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Job: Supervisory Program Specialist

I would not waste my time applying for this one.

As you are looking for positions that are announced in government, one of the key facts you'd like to be able to ascertain is if there are any "internal candidates." No one will ever say that a position is "wired" for a specific person, but in fact that can be true in many an organization.

This position Supervisory Program Specialist is being advertised for a total of six days. One way to look for jobs (or contracts for that matter) that are pre-ordained for someone or some organizations is how many days the job is posted and open to applications.

Perhaps I'm wrong about this one, but I smell "wired." And, note the emergency assignment language below. This is something that Craig Fugate instituted to ensure that everyone in FEMA knows they may be deployed as part of their work at FEMA.

"EMERGENCY ASSIGNMENT: Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.