Aspiring Bureaucrats

Government Executive reports:

Office of Personnel Management Director Kay Coles James said Thursday that recent studies show the federal government is the employer of choice for "a large and talented pool of enthusiastic and well-educated people."

Her conclusion was based on surveys conducted among more than 300 finalists for positions with the Presidential Management Fellows program and more than 900 attendees at an April joint private- and public-sector job fair at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

At the job fair, respondents said that a federal career appealed to them more than one in the private sector by a ratio of 6 to 1. And nearly two-thirds of respondents said they were more interested in government work today than they were a few years ago.

6 to 1? Of course, people interested in the Presidential Management Fellows Program and this job fair are a skewed sample. And evidently they make promising spies.

(Link via Freemarket.net)

Comments

[Todd Fletcher]

Isn't it obvious why? "I've worked for the private sector - they expect results!"

[Gilbert Martin]

Yes and the private sector can (and does) get rid of those who don't deliver results a lot quicker and more decisively than government does.

[Ken Shultz]

GEICO (Government Employee Insurance COmpnay) was bought out for billions by Warren Buffet more than ten years ago. Are any of you familiar with story about the guy that started the company? The way I heard it, he was an Actuary who came across some statistics showing that government employees get into fewer car accidents than the general population. Rebuffed by his superiors, he went out on his own and marketed exclusively to government employees through the mail, and he was tremendously successful. So what does that have to do with anything?

Apparently, government employees, for whatever reason, are more meticulous than the rest of us, and, as a group, that's the only good thing I can think of to say about them. But aspiring government employees may or may not be meticulous, so I can't think of anything good to say about them. Some of the aspiring bureaucrats may be minorities trying to avoid racism; government employees are like entertainers and athletes in that race doesn't seem to be a big barrier to success. But it is disconcerting to see the rest of these young people enthusiastically sacrifice their potential for security.

[Douglas Fletcher]

GEICO sucks. I called them for a quote once and it was almost twice the rate I was already getting, with no points or accidents.

[ERock]

What, so six out of every seven people applying to a government fellowship are interested in government jobs? This needs FARK's obvious tag.

[Czar]

It's simple. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get fired from a government job? The only low point is that the county also considers having to do your job a worthy punishment for wife-beaters and drunk drivers.

[tom]

A good example of the government is the post office and of course its such an efficient organization. I wish my grocery store worked as efficiently.

A few years ago they got upset because we were bringing them too much mail??.

I?m sure that?s how Fed?x grew!

[Ken Shultz]

Fletcher,

If you have no points or accidents, for most national insurance companies, the quote zip code driven. I know in Vegas, for instance, a lot of insurance companies will just quote ridiculous rates rather than refuse coverage because they want to be able to write policies elsewhere in the state.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Yeah well, I was two miles from their national headquarters, screw them.