Event Recap Working for the Feds: An Inside Look at Federal Agencies Panelists: Robert Hale

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1 Event Recap Working for the Feds: An Inside Look at Federal Agencies Panelists: Robert Hale 68, M.S. 69, Former Under Secretary of Defense, United States Department of Defense Josh De Leon 18, Associate at Partnership for Public Service o Contact information: JDeLeon@ourpublicservice.org Robert Hale Working with/for the Federal Government o Consulting > First, pick a city you want to work in, google federal consulting on something, play the resume game, or look into internships (Booz Allen Hamilton has some) o Think Tank > RAND, Heritage, Brookings, etc. working on broader issues. Pay isn t very good. Choose a city & google things, RAND doesn t hire a lot of entry level folks, but others do! o Federal Employee > Get the chance to be more involved in agenda setting and making decisions instead of just advising all the time; competitive with entry-level pay. Hard to get started in the Federal Government. Do an internship Presidential Management Fellows Program USA Jobs (not very user friendly & not a lot of entry level jobs for Washington) Congressional Jobs Committee jobs CBO and GAO

2 Jobs with elected officials > especially those on committees o Doesn t pay well, but great for networking Federal Government is great because you re closer to the action > as a consultant or employee at a think tank you re never sure if your advice is going to be listened to and if you ll have a real impact. In federal government, there s a sense of working at an organization bigger than yourself. Josh De Leon Think Tank/government work has flexibility to work on issues that are really important even if people don t notice > tech jobs are flashy but they re not the only places where we can innovate Think tank work is a good way to get into the federal world if working directly for the feds isn t an option Look at Haas Fellowships, major grants, UAR grants, etc. USA Jobs o Create a save search on the website (type in a series of filters) that fit within your parameters (internship or not, what type of work, what agencies), save that and have it send you updates every week since jobs go up without warning and leave within a few weeks o Important to apply early, especially because the security clearance process takes a long time How does qualification work? o GS 5 college degree o GS overall or 3.5 in major o GS 9 coterm/masters o GS 11 PHD Pathways program > for current students over the summer to get more experience that gives you an easier path to work in government later on Only 15% of federal jobs are in D.C. > lots are actually in California! How do you navigate politics at the federal level? Robert Hale: The role of the undersecretary is appointed so politics do kind of play into it, but the Department of Defense is relatively apolitical so it wasn t a huge deal. The Secretary of Defense at the time was pretty

3 frustrated with the White House sometimes but I personally didn t feel that way. For Hale, you have a lot of education a masters and an MBA. How did that work? Finished my masters degree right after undergrad before getting drafted for the war Got my MBA at night wouldn t necessarily encourage that. I worked during the day and studied at night so it was hard. I needed to support myself. How do you afford working on the hill? How do you get this job? Who do you talk to? Try to find a member of Congress on a committee that you re actually interested in. You usually start with quasi-administrative work but if you re smart and can help them you can start getting substantive work. Congress has a bad reputation I used to defend them but now I ve stopped for horrible pay. You will struggle to survive in Washington on that kind of salary. Work for someone whose politics you agree with. Executive branch comes to Congress all the time and meet with junior staffers. If you re helpful and good, it s a good foot in the door for the federal government civil service OR political appointments. Start with your own members because they ll be a lot more interested in you, but wouldn t rule out other people. Working for committees is also a good idea but they don t usually hire at the entry level. CBO is closer to the action, GAO is huge and hire a lot of people Congress might be frustrating right now, but the individual members are generally good people What s it like working for a nonpartisan institution during a time where government is everything but? We see a lot of the worst parts of federal government Civil Service keeps chugging and doing good regardless of who is in office. If you re interested in drug policy for example, there are places in federal government where you can make movement in those spaces.

4 Making innovation labs in agencies so they can fail small to try out new ideas The government is a big thing it s the biggest employer in the country. So much of that is crucial to daily functioning we can t just ignore it. The institutions that we fight to preserve are worth fighting for and worth working within. Building a government that works better for people regardless of who is making decisions. Getting jobs in the Federal Government is all about connections if you had to pick a job that gave you connections or skills, what would you choose? A lot of this depends on what you specifically want to do. In the Civil Service, you wont make the big bucks but they make a lot of decisions and guide political appointees What kind of skills should be trying to develop coming out of college? o Its not a binary between skills and connections o Not all skills are technical o Coming out of college we have generalized skillsets but we don t have on the job skills o Working in various industries gives you translatable skills Think about who you want to become and design a career that builds you into that person Would recommend starting in the private sector because they hire a lot of entry level people and you get a lot of tangible experience since you re on site pretty frequently o Hard to take the pay cut from going from private sector to public sector Stanford name definitely helps Agencies have a variety of jobs e.g. its not just lawyers at the DOJ, not just engineers at DOE, not just public health majors at DPH Resources at Stanford that help find jobs? Josh: I m a resource! One of the parts of my job is to support students trying to enter jobs in government. o Grad student advisors at the community centers (e.g. I worked a lot with a grad student at the A3C)

5 Find faculty who are involved in issues you care about > they can definitely connect you How do you leverage connections after you ve made them? Informational interviews are great! o Good way to get a sense of the spaces you re interested in, use them to expand your network (not the place to ask for a job!) but later they might reach out to you Know who in your networks are generous with sharing; who are your mentors? Recognize that this is a relationship to cultivate. How do you build your public narrative? How do you take all the things you have done to make the best elevator pitch of your passions, interests, and potential? Bounce it off of peers and figure out how to refine this. Create a brand about yourself that allows you to leave an impression about yourself. Thank people after you talk to them! Do your homework before you talk to them! You can make a Stanford website! o And have it redirect to another website Fellowships: Presidential Management Fellows Program, Stanford in Government Fellowship, UAR Grants, Major Grants, Chappell-Lougee, Cardinal Careers Fellowships.