Department: Department of Veterans Affairs
Location(s): Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Salary Range: $37193 - $59031 Per Year
Job Summary: This position is located at the Royal C. Johnson VA Medical Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This position is for the Hospice Cottage which is organized around the needs and lives of Veterans who live there. Being a constant companion of the elderly is the purpose and responsibility of the recreation assistant. The duty of the recreation assistant is to protect, to nurture, and to sustain the elder, to maintain the safety and cleanliness of the environment, and for providing high quality care.
Major Duties:
Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/11/2026. 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 GS-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. 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 position has an Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) for specialized experience. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Group leader, counselor, or similar work in public and private recreation programs for adults or children such as summer camps, local playgrounds, YWCA and YMCA clubs, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, urban community centers, or resort recreational activities. Teacher's aid in elementary school recreation or physical education program, with emphasis on development of general recreational skills and abilities. Aid or assistant assignments in recreation while on active military service. Aid or assistant in the organization and administration of recreation activities, such as preparing activities calendars, maintaining attendance records, and providing information concerning schedules and activities. Summer aid in a State or national park, with duties related to the recreational activities of visitors to campsites, trails, picnic areas, nature and raft centers, and boating and fishing areas (e.g., demonstrating camping techniques and park safety, conducting nature tours, and overseeing farm animal areas provided for children). Sales or stock clerk in a recreation supplies and equipment shop. Aid or assistant in the issuance of authorized property, and in the maintenance of inventory control and accountability for such property in a recreation facility. Aid or assistant in a hotel or resort recreation service, with duties such as setting up areas for games, tournaments, and other organized group recreational activities. To qualify for this position at the GS-04 level, you must meet one of the following: General and Specialized Experience: You must have at least 6 months of general experience and 6 months of specialized experience that equipped me with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to successfully perform the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. General experience is: (1) Any type of work that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work of the position, or (2) experience that provided a familiarity with the subject matter or processes of the broad subject area of the occupation. Qualifying specialized experience includes what is stated above, as well as: assists with recreational activities such as crafts, table games, movies, upkeep of simple gardens, planning special events for holidays; performs light housekeeping duties such as emptying trash, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming; performs hospitality services such as answering phone calls, allowing visitors into Hospice, answering patient/visitor questions; and performs food services such as serving food, clearing tables and maintaining a clean kitchen area. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed 2 years of study above high school that included at least 12 semester hours in courses related to recreation (e.g., basic psychology, group dynamics, physical education, arts and crafts, etc.). OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and education which includes completing post-high school education and specialized experience as described above to meet the total experience requirements. Note: If education is used to meet specialized experience requirements, then such education must include courses directly related to the work of the position. To qualify for this position at the GS-05 level, you must meet one of the following: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-4) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Qualifying specialized experience includes what is stated above, as well as: assists with recreational activities such as crafts, table games, movies, upkeep of simple gardens, planning special events for holidays; performs light housekeeping duties such as emptying trash, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming; performs hospitality services such as answering phone calls, allowing visitors into Hospice, answering patient/visitor questions; performs food services such as serving and preparing food, clearing tables and maintaining a clean kitchen area; and provides volunteers with required orientation, training and guidance when they are helping with activities. 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 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with major study or at least 24 semester hours in courses related to recreation or physical education. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have a combination of specialized experience and education which includes completing post-high school education and specialized experience as described above to meet the total experience requirements. Note: Only education in excess of the first 60 semester hours of a course of study leading to a bachelor's degree is creditable toward meeting the specialized experience requirements. Two full academic years of study, or 60 semester hours, beyond the second year is equivalent to l year of specialized experience. If education is used to meet specialized experience requirements, then such education must include courses directly related to the work of the position. To qualify for this position at the GS-06 level, you must meet one of the following: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-5) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Qualifying specialized experience includes what is stated above, as well as: assists with recreational activities such as crafts, table games, movies, upkeep of simple gardens, planning special events for holidays; performs light housekeeping duties such as emptying trash, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming; performs hospitality services such as answering phone calls, allowing visitors into Hospice, answering patient/visitor questions; manages food service operations such as preparing and serving food and incorporating dietary restrictions and modifications, clearing tables, sterilizing equipment and maintaining a clean kitchen area; provides volunteers with required orientation, training and guidance when they are helping with activities; and utilizes computers to retrieve and enter data.
How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the application questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12949683. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 05/11/2026. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. NOTE: Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit
Application Deadline: 2026-05-11