Q. I quit my civil service job after 29 years. Can I be reinstated? A. You could check with your former agency to see if it would be willing to either reinstate or hire you. Or you could go to www.usajobs.gov, find a position for which you are qualified, apply for it and, if hired, pick up where you left off. However, if you withdrew your retirement contribution when you left, you’d have to redeposit that money plus accrued interest to get credit for those 29 years of service.