U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Merit Hiring Plan” asks applicants for federal government jobs to write an essay naming their favorite Trump policy or executive order and how they would implement it.

On May 29, 2025, the White House and Office of Personnel Management jointly released a 30-page Merit Hiring Plan that mandates new requirements and procedures for executive branch hiring. As a former ...

WASHINGTON — As part of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)'s new merit-based hiring plan, those looking to join the federal workforce will have to answer a series of essay questions about their ...

Protesters rally outside of the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building headquarters of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on Feb. 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) The ...

If there’s anything that everyone anywhere close to the federal hiring process agrees about, it’s that the system is a mess, for applicants and agency officials alike. But the hiring plan the Trump ...

It doesn’t end July 15. The federal hiring freeze that has stretched six months is now the official 2025 hiring freeze. The new end date and hiring updates are below. The Trump administration has made ...

The specific question in the new “Merit Hiring Plan” for federal employees states: “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two ...