4 ms·

It is amazing how competitive it is to get a job in the public sector. I tried for over a year to get a job at the GAO, only to find their hiring process almost

It is amazing how competitive it is to get a job in the public sector. I tried for over a year to get a job at the GAO, only to find their hiring process almost impossible to breach. One of my friends, a recent law school graduate, wants nothing more than to work in the public sector. He has been out of school for the past nine months applying for various jobs with the local counties, only to realize that there is MASSIVE competition for these jobs -- he just lost out on one position to a person that had 10+ years experience in a lateral county; there were also over 50 applicants. He's a very bright guy, but I can see the life sort of draining from his eyes with each rejection. He doesn't go a week without one of his friends from law school calling him seeing if he'd be interested in private sector work, and sooner than later I think he's going to have to take something like that just to get a job.

jmduke 13y ago
Separate from the morality/public service bit (which I agree with rayiner about), I think it's interesting that public sector work is often the most demanding and rewarding (not in a feel-good sense) work out there. Usually this is equated with law/diplomatic positions, but I think there's something about the low-budget quick-turnaround nature and general sense of gravitas that brings out the best work of people. I hope Code for America (http://codeforamerica.org/about/ http://codeforamerica.org/about/) expands and starts to fill the same role that Teach for America does -- sacrifice two years of your life that you'd otherwise spend working for BigCo, get a great credential and pick up a tremendous amount of skills along the way. I'm reminded of a really interesting post by Kyle Rush about the challenges he faced developing Obama's 2012 fundraising platform: http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-million-fundraising-platform/ http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-millio...
- rch 13y ago
  I think this may be the story you intended to include with your second link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4842510 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4842510 http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-million-fundraising-platform/ http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-millio...
  - jmduke 13y ago
    My ability to copy and paste is embarrassing. Thanks for the catch -- edited the original post :)

jmduke 13y ago

Separate from the morality/public service bit (which I agree with rayiner about), I think it's interesting that public sector work is often the most demanding and rewarding (not in a feel-good sense) work out there. Usually this is equated with law/diplomatic positions, but I think there's something about the low-budget quick-turnaround nature and general sense of gravitas that brings out the best work of people. I hope Code for America (http://codeforamerica.org/about/ http://codeforamerica.org/about/) expands and starts to fill the same role that Teach for America does -- sacrifice two years of your life that you'd otherwise spend working for BigCo, get a great credential and pick up a tremendous amount of skills along the way. I'm reminded of a really interesting post by Kyle Rush about the challenges he faced developing Obama's 2012 fundraising platform: http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-million-fundraising-platform/ http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-millio...

rch 13y ago
I think this may be the story you intended to include with your second link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4842510 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4842510 http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-million-fundraising-platform/ http://kylerush.net/blog/meet-the-obama-campaigns-250-millio...
- jmduke 13y ago
  My ability to copy and paste is embarrassing. Thanks for the catch -- edited the original post :)