.:aaron.helton:.

[Edit 8/20/2009: In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I am now employed by the Office of Personnel Management, who administers the PMF Program.  Additionally I feel it's necessary to add this short disclaimer.  At the time the post was composed and published, I was still only a finalist interested in generating discussion about the program.  Any criticisms of the program were listed with my suggestions for improvement, suggestions made in good faith and a desire to see the program reach more graduate students.  They should not in any way be construed as originating from OPM or the PMF program, as they are my observations and opinions.]

Overview

The PMF program is designed to source the next generation of Federal Government managers from the nation’s top graduate students.  I have documented the steps from Nomination to Job Fair (which could include appointment).  Subsequent parts will look at appointment, background checks, rotational opportunities, and training, as well as (if I can get it) some compiled and anonymized feedback on some of the participating agencies.

Nomination Process

While the nomination process is quite familiar to schools with a history of participation in the PMF program, it was difficult to convey to a school that had no such history. I mentioned in an earlier posting [link] that finding someone to act as the nominating official was no easy task, in part because nobody at the school clearly understood the requirements that the school would need to meet in order to nominate anyone. In the future, I would like to see a better-organized set of information for schools to draw from, such that an interested student need not do all the footwork. Perhaps with my ultimate acceptance and placement into the PMF program, I can help St. Edward’s in particular to establish a more formal program for this. I am convinced that many schools (and students) do not participate in the program either because they are unaware of its existence, or because even if they have heard of it, they might assume that the only people the Federal Government would be interested in are those with a background in law, public policy and administration, or another closely related field. The fact that the vast majority of applicants have these backgrounds and come from schools that have strong programs in these fields seems to support this conclusion. Taking this to its (in my mind) natural conclusion, it makes sense that a number of finalists ultimately fail to find a position that interests them. I will discuss what I perceive to be the mechanics of the placement process in more detail in the Finalist Pool section. Interestingly, the Federal Government, or its primary recruiting partner, OPM, does partner with schools in meaningful ways via StudentJobs.gov. I don’t have data, of course, on the effectiveness of these partnerships in promoting Federal employment in universities, but even so, the effort appears to me to be a somewhat siloed approach. In any event, my own discovery of the PMF program was not through StudentJobs.gov, and I think there is a real opportunity for the Federal Government to further leverage the relationships it has developed so far with colleges and universities. Communication is the biggest factor here, both in terms of making good information both easily accessible and easy to find. Whatever the reason, I do not see that this has been achieved so far, but that does not mean we can’t hope for better.

PMF Assessment

Quite some time after the nomination comes the assessment. Those who were nominated by the schools to participate in the program converge on a number of testing facilities to take a standardized exam. For me, it was a simple drive to a location in the same town where I am (was) living. The exam itself did not seem very difficult, and had three sections, one for scenario-based reasoning, one for open-ended personality questions, and one for editing and proofreading. The only meaningful way to prepare for this test is to use the sample questions provided on the PMF web site. What is interesting about the exam is that, subsequent to nomination, it is the only item used to score an applicant’s package and ultimately determine whether a nominee becomes a finalist. This means that the background of the test-taker is completely disregarded, with one important exception: veteran’s preference. A PMF program official at the job fair rattled off an estimate of the number of veterans that participate: 10%. In a standard distribution model, we can estimate that the percentage of veterans in the nomination pool versus the number in the finalist pool remains constant, except that it might not, since the preference grants a score additive. Either way, the fact remains that for the majority of applicants, the only factor that determines a nominee’s finalist status is the assessment.

NORs and General Communication

NOR stands for Notice of Results, and it is the primary communication channel for the PMF program to notify applicants of both their nomination status and their finalist status (including job fair information). Beyond these two very specific uses, however, it conveys nothing else. Unverified anecdotal evidence exists of the mishandling of finalist NORs this year, as a number of people whose last names started between P-Z reported a lack of notification when they should have gone out (and indeed the other name groups, including myself, received them very quickly). Combined with this is the dismal news page link presented on the PMF web site. Sure, there is a picture of a newspaper there, but it is to the side of the other categorical links. It takes you to a page in which context is severely lacking. We have an excellent model for how this SHOULD look (you’re reading a perfect example). Even if the PMF crew found it necessary to completely replace the previous year’s news with a fresh set (I’m not convinced this is necessary; if you’re reading this, you’re web-savvy enough to know what date this was posted), the format should ideally be blog-like. Can I get some RSS? At a minimum, PMF nominees should be able to opt-in to email notifications when such news is posted. Overall, I would give the PMF program a rating of 50% on the communication front. I can’t verify the P-Z issue beyond the anecdotes that have already been shared, but I can point to the other listed shortcomings in my assessment. Based on this, the PMF program is sitting at 1999 technology at best.

