I'm looking for a hiring contact regarding a position I applied for. The job is Supervisor V, at Huntsville State Park, in an effort to network. Any help or advise is also appreciated.

This may be better suited for the JNB, but since this is outdoors, thought this would be more appropriate.

I don't have any direct contacts related to that position, but what I can tell you about TPWD's hiring process is that it is very formalized and trying to "network" your way to contact somebody in position to affect the hiring is unlikely to help, and may in fact hurt your chances depending on the person doing the hiring. They have a spreadsheet that they have to fill in for each candidate/resume they receive for a position that rates them on the various requirements and criteria for the hiring. That rating is what will get you called back for an interview, not whether you are a friend of a friend of somebody doing the hiring. The interviews are usually conducted by a group of TPWD employees, so making an individual connection in the interview is similarly unlikely to help you.

What can help, is to read the position description and requirements very carefully and then tailor your resume/application/cover letter/etc. to show as much knowledge and experience as possible in those specific areas. They are going to score you by how many of the areas you can show knowledge and experience in. Being an absolute expert in one area won't help you if you can't also show knowledge or experience in the other areas they require experience or knowledge in. If you do find somebody who knows somebody involved in the hiring, instead of trying to communicate with them, find out what their hot buttons are or what issues they seem to find important and make sure you hit those on your resume. In the end, it will probably get you further in the TPWD process. Also, I believe they are now prioritizing the hiring of veterans as well as other underrepresented groups, so if you have a military service background, make sure it shows up on your application/resume.

What he said. Won't help you at all.

txags92 said:

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I don't have any direct contacts related to that position, but what I can tell you about TPWD's hiring process is that it is very formalized and trying to "network" your way to contact somebody in position to affect the hiring is unlikely to help, and may in fact hurt your chances depending on the person doing the hiring. They have a spreadsheet that they have to fill in for each candidate/resume they receive for a position that rates them on the various requirements and criteria for the hiring. That rating is what will get you called back for an interview, not whether you are a friend of a friend of somebody doing the hiring. The interviews are usually conducted by a group of TPWD employees, so making an individual connection in the interview is similarly unlikely to help you.

What can help, is to read the position description and requirements very carefully and then tailor your resume/application/cover letter/etc. to show as much knowledge and experience as possible in those specific areas. They are going to score you by how many of the areas you can show knowledge and experience in. Being an absolute expert in one area won't help you if you can't also show knowledge or experience in the other areas they require experience or knowledge in. If you do find somebody who knows somebody involved in the hiring, instead of trying to communicate with them, find out what their hot buttons are or what issues they seem to find important and make sure you hit those on your resume. In the end, it will probably get you further in the TPWD process. Also, I believe they are now prioritizing the hiring of veterans as well as other underrepresented groups, so if you have a military service background, make sure it shows up on your application/resume.

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That is great inisght, txags92. My current application / resume is being reviewed by the hiring supervisor, based on TPWD application website. I am retiring from the military, and believe my credentials for this position do indeed fit the job profile.

Saying that, I will do a little more homework in preparation for a potential job interview. The advice you have provided is golden. Thank you for the feed back.

Thanks for the reply, zooguy96.

Military experience is also helpful in federal positions. I.e. National Park service, etc. You get an advantage on the point system over similarly qualified individuals.

zooguy96 said:

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Military experience is also helpful in federal positions. I.e. National Park service, etc. You get an advantage on the point system over similarly qualified individuals.

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I am not former military. There is no way I could be more in favor of this!!!! Finally an example of some common sense at State and Federal Government levels.

Good luck in gaining the position and thanks for your service.

zooguy96 said:

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Military experience is also helpful in federal positions. I.e. National Park service, etc. You get an advantage on the point system over similarly qualified individuals.

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Of all the federal jobs I have looked at, the National Parks service did not cross my mind. I'll definitely look into it.

