Med Technician

Description:

This position is located within the Pathology & Laboratory Service of the VA Medical Center in Long Beach, CA.

Requirements:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/10/2025.

Time-In-Grade Requirement : Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-04. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

This occupation series has a Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR), which is a basic requirement that you may qualify based on specialized experience or education:

Specialized Experience:

• (a) Technical medical laboratory support work such as performing laboratory tests and examinations (chemical, microbiologic, hematologic and blood banking) and preparing reports of findings or
• (b) technical support work in a closely related field, e.g., biological laboratory technician work, that required application of the methods and techniques for the position to be filled.

Education:

• Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects appropriate to the position to be filled.

In addition, to meeting the Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) above, you also need to meet the minimum qualification below.

You may qualify based your experience and/or education as described below:

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-04 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to:
  • Successfully perform the duties of the position should include experience performing a variety of relatively standardized tests, examinations, and determinations.
  • The procedures and techniques are well-established but involve many meticulous sequential steps to complete a test;
  • Written procedures which give carefully detailed instructions on each step of the assigned test and examinations.
    OR,
• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with major study or at least 24 semester hours in subjects appropriate to the position to be filled.
  • NOTE: Applicant must submit transcripts must be submitted at time of application, if using any part of education to qualify. OR,
• Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond first two years above high school with courses related to the occupation.
  • NOTE: Applicant must submit transcripts must be submitted at time of application, if using any part of education to qualify.

Preferred Experience: Preferred 2 year minimum experience in both an outpatient and inpatient lab setting.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Customer Service (Clerical/Technical)
• Diagnostic Medical Testing
• Teamwork
• Technical Competence

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; religions; 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.

Note : A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The work requires manual dexterity and exceptional hand/eye coordination, some physical exertion, such as regular and recurring walking, bending, silting over a microscope and concentrate for long periods of time while reading specimens and to stand for several consecutive hours during the preparation of specimens: In many situations the duration of the activity {such as most of a workday) contributes to the arduous nature of the job. Position requires lifting of reagent containers weighing up to 35 pounds.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/ .