I interviewed for a Physical Scientist at pay grade 09. The job dealt with storm water, storm water pollution prevention plans, and NPDES. It was a phone interview that lasted about an hour, then I had questions that took about another 30 minutes. There were two interviewers, but only one talked to me. They started by telling me about the position and the Dallas, TX office. Next they told me how excited they were that they were able to hire from outside and not have to promote from within the agency. Apparently it was very rare to hire from outside and they could not believe they god approval to hire from outside. They asked 5 questions. Very standard government job type questions. 1. Tell me about 3 professional accomplishments. 2. Tell me about the Clean Water Act as it pertains to storm water. 3. How would you handle a disagreement? 4. Why do you want to work at the EPA? 5. What are your short and long-term goals?

A pretty simple interview process for early careers straight out of college: it takes a long time to hear back as is USAjobs way (expect upwards of 3-5 months), but once you get an interview it's typically a panel style consisting of 3 higher-up or supervisor level employees. From there it'll take another few months to hear back.