If you’re a fed aiming to advance, here are your main options: *Get a grade increase. If your job has promotion potential, you are eligible for a grade increase on the first anniversary of starting federal service or on the first anniversary of your most recent grade increase. When you receive a grade increase under the GS system, you should receive a pay increase equal to two steps above your current grade and step. If your job doesn’t have promotion potential, your boss may give you a grade increase through an “accretion of duties” that must be approved by your…

Some job seekers see a federal job application and fear they’ll be hit by the full force of the government’s punitive power — including armed marshals and IRS audits — if their application provides anything less than a full confession of all of their professional deficiencies and liabilities. But remember: As long as your answers to application questions are honest, you are within your rights and well advised to keep your faults to yourself and to evaluate your credentials liberally and leniently. As I wrote in my March 30 column, your application will likely first have to impress a computer.…