1102 Education Requirement

[Ashley]

I'm currently working on completely my Bachelors degree in business management however, I do not currently meet the DOD's basic educational requirements for the GS 1102 series. The DHS on the other hand seem to not have the same educations requirements, currently I only need 24 credit hours in select business/financial related courses to meet the education requirements. However, there is a "waiver" for DOD positions, please see below.

According to the section (D) of the educational requirements:

D. Waiver: When filling a specific vacant position, the senior procurement executive of the selecting agency, at his or her discretion, may waive any or all of the requirements of Paragraphs A and B above if the senior procurement executive certifies that the applicant possesses significant potential for advancement to levels of greater responsibility and authority, based on demonstrated analytical and decision making capabilities, job performance, and qualifying experience. With respect to each waiver granted under this Paragraph D, the senior procurement executive must document for the record the basis of the waiver. If an individual is placed in a position in an agency on the basis of a waiver, the agency may later reassign that individual to another position at the same grade within that agency without additional waiver action.

Is this common? Anyone else employed after year 2000 get hired without a full degree?

 

 

[ji20874]

I'm not an expert -- just a layperson -- but I think the possibility of a waiver is slim to none.  For DHS, not having a degree may hurt your competitive chances.  My recommendation, as a layperson, is to put all your effort into finishing your degree.

[Ashley]

Thank you for the reply ji20874, yes I'm working really hard to finish my degree however I'm trying to look at all possibilities.

[C Culham]

14 minutes ago, Ashley said:

I'm trying to look at all possibilities

No disagreement with ji but if really looking at all possibilities have you considered making the jump to other than an 1102 position, intern positions or other alternatives to, as they say, "get your foot in the door" while you continue to work on your degree?   Many will have opinions as to whether a good idea or not but what works for one may not work for another or even you.   On this note I just want to point to this part of WIFCON - http://www.wifcon.com/workforce.html - as an easy way to look at other possibilities.

[Ashley]

Thank you for your reply C Culham, yes I've weighed out other options I really can't afford a pay cut honestly with a family and all, also I want to stay consistent with my relevance in work experience. If I have to I'll take another private sector contracting position working on Government projects in the area however, all the insight I can get is knowledge and greatly appreciated. I'm going to look into DHS positions.

[C Culham]

So rhetorical questions only so no need to answer...

Have you considered that the exception you note for DoD is really an waiver for the 1102 in total - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/1100/contracting-series-1102/   Still doesn't mean it is a reality. 

Have you thought about possibilities like FAA?  https://www.faa.gov/jobs/career_fields/professional_careers/  Not sure if they have positive ed requirements or not but they do not use the GS system that I do know.

[Desparado]

Ashley - Like others here have said, it is extremely rare that a waiver would be granted.  Many civilian agencies have different education requirements (some only require 24hrs of management/business courses through GS-12) so that may be of some help.

Regarding pay, have you looked at your current pay and compared it to the GS pay scale where you live?  If you are trying to come over at a lower GS level it will be much easier than if you are trying to come over as a GS-13 or something like that.