PPS

I’m sure much could be written about the woeful state of the Projected Position System, but I will try to summarize the shortcomings I see in it. Quite frankly, I think the PPS is the worst feature of the program and its site. First off, it lacks any way to search positions that have been posted. Even the most basic job board has this feature, so the fact that the PPS does not makes it harder to use than probably most finalists these days would be accustomed to. Second, the approach to sorting the listed positions is just awful. There is no reason in this modern age to separate the sorting options into four different pages that only offer the four ways of sorting. Finally, it would be nice to see some other basic details about the positions listed, such as the total openings for each posting, as well as information that only appears on the other views. You know what would be a vast improvement? An AJAX-ified sortable grid like what you get with the Rails plugin ActiveScaffold. It has the advantage of including a built-in free-text search, which solves all of the inadequacies I already listed. Further, because it’s just so cool ALL BY ITSELF, you don’t even have to dress it up. Come on, PMF program, enter the 21st Century sometime before we reach the 22nd. Oh, and can we get RSS on the postings? Pretty please??

Lest you think I’m all complaints here, I do think the PPS contains a wealth of information; it’s just not intuitively easy to sort through.

Finalist Pool and Competition for Positions

I admit I had done some research into the academic backgrounds of previous years’ finalists, and so I knew going into this that Information Technology was highly underrepresented as compared to Law, Public Administration, and the like (in fact, IT is lumped together in “Other,” just to provide some perspective). Nevertheless, I am going to stretch a bit and suggest that this program need not attract such a homogenous group necessarily. The current makeup of the finalists for this and previous years is evidence of both a great deal of experience within certain schools and academic programs with respect to their participation in PMF and of the natural inclination of those programs to lead to public service, of which PMF is but one possibility. What I would like to see is the targeting of schools that don’t produce Law and Public Administration graduates to try to bring up the participation of those in the “Other” category, IT included. What this homogeneity means for participating agencies and finalists is that some positions will receive the bulk of finalist applications, while others will scarcely draw attention or, if they do, that attention will only come from underrepresented groups. In short, the power dynamic is different depending on which group you are in. I hate to suggest that those with underrepresented but in-demand backgrounds can have their pick of positions, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to be in a field that everyone wants and few finalists have. For those in backgrounds that are well-represented, the finalists themselves often will have to compete with one another for what they perceive to be desirable positions. In all, this means that there could very well be a difference between the academic fields of finalists and the needs of the agencies recruiting. This alone, however, would not account for the 2/7ths of the finalists who have failed in the past to secure positions. I suspect there are a number of reasons why a finalist ultimately does not secure an appointment. First, they may withdraw at any point, which as of this writing has been the case for at least three or four finalists on the list for this year. Second, no suitable match might be available between the finalist’s background and the participating agencies. This could certainly be the case, for instance, for engineers, but it could also be the case for the JDs and Public Administration folks. Third, finalists may simply pursue other interests during the year in which they might have otherwise secured an appointment.

PMF Job Fair

And that brings us to the job fair. There is a fair amount of jockeying that goes on between the NOR and the actual job fair, in which finalists attempt to secure one of the precious few interview slots with the agencies they are interested in, and the agencies attempt to fill the available slots with finalists they are interested in. It’s a fine dance, I can imagine. The job fair itself is a whirlwind of activity, and I am certain it is stressful for those who did not secure interviews before arriving. I know it was stressful for me, and I had all but two of my 10 interviews arranged before arriving. Nevertheless, the job fair was fun and interesting, and despite the stress, I had a pretty good time meeting with other agencies and talking to them about whether we could come to any agreement. The biggest surprise for me was receiving an offer on the spot, in my first interview no less! My advice for any finalist that is unsure whether to attend? GO! It is worth the time to talk to agencies face to face, because you may think you have an idea what you want to do or whom you want to work for, but until you let them describe what it is they do, you might have no real idea what it is you would be getting into, or whether the program is ultimately right for you.

Conclusions

Overall, my experience in this program has been overwhelmingly positive. There were some issues that I pointed out, but I do not consider them a reason to abstain from the program. I would do this all over again, and I hope it’s an option when my kids grow up.