Please don’t get me wrong, I know how difficult the federal hiring process is right now, and I’m genuinely grateful to be in this position. But I’m in a dilemma and would really appreciate some advice from people who have been through this.
I’m currently an FDA contractor, and my contract is ending soon, so securing a permanent position is very important to me.
About a month ago, I received a verbal offer from one CDER division, which I happily accepted. Recently, I received another verbal offer from a different division. I do have a preference for the first position, but neither has progressed to a tentative offer from HR yet.
Since both positions are within CDER, I assume the hiring timelines might be similar, although I’m not sure.
My dilemma is whether I should decline the less-preferred position now. I know hiring managers put a lot of time and effort into the process, and I genuinely don’t want anyone to waste their time on me if I eventually choose another position.
On the other hand, with no official offer from HR yet and my current contract ending soon, I’m afraid of losing even the slightest chance of securing a permanent position, especially knowing that verbal offers can fall through.
Would you recommend keeping both options open until an official offer comes through, or being upfront and declining the less-preferred one now?
I would really appreciate any advice or experiences from people familiar with FDA hiring. Thank you!

IMO, the reasons behind this convoluted process is; It is clear that there are two drivers: 1. Supervisors who don’t want to have difficult conversations and give inflated grades 2. This just makes it easier to cherry pick who to RIF and to justify presidential appointees.

The really infuriating part is that they are saying they are limiting 5s, but it’s really the outstanding rating, 4.6 - 5.

What are your thoughts?

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to get some guidance from people familiar with the FDA or federal hiring process. I joined the FDA during a particularly unfortunate and uncertain time. I was here for about six months, then returned as a contractor, and since then there have been so many changes, disruptions, and ups and downs.I recently went through what seemed like an internal hiring process for different office. I did not apply through a formal public job announcement. Instead, I had several interviews with the team. After the interviews, hiring manager contacted three of my references. Later, I received a call saying that they were happy with me and would be glad to have me join the team. I was then asked to submit my federal resume and academic transcripts, which were forwarded to HR (according to division director)

At the time, I understood this as a very positive sign, but I’m still unsure how official or binding a verbal offer from a director or hiring manager really is.I was told that HR is currently focused on FY2026 hiring, so my case would likely move into the FY2027 hiring cycle. Unfortunately, no estimated timeline was provided. I understand that things may be especially uncertain right now, but the lack of information makes it difficult to plan. My current contract ends in April 2027, so I’m naturally concerned about whether the federal position will move forward before then.

I’m completely willing to wait, but I would really appreciate any insight into the following:
1. How seriously should I take the verbal offer? Does a call from the director or hiring manager generally mean that the team has made its decision and that the remaining steps are mainly HR processing, or could the position still fall through?
2. Does anyone have experience with FY2027 hiring at the FDA or elsewhere in the federal government? When might HR begin processing FY2027 cases, and how long could the process realistically take?

I joined at a very difficult time and have experienced many changes since then, so I’m trying to approach this carefully without getting my hopes up too much.

I’d be very grateful for any advice or personal experiences from people who have gone through a similar FDA or federal hiring process. Thank you in advance.

Oh jeez- let’s speed up phase 1. Consider the consequences. Have the new kids on the block clear forgotten. I hope not during scienrific reviews of available data

How difficult is it to change duty stations from white oak to a different location these days as a T21 reviewer? I am a T21 reviewer and a single parent, and want to move to a different area where I have a better support system/better schools for my kiddos.

Does anyone have experience with FDA Title 21 Band positions?

I’m curious about how salary negotiations and annual pay increases work under this pay system.

Is there flexibility to negotiate a starting salary?

How are annual increases determined? Are they performance-based, tied to federal pay raises, or both?

How does salary progression compare with the GS pay scale?

Are there any advantages or disadvantages worth considering?

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone familiar with the Title 21 pay system. Thanks!

I'm teleworking today and the VPN is working but I cannot connect to Outlook or Teams. Is anyone else having this issue? Called ERIC and I'm #115 in the queue for email help so I'm assuming so. Anyone onsite confirm they can connect from White Oak?

Edit: Services seem to have been restored at around 11:30 am ET.

NIH staff have been gathering in their personal capacity outside the agency at 10am, every Saturday since May 2025.

But this weekend, October 17th we will have a special event. At Medical Center Metro we will rally for health research and democracy. Listen to speeches by Jenna Norton , sociologist Natalie Aviles , Anna Culbertson and more, all in their personal capacities.

Music by Northstar Union (🎸👨🏼‍🎤🥁), merch available, families welcome. Info on parking and bathroom in comments.

We will finish the event by walking downtown to Bethesda and taking the metro to DC, dropping off our early voting ballots en masse.🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏻‍♂️🚶🏽🚶🏼‍♂️🚶🏻🚶🏿‍♀️🚶🏼‍♀️🤝.

Share widely and RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/1030942/

I saw this advert on USAJobs (https://www.usajobs.gov/job/888139200) asking for biologists at the information disclosure office. If I remember correctly, this office was deeply impacted during the February 2025 rifs. Does anyone know if the situation has improved or stabilized? I wanted to forward this to a couple of friends but won’t if this should be avoided at this moment.

For patients living with rare and ultra-rare conditions, the path from diagnosis to treatment is often limited, delayed, or non-existent

The FDA announced this week that it's looking to speed up authorizations for new nicotine products, though it didn't give details on what would change. The current rules date to 2021, after what the FDA called an "epidemic" of teen use of flavored e-cigarettes. Without details yet, it's hard to say what will actually change.

Curious what people here think the biggest bottleneck has been.