Aggieangler93 said:

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Good luck in gaining the position and thanks for your service.

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Thank you, and couldn't be more proud of time in service.

I live in Huntsville. Hope you get the job. We need more maroon in this town.

Read the KSA multiple times. I have sat on TPWD interview panels for Wildlife, State Parks, Inland Fisheries, and Communications. They will typically end up interviewing 6-10 people (whittled down from 200+ applicants, a supervisor position will be about a 1/3 that). Usually 1 will stand out, and 1 or 2 others will be 1B and 1C. 2-3 will be in the "can do the job, but doesn't match something category" (ie flat out weirdo). And 3 that you seriously wonder how they made it through HR, and did they read the job description.

If you make it to the interview, go over the KSAs carefully. People tend to think TPWD interviews are the easiest they have ever done (prep), or the hardest. There will generally be at least one question related to each one. Now here is the thing, you have to be prepared for a simple "tell us about your knowledge and experience with ____", a scenario, or a flat out skills test with related that KSA....Two examples for computers skills, I have seen the following tank candidates. "Tell us your experience with the Microsoft Office suite of products?" In this format, get to the point and answer in less than a minute, otherwise you are BEing. Or "Here is an Excel spreadsheet with data, please solve for the for the following ____, ____, and ___". Or my personal favorite "Here are 5 PowerPoint slide for a maintenance training session you are giving in 15 minutes, make them audience friendly and use the slides in a 5 minutes presentation to the interview panel". For knowledge of habitat management in the state park, it might be something like "Aldo Leopold identified 5 basic wildlife management tools, what are they, and which ones do you find most applicable to Huntsville SP?" I have seen tool id and usage tests, plant ID tests. Reading the KSAs, you should be able to guess what kind of question is suited to that particular KSA.

Ironically, my current supervisor was the Huntsville SP Superintendent for about 5 years. But he is 15 years removed from TPWD.

Email your questions to Walt Dabney at WaltDabney at gmail. He's a a retired NPS Ranger and retired TPS Director. Class of 1969. Lives in Moab, UT.

Good luck on the job! From a '69 Spider D buddy of his! Just mention Lago Vista, he'll know me well! He's a TAMU COALS Distnguished Graduate, too, that passed 2 courses his fish first semester - PE & Bull Text (Military Science), go figure?

I (personal opinion) believe you have to have a masters to get any real job traction. I've interviewed with them twice and one of those positions feel victim to a government shutdown. It's not easy to break into, but I've never known anyone that has been unhappy working there.

Spider69 said:

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Email your questions to Walt Dabney at WaltDabney at gmail. He's a a retired NPS Ranger and retired TPS Director. Class of 1969. Lives in Moab, UT.

Good luck on the job! From a '69 Spider D buddy of his! Just mention Lago Vista, he'll know me well! He's a TAMU COALS Distnguished Graduate, too, that passed 2 courses his fish first semester - PE & Bull Text (Military Science), go figure?

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Spider, thanks for contact and fully appreciate well wishes.

ursusguy said:

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Read the KSA multiple times. I have sat on TPWD interview panels for Wildlife, State Parks, Inland Fisheries, and Communications. They will typically end up interviewing 6-10 people (whittled down from 200+ applicants, a supervisor position will be about a 1/3 that). Usually 1 will stand out, and 1 or 2 others will be 1B and 1C. 2-3 will be in the "can do the job, but doesn't match something category" (ie flat out weirdo). And 3 that you seriously wonder how they made it through HR, and did they read the job description.

