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Courtney Rubin<
As a college senior graduating 15 years ago, Amy Potthast wanted to find work she could love, but was clueless about public service jobs. "I didn't realize I could make a career out of being a good citizen," she says. "I didn't think my career services office would take me seriously if I went in there and said, 'I want to change the world with my job.' They were all about corporate interviewing." So she joined the
Today she's the director of service and graduate education programs for Idealist, one of several nonprofits that have sprung up in the past decade to help demystify paths to public service, a sector broadly defined as government, nonprofits/NGOs, international development, and education, plus consulting in any of these categories. Why is entry into this world such a mystery in the first place? "There's not one single right path," says Potthast, 37. "It's not like if you want to become a
Marissa Deitch, assistant director for public service at
David Schachter, assistant dean for student affairs at
One approach is to start by looking at what most energizes you: an unsolved problem or an unmet need, for example. (If you're having trouble even getting that far, try www.self-directed-search.com, which has a
The environment has always been the passion of Dani Simons, 33. She studied remote sensing at
Should you need further help brainstorming, try the
Or you can be like Christopher "Kiff" Gallagher and create your own opportunity. Gallagher helped found AmeriCorps before leaving to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. In 2008 he combined two of his leading passions and founded MusicianCorps, whose fellows teach music in locations from public schools to veterans hospitals.
Of course, the federal government, which employs more than 2 million civilians, not including the
A lot of government jobs are filled by "the unsung heroes that keep society great," says Heather Krasna, author of Jobs That Matter (2010). She points to drinking a glass of water from a municipal tap. "Who made sure the arsenic wasn't in that?" she says. "That's somebody's job."
Keep in mind that working for the U.S. government does not automatically mean a move to Washington, D.C. Eighty-five percent of federal positions are outside the nation's capital, and some 50,000 are located abroad. Experts encourage job-seekers to be open-minded. One skill set or profession may apply to a whole range of agencies. Want to work in law enforcement? That could mean Customs and Border Protection, the
Fred Garza, 54, whose dry, official title is "animal health technician," has worked for nearly 20 years as a government cowboy for the
For help in choosing promising opportunities, you can check out Bestplacestowork.org, which is based on the Partnership for Public Service's analysis of federal employee surveys. "You may not have heard of the
You can read postings and apply for multiple government jobs at USAjobs. Though the website has recently been overhauled to make it more user friendly, "it's probably best not to approach it out of the gate without doing some reading first," Stier says. A good starting place: the Partnership's Web site, Makingthedifference.org, which lays out in plain English (as opposed to government-ese) how to explore federal job opportunities.
Wherever in the public sector you think you may be headed, the advice is the same: Network, network, and then network some more. Ask friends and relatives about people they know who volunteer, work for nonprofits, or serve on nonprofit boards. Connect with alumni from your school working in fields that interest you.
Kimberlee Mortimer, a 31-year-old environmental scientist, started her career in the public sector with a three-month temporary fieldwork assignment for the
If you want to work for the federal government, people inside the various agencies can tell you the key words you'll need to have in your résumé (some agencies use automated screening processes to identify candidates) and where in the process your application is. The Obama administration's goal is to trim waiting times to 80 days, but for some jobs the figure is still "many, many multiples of that," says Stier.
Krasna suggests using LinkedIn and
Another tip for getting a job in the sector is to volunteer and show your commitment to the issue or to the general idea of public service. Krasna recommends trying to do something substantial. "Everyone thinks about a soup kitchen and that's great. But you also want to build skills you'll need in your future career," she says.
When her aunt was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) in 2000, Amy Whipple, then a 24-year-old sales rep for a paper company, began volunteer fundraising for the
Think you can write a grant proposal? "Small nonprofits always need help with that and it's a marketable skill if you write a successful one," Krasna says.
Internships can also help. Sarah Holewinski, 33, executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), works to protect civilians caught in battle zones. She got her start in college by interning at the Clinton White House. "You have to work hard" and "give every task everything you've got, whether it's taking out the trash" or "strategizing an advocacy campaign," she says. For many people, these opportunities will lead to full-time jobs, as they did for Holewinski.
And don't be discouraged if you don't get your dream position the first time you apply. Kimberlee Mortimer advises "pleasant persistence." In her three years at the Florida fish and wildlife agency, she says, she has seen two people who applied at least four times for different positions finally land a job. Going the distance also wins you points. "If you travel for an interview as opposed to the phone option, or bring an extra presentation as an exhibit, that leaves a really great impression," Mortimer says.
If you're still not sure where you want to settle, or you've discovered you're missing a crucial skill for the job you want, consider national service options such as Teach for America or the
Dorothea Hertzberg took this route when she joined the
For people considering public service abroad, Ann Corwin, director of graduate career services at
Finally, the key advice CIVIC's Holewinski offers public sector job-seekers is to make yourself "as informed, well-rounded, and observant of the world as possible." This is important "because what you're setting out to do is not about business or technology or money or fame; it's about taking stock of where we are as a society and making it better in some way."
And in doing so, chances are you won't just change other people's lives -- you'll change your own.
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How to Make a Career in the Public Service Sector