By
Bob Brewin
Buff up those resumes. The Veterans Affairs Department's Office of Information & Technology plans to hire 705 IT professionals between now and April 22, according to an internal Dec. 22, 2010 memo that popped up in my inbox.
This hiring sprint -- which the IT shop has dubbed Race to 705 -- focuses on high priority, but undefined positions in just three unspecified locations. VA says it seeks out the "best and the brightest" and plans to hire them through a two-week streamlined procedure.
At the end of the 2010 fiscal year, the VA IT workforce totaled 7,580, which means Race to 705 will increase the head count by 9.3 percent, even though the VA IT budget of $3.16 billion for fiscal 2011 is $145 million below its request.
Hopefully some of these folks will end up working on projects to completely automate the disability claims process.