If you are employed by an agency within one of the three branches (executive, legislative, or judicial) of the U.S. government, you are a federal employee. Government contractor employees are not federal employees; however, there are some specific regulations that apply to government contractors and give them certain rights, such as affirmative action requirements, sick leave, and pay transparency.   The federal hiring process is subject to laws and regulations that require government follow specific procedural processes when hiring new employees. Typically, there are two types of federal positions: 1) competitive service positions and 2) excepted service positions. The hiring process for each of these is governed by different sets of rules as outlined below. Hiring for competitive service jobs competitive service jobs require that the government go through a competitive hiring process when searching for new employees. This process may include an interview, test, or other evaluation, and is subject to Congress’ civil service laws.  Hiring for excepted service jobs is generally more flexible than the hiring process for competitive service jobs. Excepted service jobs are also not subject to all of the rules that bind competitive service roles. For instance, exempted service jobs does not have the same appointment, pay, and classification rules that the competitive service has.  Senior executive service jobs encompass federal positions that are right below presidential agency appointees. These jobs are managerial, supervisory, and policy-oriented and are in a General Schedule pay grade of 15 or above.