The federal government is the largest employer in the country that is legally required to give you an advantage. Announcements below come straight from USAJOBS.
Announcements from USAJOBS, the federal government’s official employment site. Applying takes you there — it is where the application is made and where the announcement is kept current.
It is not a guarantee and it is not a quota. It is a set of points added to your score on competitive announcements, and in some cases a rule that puts you ahead of non-veterans with the same score.
Five points if you served during a qualifying period. Ten points if you have a service-connected disability, a Purple Heart, or in certain cases as the spouse, widow or mother of a veteran. Ten-point preference with a compensable disability of 30% or more also puts you at the top of the list for many positions.
Preference applies to competitive announcements open to the public. It does not apply to every job, it does not apply to Senior Executive Service positions, and it does not override the qualification requirements. You still have to meet the criteria.
Separate from preference, there are appointment routes that exist only for veterans. These are the ones worth knowing, because the competition on them is a fraction of what it is on a public announcement.
Lets an agency hire an eligible veteran directly, without competing against the public, up to GS-11 or equivalent. If you are eligible, an agency can simply appoint you.
Lets you apply to announcements otherwise open only to current federal employees. It does not give you preference on those, but it gets you in the door where you would otherwise be locked out entirely.
An agency can appoint you non-competitively, at any grade you qualify for, with no limitation on how long the appointment lasts.
Not veteran-specific — it is for people with disabilities — but many veterans qualify and never realize it. It is another non-competitive route.
Requirements change and this is a summary, not legal advice. Eligibility rules for every authority above are set by law and regulation and do get amended. Check your specific position with the agency or with a VA employment representative before you rely on it. Written August 2026.
Because they are. A federal resume is not a civilian one-pager — it is expected to be long, and it is expected to spell out hours per week, supervisor names and dates for every role. Leaving those out is one of the most common reasons a qualified veteran is rated ineligible.
Every announcement also names an occupational series — a four-digit code like 2210 for IT, 1811 for criminal investigator, 0346 for logistics management. Series matter more than job titles. Once you know which series fits your experience, you can search that number and see every open announcement across every agency.
If you are not sure which series fits what you did, start with the Skills Translator — it names the civilian occupations your military code maps to, which is the fastest way to work out which federal series to search.