The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Well…sort of. While the original agreement you signed (payback) is with a specific SF. The commitment can be transferred. A few have gone through the process with little fight from the SPO. Essentially, you jump through their hoops, and move who your SF is. I am not one that has (yet), so I don’t know the exact process, but a few have posted their success at escaping a shitty SF. I’m assuming that the two SFs have to agree to the handover to some degree though.

Guest wrote:

annoyedSMARTIE wrote:I am annoyed about the change, but I understand that it must be done. I am mostly concerned that I cannot apply for any other positions while I am excepted service. Has anyone had experience with this?

My understanding is, theoretically, you CAN apply for competitive positions while you are an excepted service.

However, during a hiring freeze, those competitive positions will rarely be posted. So while technically you will be able to apply before you finish phase 2, practically, you will be unable to find a job unless you broaden your horizons to encompass pretty much anyone in the DoD.

That being said, on the bright side, SMART will not mind if you go ANYWHERE within the DoD while you are in phase 2, so you will see no pushback from them if you can advance your career by moving around in the DoD while you are fulfilling your service commitment.

I specifically asked the SPO about promotions around in the DoD. They said the commitment has to be completed in full at the SF and cannot be completed at a different SF within the DoD. Very specifically asked and very specifically answered.

annoyedSMARTIE wrote:I am annoyed about the change, but I understand that it must be done. I am mostly concerned that I cannot apply for any other positions while I am excepted service. Has anyone had experience with this?

My understanding is, theoretically, you CAN apply for competitive positions while you are an excepted service.

However, during a hiring freeze, those competitive positions will rarely be posted. So while technically you will be able to apply before you finish phase 2, practically, you will be unable to find a job unless you broaden your horizons to encompass pretty much anyone in the DoD.

That being said, on the bright side, SMART will not mind if you go ANYWHERE within the DoD while you are in phase 2, so you will see no pushback from them if you can advance your career by moving around in the DoD while you are fulfilling your service commitment.

I am annoyed about the change, but I understand that it must be done. I am mostly concerned that I cannot apply for any other positions while I am excepted service. Has anyone had experience with this?

I was never hired by my SF, but when those conversations were happening, I was told right away I would be excepted service until the end of my Phase 2 commitment. After that had completed, I would be non-competitively transitioned to career-conditional.

It sounds to me like your HR person didn't know that they couldn't bring you on as a career-conditional right away. They may have been able to hire SMART scholars as career-conditional in the days prior to hiring freezes and furloughs. But the SMART hiring authority requires (I believe) appointment to the excepted service.

The fact your offer letter changed could be due to someone higher in the chain of command realizing that the offer was incorrect and making the change. Sorry you were told one thing but got dealt another.

I received tentative and final job offer letters from my SF that stated that they would be hiring me on as a career conditional employee starting this monday (tomorrow) over the past couple weeks. On Friday at 3pm, I received an email saying that they needed to modify my letter to change me to a excepted service position and that they could convert me to a career conditional after 3 years. After doing some research on the difference, I found out that this means that I can not apply for in house jobs without going through the OPM hiring process and, therefore, as long as there is a hiring freeze, I cannot apply for any of those positions. I had discussed my starting level with my supervisor previously, and we agreed that I would not try to negotiate for a higher positions because she expects that there will be some openings in our group over the next couple years that I would have a high chance of getting. They are bringing me in as a GS-11 Step 1 (as a PhD), because the hiring freeze would not allow them to create a position and the only position they had was a GS-7/9/11 position. When I read documents about the hiring authority they are using for SMART recipients, it states that they do not have to hire under Title 5 (Title 5 is the document that controls GS pay scales, etc.) and that we are allowed to be hired despite the hiring freeze due to "critical need." I believe that this means that the SFs can hire us at any position that they want and that they can even create a position since we are critical need and do not need to follow Title 5. Has anyone had any experience with this??