How to use this site

From "what even is a series?" to a job you can apply for

Career Explorer walks you from wherever you're starting to live federal job announcements that fit you - and explains the government-speak along the way.

Underlined words are definitions, not typos

Federal hiring has its own language. Anywhere you see a word marked like this - series - it's not a spelling error: tap or click it and a plain-language definition pops up right there, without losing your place. The ? Terms button in the corner of every page opens the full glossary, where you can also ask about any term we haven't covered yet.

Step 1: Pick your starting point

The front page asks where you are in your search. Pick the card that fits:

• I know the work, or I want to look around. Tell us in plain English what you do or want to do - “I used to work on diesel trucks” is a perfectly good answer - and we'll match it to official occupations. You don't need the right job titles and your spelling doesn't have to be perfect. Nothing in mind yet? Browse the government's career families instead and check anything that sounds interesting. No resume needed either way.
• I'm mapping my experience. Upload a resume (or your LinkedIn profile saved as PDF - on LinkedIn choose More → Save to PDF). We build a candidate map: your skills, matching occupations, and what your resume may be missing.
• I served in the military. Enter your MOS, rating, or AFSC and we translate your service into matching federal occupations. Veteran hiring paths are switched on automatically.

Step 2: Confirm eligibility

Answer a few questions about citizenship, veteran status, federal history, and so on. Federal jobs are gated by hiring paths - who may apply - before qualifications ever matter, so we check this early and tell you which announcements are realistically open to you.

Step 3: Search live jobs

We search USAJOBS for open announcements in your matched occupations, filtered by your location preferences and hiring paths. Each result shows an eligibility verdict so you don't waste time on postings that aren't open to you.

Step 4: Understand the announcement

Pick a job and use Translate to plain language. The official text stays on screen, side by side with a plain-English explanation: the hard requirements, the documents you'll need, and anything that could disqualify you.

Step 5: Would I qualify?

If you've uploaded a resume, this button compares it against the announcement's requirements the way an HR reviewer would - requirement by requirement, with a verdict, what's missing, and how to fix it. Fixes come in two kinds: evidence you have but your resume doesn't show, and experience you'd still need to get. This is preparation guidance; only the hiring agency's HR makes the official call.

Your privacy

Nothing you upload is stored. Analysis lives in memory for your session (30 idle minutes) and is erased. Details on the Privacy & cookies page.

Where do these answers come from?

Every recommendation on this site traces back to the government's own published rules - OPM's series definitions and qualification standards, Title 5 of the CFR, and live USAJOBS listings. Under the hood shows exactly which sources are used, what the AI is and isn't allowed to do, and how each of the three checks runs step by step.

Something broken or confusing?

Use the contact link in the footer - real feedback is how this site improves. That's not a platitude: several features exist because someone said "this confused me."