Working with an Interdisciplinary Request

An interdisciplinary professional position involves duties and responsibilities closely related to more than one professional occupation. As a result, the position could be classifiable to two or more professional occupational series. The nature of the work is such that persons with education and/or experience in any of the occupational series may be considered equally well qualified to do the work, and may be selected into any of the series for which they qualify. For example, the duties of a position assigned research work in the environmental responses of certain living organisms may be accomplished by an employee trained in either biology or physiology. Thus, the position could be classified to the General Natural Resources Management and Biological Sciences Series, GS−401, or to the Physiology Series, GS−413. Interdisciplinary positions generally fall into one of the following two categories:

• Positions which involve a specific combination of knowledge, characteristic of two or more professional series. Such positions involve the performance of some duties which are characteristic of one profession and other duties which are characteristic of another profession.
• Positions which involve knowledge which is characteristic of either of two or more professional series. These positions include work which is substantially identical to work performed in either of the professional occupations or academic disciplines involved.

For more information on Interdisciplinary positions please refer to the guide on OPM’s website at http://www.opm.gov/fedclass/gsintro.pdf.

Creating an interdisciplinary request

To set up an interdisciplinary position request, the process is similar to that of single series positions. For instructions, see Creating an interdisciplinary request.

Creating an interdisciplinary vacancy

To set up an interdisciplinary announcement, the process is the virtually the same as that of single series positions. For instructions, see Creating an interdisciplinary vacancy.

Creating an interdisciplinary assessment package

The assessment section is one of the most important parts of creating an interdisciplinary announcement. The multiple series are added when you check the Interdisciplinary box on the Request Information Page. For step-by-step instructions, see Creating an interdisciplinary request.

If you are using an interdisciplinary assessment from the library, see Creating an interdisciplinary assessment for instructions. If you are importing the document or creating an assessment from scratch, see Copying text from a file, and Creating an assessment for instructions.

Note: Vacancies designated as interdisciplinary do not have the option to add external (USA Hire) assessments.

When building questions for an interdisciplinary assessment, each series must have its own screen out factor for the specific minimum qualifications (including positive education requirements) for professional series. An additional factor is needed to determine specialized experience requirements for the position that includes all the series and grade levels. Also, the competencies/KSA’s applicants will be evaluated on should be included as rating factors. For instructions, see:

• Adding instructions to an assessment questionnaire
• Adding an item to an assessment questionnaire
• Adding an item to an assessment questionnaire from the competency library
• Editing an assessment questionnaire item
• Adding a response to a questionnaire item
• Copying text from a file
• Applying response options to multiple assessment questionnaire items
• Linking multiple assessment questionnaire items to a competency

Creating an announcement

To set up an interdisciplinary announcement, the process is the same as that of single series positions. For instructions, see Completing an announcement. When an interdisciplinary announcement is released to USAJOBS only one control number is assigned, regardless of the number of series in the assessment. There is no limit to the number of series that can be added to an assessment. However, OPM strongly encourages agencies to add no more than 10 series for any given announcement.

Reviewing applicants

To review applicants in an interdisciplinary vacancy, the process is the same as that of single series positions. For instructions, see Viewing applicant assessment information for multiple series in an interdisciplinary vacancy.

Issuing certificates

When creating stored lists or certificates for interdisciplinary positions, the system will rank candidates according to their responses to the questionnaire for each series. The series are all listed at the bottom of the Ordering Criteria page to issue one certificate for the interdisciplinary position. For instructions, see Issuing an interdisciplinary certificate or list.