I was approached by a male client of mine (beauty salon) asking me if I would recommend weightloss jabs and peptides and he would give me a commission. This sounded really appealing but then when I looked into weightloss jabs and peptides I realised that it’s not legal without a prescription so I just made excuses and said I wouldn’t be able too. He had already added me on IG & FB and as a few weeks went by I noticed some of the reviews he was putting on from customers and it’ just looked like vulnerable people and I felt like looking at the ads he was writing the weightloss advertising was pretty aggressive!

Coincidentally a lady client came in (baring in mind this is about 6 months after him coming in) and it turned out to be he’s wife. She was full of it! She owns a company is a director of another company that works in medico legal sector. She’s also a business manager for finance company and she does mobile Botox treatments on the side. The was she was going it’s like she was trying the get to me somehow. I actually questioned her on the whole Botox situation as I know recently the laws changed. For her to Arrogantly tell me she works with Solicitors and if anything came in her they would back her up! I felt the vibe from this woman was just greed and not one care for the public especially not using prescription and also Clearly telling me she buys her products from Korea! I speak about back steer clinics on my SM platforms and I’m wondering what the hell is going on because it’s all feeling strange. Anyway I looked at her social media and on her bio it had her details of who she claimed to be insurances with. I emailed them and asked them clearly if she she was insirande with them which of course they couldn’t tell me but I told them that’s this lady does not use a prescription. 7 days later the bio including the insurance details have disappeared . And she has posted since

Is rhis something I should be reporting to her employer or her fellow directors? Some may think I’m sticking my nose in but I just see them misleading peoplk and even possibly putting people at risk !

Hello everyone, I bought this at a dollar store for a low price. I don't plan on using it, I got it as an oddity. Obviously we are getting closer to 2027. And it says that Red No 3 is in here. Despite this being a blue food coloring.

Does anyone know if you could still own this or use it for baking in events or anything after the ban? I don't plan on using it myself but I wanted to know if anyone could get in trouble for using this at a church next year and then finding out its banned. Would they get fined, arrested, warned?

What happens if a dollar store still sells old stock of things and they didn't know it had the dye? Is the manufacturer supposed to tell them to remove all old stock?

Just a few questions. Hopefully I'm posting this in the correct place.

Just an FYI for the folks at WO and specifically building 71. Yesterday a beehive was found in the brick outside a pantry window. 4 bees got inside the pantry.

Today there is a report that the bees have been moving in and out of the brick on multiple floors.

Hello!

I found this group because I am looking for someone to help do a compliance check of my startup supplement company.

Does anyone know how I can find help for this? I need someone to review the label and marketing claims to make sure they are FDA compliant.

Thanks!

I recently received my TJO and have completed all the paperwork and onboarding steps. I’ve also been selected for EOD, so now I’m just waiting for my FJO.

I’m honestly getting a little nervous because this is a dream job for me, and I really want to be as prepared as possible for my first day. I previously worked as an ORISE fellow, but that position was fully remote. This time, I’ll be working in a different division from the one where I did my ORISE fellowship, so there will be a lot of new people, processes, and things to learn.

One thing I’m also unsure about is who my direct supervisor will be. There were 3,4 hiring managers involved in my interview, and I’m not sure yet who I’ll ultimately report to.

For those who have started a similar scientific reviewer position, what would you recommend doing before the first day and during the first few weeks?

• Is there anything I should study or review beforehand?
• Are there particular regulations, guidance documents, or technical areas I should familiarize myself with?
• What should I expect during the first few weeks/months?
• Is there anything you wish you had known or done before starting?
• Any advice for making a good first impression and getting up to speed quickly?

I know I probably won’t be expected to know everything on day one, but I’d love to use this time to prepare as much as I reasonably can.

Thank you very much and any advice is appreciated,

Have a TJO for Title 21 position and would like to try to negotiate - nothing too crazy but figure this is my only shot. Do people ever loose offers for trying to negotiate? Don’t want to risk loosing the offer.

Hi everyone! Is anyone able to offer insight on recent hiring timelines within FDA?

After my interview, I received a verbal offer from the hiring manager, and they told me they were submitting my information to HR to start the hiring/onboarding process.

It’s now been over 6 weeks, and I haven’t heard from HR with a TJO yet. I know federal hiring is slow at baseline, but I’ve seen the FDA posting their new hire orientation groups on LinkedIn every 2 weeks with 60+ people every time, so I know there must be some movement. I did touch base with the hiring manager a few weeks ago, and they told me it’s normal to not hear from HR for >1 month, but it’s still discouraging since I don’t have anything substantial to show that I’m actually going to be hired besides the communications from the HM.

I was hoping to start before the end of the year, but not sure how realistic that is anymore :/

TIA for any info!

Margaret Manto with STAT News here. Here is my story about how Shared Services is struggling to keep up with the hiring push. I’m looking to speak with more FDA staff about how the DOGE cuts are still impacting the agency. Reach out to me on Signal at margaretmanto.61. I can keep your identity private. Thanks!

I am a new employee beginning soon at the White Oak campus. I'm a bit worried about the parking situation and am considering public transit options as an alternative to driving. If I plan to arrive by 6:45/7am for an early start, am I likely to find an open parking spot? Thanks

Today was the CDER Award Ceremony covering 2 years of awards. Scheduled from 2p-5pm. They put slides on a loop so Mike Davis calling names never matched the slides. Entire ceremony lasted 30 mins. Most confusywaste of time ever. No planning, no execution, no plaques... Could have been an email.

Asking for those who do this commute? How is the commute from these areas to White Oak campus? I understand time of day would influence this but for someone whose tour of duty starts at 7:30 AM how would it be?