In recessionary times, the federal government becomes an increasingly attractive career option. But are there any opportunities for people making the transition out of academe? The short answer is yes. Ph.D.'s and M.A.'s work in every federal agency and in many types of jobs. But as with any other career, getting your foot in the door can be the toughest part.
A good first step is to apply for one of the many internships available through different federal agencies. Internship opportunities can be paid or unpaid and can include anything from a research position with the Commission of Fine Arts for a graduate student in architectural history, to a summer job with the Congressional Budget Office for a student of economics, to a position with a federal prison for a psychology Ph.D.
You can contact individual agencies for internship information, or take a few shortcuts. One such shortcut is studentjobs.gov, a federally operated Web site that allows students to search for jobs and post a résumé, among other things. Another shortcut is a list of federal internships maintained by the office of U.S. Rep. Nita M. Lowey, a Democrat from New York. Some information on the site is outdated, but it provides leads and contact information for a long list of positions. You can also check out a list of internships with the Smithsonian Institution.
Perhaps the crown jewel of federal internships is the Presidential Management Intern (PMI) Program. Created in the 1970s to attract outstanding graduate students to policy work in the federal government, the program accepts up to 400 graduate students a year for two-year positions in a variety of agencies.
"The PMI program absolutely got me my start in Washington," says Jennifer Ballen Riccards, who entered the program after earning an M.A in educational-policy analysis from Stanford University. After two years in the program, she landed a regular position at the U.S. Department of Education, eventually leaving the federal government for the private sector.
Unlike other internship programs, in which interns are hired to perform particular duties, the PMI program selects "finalists" who then have to find their own jobs at federal agencies, primarily through a job fair held in Washington each spring. Depending on their interests, interns might work at the Library of Congress, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Labor, or any of dozens of other agencies.
In addition to on-the-job training, interns get together to participate in career-development classes and informal sessions. Each intern is also supposed to complete at least one rotation in a different job to broaden his or her government work experience, although program alumni say some agencies do not offer that opportunity.
Although they are technically interns, participants in the PMI program are generally treated like any other federal employees. They work full time, receive regular benefits, and are paid on the federal pay scale. They are hired at the GS-9 level (which currently pays about $36,000 a year), are eligible for promotion to GS-11 (about $44,000) after completing the first year in the program, and can then be promoted to the GS-12 level (about $53,000) if they are hired to a permanent position after completing the internship.
The likelihood of being hired permanently is high -- more than half of the PMI interns remain federal employees five years after starting the internship program. They have a reputation for being highly competent, and statistics show that over time, they are promoted more quickly than other federal staff members.
Ms. Ballen Riccards credits the program with allowing her to be hired at all during the mid-1990s, when many agencies were under hiring freezes. She also liked the flexibility that came with the internship: "When I wanted to switch jobs at the Education Department -- something that would have been difficult as a regular employee -- I was able to do it as a PMI rotation."
At the time, she says, most interns in the program had degrees in public policy. "I was on the fringe as an educational-policy person," she recalls. Now, by contrast, PMI interns have degrees in fields as varied as African literature and astrophysics. Applicants from a wide variety of academic disciplines are encouraged to apply, so long as they have an interest in a public-policy career.
Not everyone is pleased with that development, and many critics, including PMI alumni, say that the program is being watered down. "The program was originally designed for management and policy folks," says Matt Crouch, director of the PMI alumni group. "Recently it has been marketed more broadly than many of the alumni think is wise." He says the federal government needs managers who have a broad interest in studying and setting policy, not people whose interests are more narrowly focused. (Mr. Crouch received a master's degree in public administration from George Washington University before entering the program in 1990, and is now director of strategic planning at NASA.)
He and other critics also say the management-training aspect of the program has been increasingly de-emphasized. They say federal agencies use the PMI program as an easy way to fill jobs and get around the federal government's normal hiring procedures, which are widely criticized as onerous.
"Agencies love to hire PMIs because they are essentially presented with a pool of precertified finalists who they can hire simply by filling out a form," Mr. Crouch says. Compare this to the normal federal hiring process, which involves layers of bureaucracy, routinely takes six months from start to finish, and often ends in disappointment for hiring managers whose chosen candidates have long since taken other jobs by the time a decision is made.
A 2001 federal evaluation of the program concluded that it had lost focus. It found that a significant minority of interns did not receive the training they were supposed to get, and that the training they did receive wasn't particularly helpful. "Most of the orientation was so below most of my graduate courses it made me hostile that I was being held hostage," one PMI intern told evaluators, saying he was forced to remain at the training session even though he did not find it useful.
The PMI program is not completely exempt from rigid, complex federal rules. Interns are eligible to apply only in the year in which they receive their degrees (either M.A.'s or Ph.D.'s), and must be nominated by a dean or department chairman. No exceptions are made to the rule that interns are hired at the GS-9 level. Although the $36,000 pay range that comes with a GS-9 level appointment may not sound bad compared to wages for teaching assistants or adjuncts, a doctorate-holder hired into a regular federal job normally qualifies for a GS-11 level appointment.
Why, then, would a Ph.D. want to apply for the PMI program? "As bad as the federal hiring process is from an agency perspective, it's 10 times worse from a candidate's perspective," Mr. Crouch says. A federal job search takes months, many jobs have lengthy, time-consuming application procedures, and since agencies are required to advertise every opening, applicants have no way of knowing when an inside candidate is already lined up for the job.
So, despite its flaws, "if you're interested in working for the federal government, the PMI program is one of the best ways to get hired, you do get some developmental training, and there is a prestige factor," Mr. Crouch says.
