This topic contains 17 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by 
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Pretty cool to see USAJOBS has a new iPhone app. Just downloaded it myself – here is iTunes link
What’s your take? Like it?Other things that would be awesome-I think what would be cool is to see jobs near you.-Track your status
-Sort by # of openings in the position
-Get background data on each employer – # of employees, org chart, etc – like a wikipedia page -
I think it is a great idea to have an iPhone app. I also agree with the suggestions you made above. I see the details regarding the current status of an application as a key piece. Job seekers often complain that applying to Federal positions feels like they are feeding a black hole so understanding where they are in the process and possibly what they could do to improve their chances in the future would be helpful. Much of the human contact in the job search process has been removed with online applications so any information (positive or negative) would be a plus. Thumbs way up on this idea!!
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Alright so they have jobs on a map in iphone app which is cool – but can’t figure out how to zoom in
Other thoughts
-Home screen could pop out a little more. Feels a little blah with the blue and font is not as cool as could be
-Seems to crash on me lot -
Thanks for the interest in the application, keep the comments coming.
Here are some responses to what I see here so far.
“see jobs near you” – If you go into refine and then click on location, then hit the map. That will center on where you presently are. If you are asking about an “augmented reality” where the phone does a live search as you drive/walk around… We did look at this, but stopped working on it due to some technical limitations with the underlying service. We decided to let that mature abit and then may revisit.
“track your status” – When you link the app to your USAJOBS account (login to your account on the app), you have the ability to have your status notifications from the website come directly to the app. You’ll get a popup on your device when they arrive, the badge on the app icon will update and when you go into the app, the inbox will have a badge on it too. That is where your status update messages will be. This is still dependent on the staffing specialist updating your application status on their side, and the app that they are using communicating back to USAJOBS.
“Sort on Openings/Background on Employer” – Theses are functions that the website doesn’t do. But, they are good suggestions and we will talk to OPM about them.
“Zoom in on map” – This should work by “pinching out” on the map. Standard functionality for iPhone multi-touch interface.
“Home screen blah” – Will send this to the creative team.
“Crashing” – Yes, that is a bug when in 3G mode, usually when going back to search results. Doesn’t happen in WiFi mode (which is partly why we missed it). We have a fix for that (and a few other things we have seen) and should be submitting to Apple tomorrow. Look to see an update to V2.1 of the app soon.
Thanks again for your comments…
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Map – cool that makes sense. I guess I was thinking could show where in the city the gov’t building was – for example where in Tampa. But I’m guessing that data isn’t in there.
Creative – yeah…hard to say what’s wrong. But use a lot of apps and isn’t quite as cool / crisp (fonts, logos, colors) as others like WhiteHouse, DailyBeast, Eventbrite, Twitter and other apps use
Crashing – was on 3G…glad to see fix
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MAP will support satellite view, so you could see the building. The problem is that the location data we have for the jobs is only a zipcode. So, we can’t drop the location pin for the job exactly at the street adress where the building is. If you are in the map view, and you tap on the pin, it will give you the option of going to the view of the job at that location, or get you driving/walking directions from where you are (still with the issue of the location granularity).
If you have an iPhone 4, you should see a big improvement in the new version, we are upping the resolution on many of the graphics to support the retina display. The app version that is out there only uses the high res images on the iPad.
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btw…want to give you props for the app. most gov’t iphone apps are just RSS feeds (v1 of GovLoop is too) which is a ton easier and less complicated. you are doing core processes which is much harder
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Thanks. The team worked really hard on this. It is good to know that it is noticed.
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Just want to make sure doesn’t come across as too much criticism. Just suggestions. Most agencies aren’t doing anything
My favorite govt app is TSA…they spent a lot of time on that one too as some difficult work
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No worries about that. We have exactly the same discussions on this side. As good as the app is, there is still room to add new and innovative features. We welcome all comments, I’ll try to stay involved in this thread to let you know where things are. As you have seen, some of the suggestions have already been looked at.
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Just downloaded it, will test and report anything new. Thanks for posting Steve, not sure I would have noticed it being available otherwise.
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We have submitted a new version (V2.1) of the app to Apple for review. Resolves most crashing issues in 3G mode. Adds retina support for iPhone 4.
Should be on the iTunes store within the next 6-10 days (depending on how long the Apple review takes).
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Dave, cool, thanks for the update.
This morning I had to put in password 3 times until it worked. After the second time I verified I had correct password on ‘regular’ usajobs. Is that one of the glitches that’s getting fixed?
Tks again for making this app – shows great thinking and progress.
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This is the first we have heard of a login issue. Couple of questions…
Can you repeat this problem?
What type of device are you on?
What OS Version?
How strong is the signal where you are?
Are you running WiFi or 3G?Thanks,
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OK, the new version is now up (V2.1).
Fixes the most common crashes (returning to search results in 3G mode).
Adds retina images to iPhone-4
Usability updates based on a usability survey.
Other general performance and crashing issues.Please comment here, and feel free to comment on iTunes.
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I’m on a BlackBerry … but congrats on your innovation there Dave.
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As an update… We are at about 100,000 downloads for the app. We are getting some more reports of issues through the iTunes store which appear to be due to a recent update to the Apple operating system. We’re fixing that and should have a new version up within the next few weeks.
Also, the Android version is coming along nicely…
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Awesome – what seems to be the most popular usages of the iphone app? Any surprises?
That’s a lot of downloads. How does that compare to usajobs.gov? How much traffic does it get?
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