Comments on: PMF Program Thoughts, Part 1: Nomination to Job Fair

By: aaronhelton

aaronhelton — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:19:21 +0000

Matthew Burton, writing for Personal Democracy Forum, commented on a recent article about the critical need for the government to employ “hackers” to defend our infrastructure. You can read that article here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEjd5sfWB4ELyH5byMWE77yQ40_AD97KOVP81

Burton’s assessment confirms my own suspicions about the distinct lack of IT-grounded applicants specifically to the PMF program, but probably systemically as well. FTA: “Those most qualified to defend our networks do not want government jobs” [emphasis removed]. The article is here: http://personaldemocracy.com/blog-entry/us-hires-hackers-defend-networksbut-can-they-be-hired

If the PMF program isn’t the way to attract qualified IT security professionals, and the normal system hasn’t done so in enough numbers to make a difference, perhaps it’s time to think of a new strategy?

By: aaronhelton

aaronhelton — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:48:52 +0000

@mark: I would greatly enjoy making some PPS enhancements. Even if I got a rotation with the program office, I doubt I could even tackle more than a couple of those enhancements, though.

By: mark butler

mark butler — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:42:51 +0000

Like your comments regarding PPS. Perhaps you can get a rotation to the program office and work on that!

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:04:20 +0000

Anyone heard from any department at State, yet?

By: aaronhelton

aaronhelton — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:21:46 +0000

Yeah, I’ve been in more or less constant contact with them. I saw my offer letter today, and the FedEx delivery today failed because it required a signature (hard to provide when you aren’t home). So I think it’s now up to me.

By: Alahalla Wallaballahee

Alahalla Wallaballahee — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:45:19 +0000

Have you been in touch with the person/office that made you the offer? Lots of times they might think they’ve got you wrapped up, and the “formal” paperwork then becomes a second priority to their other daily work. Make sure they know you could still take other offers if they don’t really want you.

By: aaronhelton

aaronhelton — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:18:23 +0000

I guess I should add to this the fact that, despite the job fair having taken place almost three weeks ago now, and despite the fact that I had an immediate at-the-fair job offer, I *still* don’t have any offer paperwork. I’m not going to complain too loudly JUST yet, though, since most of the current class still has yet to receive or accept offers from any agencies (some of which seem to be taking a while to mull this over). Regardless, it would be nice to have the paperwork in hand and the background check started. I’m running up against some timing constraints that could make my summer pretty uncomfortable if that process takes too much longer to get started.

By: aaronhelton

aaronhelton — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:45:10 +0000

It occurs to me that the program could use another application. ApplicationManager is a good start, but it only covers you up to the point of receiving an offer. Once the offer paperwork begins, the whole process goes opaque, and there is no indication until the paperwork is drawn up that anything is even happening. This is precisely the kind of thing a tracking application could help alleviate, because at least there would be some place for people to compulsively check.

@Brendan: I think a lot more communication needs to happen with universities. I only found out about this program while searching for some other things, and my school had never participated before. My school has a significant veteran population too, so this program seems like it would be at least mildly attractive to them. It does seem, though, that people think the government doesn’t pay well, so that could be a big reason IT (and some other fields) are so poorly represented.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:13:37 +0000

I agree that the level of IT representation is dismal (I have an IT degree with my MBA), and given the need for those skills and knowledge, there should be more recruiting to those programs. I think the perception of government pay levels keeps people from considering such positions; people who go back to school for fields like IT, law, or business want (or need) a big payoff salary at graduation. So there might be some self-selection going on, too.

I had a great experience at the job fair. Intense, but getting multiple interviews these days is refreshing, to say the least.

Overall, this post was great and confirmed a lot of what I thought of the whole process. Thanks for writing it.