Well the short answer is that they probably never will.
A more helpful answer is after you submit your application, it gets reviewed by an HR person, who ranks all the applications (and more than likely has no clue what the job actually involves - they just give points for whether you wrote a particular word or picked the right multiple choice answer.)
So you end up with a numerical score, then a certain number of the highest scores make it onto the Best Qualified list. That's the point where they send your information to the office actually hiring to select who they will interview. At this point, you normally get an email notification from the IRS HR person saying something like "you have been referred to the selecting official." That would be about 30 days after the announcement closes, but could take longer.
After that, the applications are going to sit on some desk until the manager has enough time to go through them.
I would say IF you were going to be called for an interview based on a USAJobs application, you would normally hear about 2 or 3 months after the closing date of the announcement. I believe they usually interview about 10 people.
I think now they are not even checking whether people are qualified in the able to be hired sense (not the can you do the job sense) until after the office decides they want to hire you. So it could turn out after they make you an offer that you don't meet the requirements for the grade, or that you did not pass your tax check.
If you don't get referred, they will contact you 6 to 12 months later by email to let you know you were not selected, and usually it also says if someone got hired or whether no one did.
I got an interview with the Office of Chief Counsel, and if I remember correctly it took less than a month from the time I applied to find out I would get an interview. However, this was back in April when the IRS was trying to hire more "quickly" than normal.
After completing the online application at usajobs, does anyone know how long it takes for the office to contact you for an interview?
It took me 2-3 months to hear back. You can check usajobs.com for status updates; it'll tell you when your application has been referred to the hiring committee.
I got an offer from the IRS back in April, but turned it down for another position (not the national office). I applied in April and received a e-mail saying that i was referred to hiring committee w/n a few days. Less than a week after the e-mail, I was contacted by an attorney in the offices that were interested. The interview was on Friday of that week. They called with an offer about 2 weeks after the interview. FYI - stay away from SB/SE work. I talked to a few attorneys in that division and it seems like 99.9% individual tax payers arguing pro se. Unless you plan to stay there permanently or want to open up your own firm someday, not sure how applicable that experience will be. Experience in the national office or the LMSB is amazing (from what I've heard) and from my interaction w/ attorneys working in that capacity. Best of luck to you!