If you make it to the interview, go over the KSAs carefully. People tend to think TPWD interviews are the easiest they have ever done (prep), or the hardest. There will generally be at least one question related to each one. Now here is the thing, you have to be prepared for a simple "tell us about your knowledge and experience with ____", a scenario, or a flat out skills test with related that KSA....Two examples for computers skills, I have seen the following tank candidates. "Tell us your experience with the Microsoft Office suite of products?" In this format, get to the point and answer in less than a minute, otherwise you are BEing. Or "Here is an Excel spreadsheet with data, please solve for the for the following ____, ____, and ___". Or my personal favorite "Here are 5 PowerPoint slide for a maintenance training session you are giving in 15 minutes, make them audience friendly and use the slides in a 5 minutes presentation to the interview panel". For knowledge of habitat management in the state park, it might be something like "Aldo Leopold identified 5 basic wildlife management tools, what are they, and which ones do you find most applicable to Huntsville SP?" I have seen tool id and usage tests, plant ID tests. Reading the KSAs, you should be able to guess what kind of question is suited to that particular KSA.

Ironically, my current supervisor was the Huntsville SP Superintendent for about 5 years. But he is 15 years removed from TPWD.

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Urus, thanks for the insight in how to proceed through this potential interview. Working within the military for this many years, I have fell into a comfort level that would make this process fairly easy in my current world.

But now I'm out of my comfort zone, and this is a great view in what may be in my future interview. I picture one person asking pertinent questions regarding the job. What you have provided changes my whole perspective of what an interview probably will look like in the future.

Thanks for the input and thoughtful response.

rather be fishing said:

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I (personal opinion) believe you have to have a masters to get any real job traction. I've interviewed with them twice and one of those positions feel victim to a government shutdown. It's not easy to break into, but I've never known anyone that has been unhappy working there.

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Thank you for the input.

The other things that tends to throw people, TPWD tends to like larger interview panels. There will usually be the direct supervisor, an equivalent, some one directly under the position's supervision, for a supervisor type position someone from Austin will be there, and if the position does much interdivision coordination, you may have someone out of Wildlife/LE/Communications sitting there. Now here is the big trick, TPWD has a lot of positions that work very independently, especially in the field supervisors (I worked out of Dallas but my supervisor was out of Tyler then Austin).

Why I say all this. They typically do a round robin on questions. Keep in mind, with the large panel, on any question, someone WILL be a subject matter expert related to the question (and not likely the one asking the question). The direct supervisor ultimately "make the decision", but that does not necessarily who carries the most weight when it comes to selection. You have to figure out who on the panel you would have the most day to day contact with you. In a supervisory position in parks, your boss might be out of Austin or a regional office, the quiet maintenance ranger (aka toilet scrubber) may very well have the most influence on the panel.

Yes, I realize I am jumping ahead in the process.

Also, I had a pretty substantial contact who was able to give me good insight on the interview process and even having an idea about the interview questions, I felt like you need to be a subject matter expert to be successful in the interview.

I'm sure they ask the tough questions to figure out what your knowledge level is, but I felt like I was a more than doctorate degree below one of my interviews.

Alot of it depends on the job you will be doing. If you are expected to be a technical resource to the public, they want to know if you know your stuff. Parks jobs are probably less like that than wildlife division jobs, but the point of the interview process is to find out differences between the candidates, which doesn't happen if you ask a bunch of softball questions that anybody with a passing knowledge would be able to answer. Also, if you don't know the answer to a question, don't try to BS the answer...instead explain what resources you would use to find out the answer.

For the federal government you don't just get points anymore, if you are a veteran you get offered a job no matter what. Especially for the land management agencies.

bb88 said:

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For the federal government you don't just get points anymore, if you are a veteran you get offered a job no matter what. Especially for the land management agencies.

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Not surprising. I haven't worked for the federal government for eight years, so I wasn't in but know for the latest hiring practices.

I worked a temporary position while I was in graduate school for the National Park Service. Kind of makes sense now why I have never been considered for any type of federal position despite being overqualified for most of the ones I've applied for.

OP - carefully review the information Ursus provides in his posts. Having been through and sat on the reviewer panel for several Wildlife Div interviews I will say his advice is spot on. You could get questions on administrative tools, natural resources of the ecoregion, and everything in between.

Good luck!