A New Look at the Importance of Cities
Is the distinction between working in municipal, state/provincial or federal government an ever-narrowing focus to smaller geographical areas and more localized issues? No. Consider this: cities are the economic engines of a country. Innovation, research and...
Seeking a Job in Utopia: Top Cities for Job Satisfaction
MuniNet Guide a municipal research website focusing on state and local government, U.S. demographic and employment trends, public finance, and municipal bonds; highlighted a recent report on cities with the highest job satisfaction. Topping the Glassdoor...
Just When I Thought I Was Out – They Pull Me Back In!
As a person who has dedicated most of his professional life to city management, I would like to offer a perspective to managers who are nearing retirement. After having served eight years with the state of North Carolina, I transitioned to local government in 1989. ...
Why Most Local Governments Fail at Economic Development
Many local governments are desperate for economic development; they want their jobs in their communities. Unfortunately most local governments fail miserably at inducing business growth. Below is a simple ‘how-to’ lesson local governments can use to initiate economic...
7 Tips for Successful Job Offer Negotiations
You’ve been in search of that next great job for months now and finally an offer comes through! Are you feeling excited…or more anxious? For many, particularly women, we take the offer that’s presented at face value and NEVER even consider negotiating! I know – I’ve...
Resume Cyberspace: What Happens to Your Resume When You Post It Online?
I used to wonder what happens to our resumes when we send them out to people or post them online.Do they get seen? Do they disappear into cyberspace? Do they get filed away somewhere in a big hope chest of resumes? What really happens to our resumes when we post them...
Tethered to a Digital Government
There are many ways to serve the public. From the dedication of our public safety folks in Fire and Police, to the unsung heroes of the sewers who make all of our lives a little bit easier. One thing all of them have in common is the Digital Tether or at least that...
Keeping Your Job Search Alive
You found a posting for THE perfect job. After painstakingly completing your online resume and creating the most eloquent KSA responses ever, you wait. Why apply for anything else? Why even look; No other job will be as good as this one. The problem is that job...
The Big Secret in HR Hiring
A “Fully Staffed” department in government is the nebulous goal that always seems to be just out of reach. There are 3 main reasons you can’t get fully staffed: 1. Your numbers are built on a fantasy and government doesn’t live in a fantasy. 2. Your hiring managers...
Secrets to Getting Your Resume Noticed
Resume writing is like building a puzzle. You need to collect and describe all the little pieces that make you special (i.e. your skills and experience), and then you need to combine them together in a document that will adequately sell you to a prospective employer....
Reinventing The Relationship Between Government and People
As local governments have down-sized staffing and dramatically reduced services to survive the Great Recession and other economic challenges in recent years, we’ve often been told that we’ll just have to do more with less. Yet, at the very same time that government...
The Learning Curve: How Internships Can Revive A New Generation
In August of 2002, I was somewhat unsure of the direction I was going to take my career, and my life. I had recently graduated from the University of New Hampshire with my MPA. I had also just completed my work study program with the Social Security Administration. ...
Managing in the Public Sector: Seven Steps for Stellar Success
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. – Oscar Wilde Do you associate managing with more-is-less, I’m doomed, and it’s-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it? Does thinking about all your managing duties make you queasy? Take heart! And a Pepto-Bismol while you’re...
Bagging Your Online Baggage
I still remember the day that my sister-in-law taught me how to use the Internet. I learned about Google and Yahoo and how easy it was to find people, places and things. As recruiters, we used to have to dial hundreds of phone numbers to find candidates to fill jobs,...
How A Public Service Career Can Make You Millions
There is an invisible line in the Public Service. And what makes that invisible line? Decision makers. If you are around the decision makers, buddies with them, influencing them, and maybe even making decisions with them, then you are on the right side of that line!...
Political Leadership – Does it Impact Employee Performance?
I am a 40 year public servant, having spent the vast majority of that time (37 years) as a non-elected civil service employee. For 24 years I was an assistant general manager or general manager of medium-sized to large-sized public safety organizations in the City of...
Count Your Lucky STARs: Showcasing Accomplishments on Your Resume
One of the biggest mistakes federal job candidates make is failing to sell themselves through accomplishments. Some candidates believe that listing accomplishments is only done on résumés in the corporate world. Not true! Actually, a résumé for a position in the...
Succeeding in a Downsized Organization
For generations the hallmark of government employment has been rock-steady job security. Career public sector employees often cite job security, together with generous retirement and fringe benefit packages, as factors which initially attracted them to their jobs and...