus your
WAE salary and you will have worked only half the time! Now, there's a
good deal!

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**[Employment By A USG Contractor]{.underline}**

Obviously, this doesn't really fall into the USG re-employment category,
but it can feel like it! Companies that are awarded USG contracts often
recruit former employees of the contracting agency. Several JSP grads
are now working in their old offices and doing work very similar to the
work they did before retirement, but are being paid by a private company
that is contracted by the USG. That type of employment is available to
both Foreign Service and Civil Service and is restricted by conflict of
interest regulations. Salary received from a private company does not
affect your retirement annuity and may include additional benefits. So,
you can earn your annuity plus the salary from the private company. A
pretty good deal.

Where can you find out about these job opportunities? State makes it
hard and USAID makes it easy. You can probably find State Department's
contractors on the GSA website
([www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/home.do?tabId=0](http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/home.do?tabId=0))
but it is very difficult and time-consuming to navigate if you are not a
contracting expert. If you know of easier sources of information on USG
contracts awarded, please let us know!

On the USAID website ([www.usaid.gov](http://www.usaid.gov/)), you can
look at "Business Opportunities" or search for contracts, grants, or
"partners" in regional bureaus to find the names of companies with which
USAID has contracts. They even offer hyperlinks to some of their
partners. Their Iraq contractor connections are especially good right
now.

Networking is your best way of finding out about these opportunities.
Keep up your contacts in your old bureaus and ask them to alert you
whenever contracts are awarded. You can also monitor publications like
the *Washington Business Journal*
([www.bizjournal.com](http://www.bizjournal.com/)), *The Washington
Post* ([www.washingtonpost.com](http://www.washingtonpost.com/)), and
*Government Executive.*

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