http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/management/hr/2016/03/09/tester-competitive-service-act-clears-senate-obama/81528674/

I saw this today and found this section to be most interesting: "The legislation provides a pathway for agencies to select qualified applicants, even if they initially applied to other agencies." 

Imagine applying for a position with say, the Dept. of Agriculture and then getting a call from the Dept. of State for a position that you didn't apply for or even know existed. 

Considering some of the parallels between the federal hiring process and the world of contracting, this could be made quite interesting if it jumped that particular fence!

It's sounds similar to the system in place when I entered Federal service. You did not apply for a particular job. You took a competitive Civil Service Examination and indicated the categories of of jobs in which you were interested. Agencies would contact you based on your scores. My first choice was law enforcement work, but I was first contacted by the Air Force for procurement work. I took the procurement work.