Washington Monthly - September/October 2014 - 59

HOW TO FIND A CAREER
WITH UNCLE SAM

uny Canenguez was just beginning her junior year
at Virginia's George Mason University in 2012
when she heard that the Obama administration
was offering paid internships in the federal government
through a new initiative called the Pathways Programs.
Eager for what she calls "real-life experience" and interested in foreign affairs, she went to the State Department's career website and applied for a Pathways internship. She was accepted, and for the next two years she
worked two days a week at State while finishing her degree in business management. One of the highlights of
her internship, Canenguez says, was getting to meet foreign and civil service officers, hear about their experiences, and take in their advice. Now out of college, she's
in the process of being converted to a formal federal employee, thanks to her time as an intern. "It was amazing," says Canenguez. "I'm now being recruited to Civil
Service, and my long-term plan will be to join the Foreign Service," which, if she succeeds, will allow her to be
posted as a diplomat overseas.
Working for the government can be a great career
choice-maybe not as remunerative as a job on Wall
Street, but potentially far more rewarding and socially
useful. There are federal jobs available for almost every
interest and skill, whether that's politics, physics, art,
or even event planning. And, contrary to popular conception, 84 percent of federal government jobs are outside of the Washington, D.C., area, so you can tailor your
employment opportunities around where you most want
to live. (Fifty thousand federal government employees
work abroad, in more than 140 foreign countries.)
President Obama signed an executive order in 2010
creating the Pathways Programs with the expressed aim
of attracting greater numbers of talented and diverse
young adults into government work. The Pathways Programs are comprised of three divisions.
The Internship Program, designed for current
students, provides paid work opportunities in federal
agencies for a limited period of time. Interns can work
either on a part-time or full-time basis.
Next there is the Recent Graduates Program,
which is open to individuals who have completed, within
the previous two years, an associate's, bachelor's, master's, professional, doctorate, vocational, or technical
degree or certificate from a qualifying educational institution. These recent graduates can work in federal agencies while also taking advantage of substantial career
training and mentorship opportunities.
Lastly, the Presidential Management Fellows
Program is a leadership and career-development program for those with newly minted graduate degrees.

In all three divisions of the Pathways Programs, if
you successfully complete the term of service you can
receive what is known as "noncompetitive eligibility"
when applying for federal jobs. This means that your
employer can convert you straight from a Pathways participant into a permanent employee or you can apply for
other federal positions without having to go through
the standard, and highly competitive, USAJOBS application process.
Channing Martin, a former Pathways intern in the
Office of Personnel Management (OPM), was hired immediately after her internship ended into a permanent,
full-time position at the OPM; she now works as a program and management analyst. "As a high schooler I was
always really interested in diversity and inclusion issues,"
Channing said, "and when I realized this intern program
existed, I was really attracted to that." Channing spent
her yearlong internship on a rotation between different
departments within the OPM, having the chance to get

Working for the
government can be
a great career choice-
maybe not as
remunerative as a
job on Wall Street,
but potentially far
more rewarding and
socially useful.
her feet wet in a broad range of governmental duties and
responsibilities, experimenting with tasks ranging from
understanding the role of performance management to
supporting efforts to expand equal pay to learning how
to write requirements for database systems. Channing
did all this while balancing her time as a full-time student; she spent her second year at Carnegie Mellon's
public policy graduate school living in D.C., interning
during the day and taking classes by night.
"Interning for the federal government allows you to
check out exactly what kind of work they do and decide if it
resonates with you," said Tim McManus, vice president for
education and outreach at the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that advocates for the reinvigoration of
the civil service workforce. "If you go and do an internship
at the EPA or the Department of Energy, you'll be exposed
to not just the mission but the way the agency works. Is the
culture one that is good for you? Is it fast-paced? Is it too
slow? You have the ability to see for yourself."
Rachel M. Cohen is a writing fellow at the American Prospect and
a former intern at the Washington Monthly.
Washington Monthly

Washington Monthly - September/October 2014

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