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Government

International students:

  • What follows is a description of and search strategies for government work in the United States at the federal, state and local levels. Regrettably, students holding an international (non U.S.) passport are not eligible for federal employment opportunities. But you are eligible for all other levels of government work – 50 states, the territories and protectorates, counties, cities, towns and boroughs – provided you can secure visa sponsorship.
  • Obviously, there is a lot of government work elsewhere in the world for which you may be eligible, both in your home country and wherever else you may have work authorization as a result of dual citizenship or pan-national agreements. The very best resource we can offer you in that regard is to seek to connect you with Heinz alumni from that country or region. For assistance, make an appointment with us in Heinz Career Services or with the Heinz Alumni Relations office or ask the student administrators of the Alumni Mentor Program.

U.S. Citizens:

Whether you are considering employment at the federal, state or local levels, the biggest challenge for you will be getting through that first door. Each employment sector of the economy knows itself best and the government sector is no exception. It is therefore important that you know something about the nature of the work, before you seek it, and your own motivations. No government hiring manager wants to see you struggling to articulate why you are interested in his or her job. Before they let you through that door, they want to make sure you’ll be a good fit. Once inside, an entire career of opportunities is much more readily available to you, and movement between departments and agencies is exceptionally easy – you now hold the ticket, and each subsequent hiring process you go through is noncompetitive, which means they have to hire you before they take someone external to the government. One of the best times for seeking that first point of entry is directly upon completion of a masters degree in public policy and/or management.

Each year, approximately 30-40% of PPM students (and far fewer ISM students) accept employment in one of the government sectors. In addition to the lists of past internship and fulltime employers in this section, see our past employment reports for annual trends.

SEARCH STRATEGIES:

  1. Know the Required Competencies: The three primary levels of government work in the United States require different strategies, but the levels are alike in the competencies they are seeking. Bureaucracy can be a formidable barrier to getting tasks done. Success requires a willingness to meet that challenge head on. Resilience, excellent communication (especially writing) skills, and strong team-based, leadership and interpersonal skills are critically important. Normally, the desired competencies are posted on the web or listed with the job.
  2. Understand the Level Playing Field: Just as the private sector cherishes performance, and the nonprofit sector mission, ethical standards are highest in government. Internal and external auditing are a part of daily life and have a profound impact on hiring practices. A system of checks and balances between hiring managers and HR personnel adds considerable time to the hiring process, but creates internal transparency and minimizes favoritism and discrimination. Diversity standards are assiduously adhered to to ensure that government is both for the people and of the people.
  3. Start at the Agency Level. Your research should be first directed to finding the right fit for yourself – both in terms of level of government, and the agency or office within that level. Agency websites are exhaustive in explaining their scope of work and their projects. Learn their key mission and then watch the news for that bureau’s impact on contemporary events or government services.

Federal Government

Virtually everything you need to know for seeking federal employment is now web-based. The HR function for the federal government is performed by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The key to your federal employment is the hiring authority used for bringing you on board. Hiring managers have a pallet of tools for hiring students. The most important are:

  • Presidential Management Fellows Program. A two-year training program with accelerated promotional opportunities, the PMF is the premier future leader program in the U.S. government. Applicants seek to secure a Heinz College nomination in the early fall term before proceeding to the on-line application process in the mid-fall and a written exam at one of 12 national test centers. Finalists receive access to a designated on-line job database and spring-term job fair.
  • The Federal Career Intern Program  – Less well-known than the PMF, the FCIP is more widely utilized to bring in future leaders and offers the same exact promotional structure and pace. The difference is that you have to find the jobs on your own using either the agency websites or the system wide job database USAJOBS.
  • USAJOBS.GOV  – This is where almost all jobs you apply for with the federal government are listed. Learning to navigate it is essential to successfully applying to the federal government. The site has some useful tools such as a Federal Resume builder, individual accounts for building a professional profile and an email job alert feature. If you are seriously interested in federal employment, open an account for yourself immediately, and start building your federal resume.
  • Agency Information Gateway – This is a great resource for learning about the nature of the work at individual agencies.
  • Partnership for Public Service is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public on how to successfully apply for opportunities with the federal government. They have built an array of on-line tools that you simply cannot afford to overlook if you are serious about a federal government career.

