Botanist

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-10/01/2024-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year), and the resume must reflect full and/or part-time or total number of hours worked (i.e., work 40+ hours a week, rather than indicating full-time). If part-time, the hours must be annotated to be able to pro-rate the amount of qualified specialized experience.

Basic Education Requirements for a Botanist:
A degree in botany; or basic plant science that included at least 24 semester hours in botany.

-OR-

A combination of education and experience with courses equivalent to a major in botany or basic plant science that includes at least 24 semester hours in botany, plus appropriate experience, or additional education.

-AND-

To qualify for this position at the GS-11 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as: collecting, managing, and maintaining vegetation data; monitoring plant populations in forests, grasslands and/or wetlands; management of invasive plant species, including inventory and monitoring of weed populations; conducting field botanical investigations in remote or backcountry environments. You must include hours per week worked.

-OR-

EDUCATION: Three years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one year of full-time study. If that number cannot be obtained from school, 18 semester hours should be considered an academic year of graduate study. You must provide copies of your transcripts.

-OR-

COMBINATION EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. NOTE: Only graduate level education in excess of two years may be combined with experience. To calculate your percentage of qualifying graduate education, divide your number of semester hours in excess of 36 semester hours by 18 or the number your school uses to represent one year of full time graduate academic study. To calculate your percentage of experience, divide your months of qualifying specialized experience by 12. Add the two percentages. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must provide copies of your transcripts and the hours per week and to/from dates (month/year) on your resume.


Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.