

Data.gov job posting for "IT Specialist" - danso
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/363324500

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codegeek
"Males born after December 31, 1959 must have registered with the Selective
Service."

This caught my eye. So does it exclude US citizens who have never registered
with Selective Service ? For example, what if someone is a naturalized citizen
but got the citizenship at the age of 30 ?

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dan1234
As a non american, what is the "Selective Service"?

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up_and_up
Selective Service means registering with the US government. Giving them your
name and contact information so if there was ever the need to draft people
into the armed forces in times of war, they have your info.

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nulagrithom
What's interesting about this? Am I missing something?

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danso
I think it's interesting because it's a position for ostensibly advancing the
U.S. government's open data initiatives, and the skills they foresee as being
necessary (Python, Postgres, PHP, among others). Besides that, I'm kind of
curious as to what it's like to be in a non-traditional tech role in the
government, and one that almost seems likely to cross into political
territory.

~~~
zephod
It's just a software engineering job to work on their CKAN+Drupal stack
(Python and PHP, respectively). Basically there's nothing political about it.

Source: I work in a similar team on data.gov.uk.

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danso
Note: I wasn't trying to be snarky with the "scare quotes"...I saw this job
posting on a mailing list, in which it was described as "technical lead",
which seems more inviting and seems closer to the actual role and
responsibilities, even if the official bureaucratic title is "IT Specialist"
(which, maybe it's just me, seems inextricable from the connotation of "person
who fixes the fax machine")

Edit: In the email, the sender says this:

> _I think this position will be incredibly important in moving open data to
> the next level, you 'd get to work with one of the creators of the open 311
> standard, and you'd get to open untold amounts of information to the
> public._

~~~
ry0ohki
As a former "IT Specialist" in the federal government I can tell you that
every single IT position is called this, from programmers to sysadmins. The
difference is only the little part in parenthesis. For example I was a IT
Specialist (Database). INET just means it works with something vaguely
associated with web programming.

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skellystudios
IT Generalist wanted.

