By Gregory Korte
Bloomberg News
(TNS)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is adding four essay questions to applications for civil service jobs, asking applicants about their favorite executive orders and their commitment to government efficiency.
The essay requirements apply even to relatively lower-level jobs starting at the GS-5 pay scale or above—positions that can begin at base salaries as low as $32,357. Those jobs include nursing assistants, park rangers and firefighters.
The new questions, outlined in a memo from the Office of Personnel Management on Thursday, include ones that could give insight into the applicant’s political philosophy for civil service jobs that are supposed to be nonpartisan.
Among them: “How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government? Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience.”
Another question, about how a job seeker would advance the president’s executive orders or policy initiatives—is similar to a question asked of applicants for top political jobs as a loyalty test. It asks applicants to “Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”
Two other questions ask how applicants would improve government efficiency and about their personal work ethic.
Responses must be 200 words or fewer and the memo seeks to prevent any cheating. “Applicants will be required to certify that they are using their own words, and did not use a consultant or AI,” the memo says, referring to artificial intelligence.
The 30-page memo, from White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley and OPM acting director Charles Ezell, implements President Donald Trump’s executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion in federal hiring.
The order also required that the government prioritize hiring people “committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.”
But Trump is also reshaping the US government’s workforce in other ways, overhauling the civil service system by giving him power to directly hire and fire as many as 50,000 jobs previously reserved for career federal employees.
“What we’ve seen is an overwhelming effort to cow the workforce and frankly ensure that there’s a loyalty to the president of the day more than anything else,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group focused on improving the federal workforce.
Asking the new questions is “deeply problematic,” he said.
“Bluntly, it’s an almost partisan and ideological overlay without understanding the responsibilities they’re hiring for.” For example, there’s no reason why a dental hygienist at the Department of Veterans Affairs should have an understanding of Trump’s executive orders, Stier said.
Beyond the content of the questions, Stier said adding four essay questions to an already burdensome federal hiring process can only make it more difficult for the government to hire the best workers, calling it “a recipe for dysfunction.”
But OPM says the questions aren’t much different from those any employer would ask to make sure that a prospective employee fits with company culture.
“It is a best practice in hiring to ask all applicants the same questions,” said OPM spokewoman McLaurine Pinover. “The answers can then be evaluated by the hiring manager and agency leadership to evaluate whether the candidate would be a good fit for the role.”
The federal personnel agency said the plan’s overall goal is to reduce the length of the hiring process to less than 80 days and create “a federal workforce that reflects the highest standards of merit and service.”
The memo also implements new skill-based assessments, consisting of at least two tests of technical skills for many jobs, and eliminates unnecessary college degree requirements for many positions.
Photo caption: President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order next to a bust of former President Abraham Lincoln in the Oval Office of the White House on May 23, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/TNS)
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©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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