I've held federal employment beforehand. The U.S. federal government is thought by many to offer a sense of fair play with its employees, decent benefits, and a modicum of job security. The reality is it's often not the case. There's a two-tier of employees, a tenured civil service, and even layers of more privileged senior executives. However, the federal government is just like corporate entities in creating a web of temporary hires, that are scantily compensated, and they often do the legwork in busy seasons for the tenured federal employees who sort of just prop their feet up, and watch you do all of their work. There have been stories of tenured federal employees in administrative agencies nearing retirement simply gathering for protracted periods in break rooms in a carnival atmosphere. Ask yourself this. Statistically, there's a high probability of not getting referred for an interview, and if you get referred, you won't get an interview, and if you interview, you won't get hired, and then if by some rare fluke, you do actually get hired, you will find it's overrated and the work culture sucks.