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...
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. ...
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...
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,...
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!...
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...
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...
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...
Aging baby boomers, coupled with early retirement incentives designed to reduce salary loads, are swelling the ranks of retired public service professionals. Despite this crop of 60’s era retirees’ declaration that they would not toil into their advanced years like...