Important: On-campus recruiting versus on-line applying. Over the course of a typical year, several federal agencies will recruit on campus. Although they will hold first round interviews and competitively select students for them, unless the agency is an excepted agency with a special mandate for making autonomous hires, the interview is largely informational, and at one point you will need to go on-line during the brief application window, and formally fill out an application. When you do, you will need to write one or more KSA’s – brief essays that demonstrate your knowledge, skills and abilities for the job. The KSA’s will be scored, and you will be contacted (on not) on the basis of that score alone.

Click here to learn more about KSA’s.

Please also visit our Useful Links for a more complete list of good federal websites.

Check out these guides in A002:

  • Ten Steps to a Federal Job by Kathryn Troutman
  • The Federal Resume Guidebook by Kathryn Troutman

State Government

  • State government work, it is often said, is the perfect policy wedding of measures to outcomes. In other words, playing a policy role at the state level gives you a large enough scope to influence many lives, but you are close enough to the point of implementation to directly witness the results. The nature of the policy decisions being made also strike much closer to home for the average citizen than the activities of most federal bureaucracies: health, education, energy, economic development and infrastructure are state-based activities that affect us all in significant ways.
  • Further, there is a national movement among state governments to implement results-based or performance-driven policy recommendations and decisions, an obvious strong match for the Heinz College curriculum.

SEARCH STRATEGIES

  • With 50 states to choose from, there are a lot of options. Where do you begin?
  • Commitment to the region: Many people are as deeply committed to their state as they are to their town or city. Regional pride is an incredible driver for building resources and providing resources, and you should not apply to a state position if you consider the state capital or the region a drawback. Some state capitals are in fairly small cities (eg. Harriburg, PA; Albany, NY; Springfield, IL), but this has a favorable impact on the ability for state law-makers to get work done: the major players are better known and easier to access in a smaller town. It also affords greater transparency. Check out the PA website.
  • Nature of the work: if infrastructure, or education or energy is an important policy area for you, search for jobs in your chosen substantive area across the country using a state-level job search website.
  • Growth opportunities: Is your state in political transition? Are young professionals being courted? Does your state face big policy challenges that you want to grapple with (water in Nevada; heating oil in Maine)?

RESOURCES:

  • Management training programs: These are generally 1-2 year jobs that are used to attract talented, recent graduates and young professionals, and provide them with rotations across state offices. They serve as an excellent point of entry to a state level career, and, because competitive, a great resume-booster. Click here for an annotated list (.pdf).
  • View our list of Useful Links as well as past internship and fulltime employers in these pages, and network with Heinz alumni in state jobs.

C. Local Government – City & County

  • Local government generates a great deal of passion in civil servants. When Pittsburgh was chosen Most Livable American City in 2007, cheers were loudest on Grant Street – city employees work hard to make their hometown the best it can be. A career in this arena has you closest to the results of your work. The impact is most visible but so are the political challenges. When combined in a career with service at the state level, local government is where all the pieces fall into place. Understandably, it is also where most political careers are launched.
  • Historically, from the days when we were the School of Urban and Public Affairs, the Heinz College has been very active and dedicated to promoting change and development at the local government level. That commitment continues to this day: 37% of the Class of 2007 found employment in Pittsburgh.

SEARCH STRATEGIES & RESOURCES:

  • Networking is even more important at the local level. Because local and state governments must balance their budgets, hiring moratoriums are most frequent at the local level. As a result, be proactive: join a local young professional network, keep up with the the local news and politics for the city you are targeting, book mark job boards on the regions’s city and the county websites, and keep an eye on other city jobs as well. Start a local government club, invite speakers to campus, be an advocate for city careers among your peers and choose (or create) a systems project that features a city administration as your client.
  • Join the ICMA (International City and County Managers’ Association) and travel with other Heinz students to their annual conference. Watch for and apply to their Local Government Management Fellows program as listed below.
  • Management training programs: These are generally 1-2 year jobs that are used to attract talented, recent graduates and young professionals, and provide them with rotations across city offices. They serve as an excellent point of entry to a local government career, and, because competitive, a great resume-booster. Click here for an annotated list.
  • View our list of Useful Links as well as past internship and fulltime employers in these pages, and network with Heinz alumni in city jobs.