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Career Field - GovernmentAlumni Profiles
Michael Dove
"Don't view "government" as any different than
private industry. Keep your options open and look at the individual "personality" of
the organization you will be working for rather than trying to generalize about public
and private. Working for the federal government allows you to create your own career
both geographically and occupationally once you are hired. The hiring process
is sometimes very frustrating but once you are in you can be aggressive in creating
the career you want."
Michael started out working for the United States Civil Service Commission in Washington DC and returned to the San Francisco Bay Area to become Associate Director of the Management Sciences Training Center with that agency. The function of the Training Center is to administer and teach training classes to government employees in statistics, management information, and management analysis. When the Defense Department started a new agency, the Defense Manpower Data Center in Monterey, Mike was hired as a Research Analyst, rising through the ranks to become Chief of the Management Information and Analysis Division. The primary function of the Defense Manpower Data Center is to provide management information services on personnel, manpower, financial, and logistics issues to decision and policy makers in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Michael Leong
"The job market is good in the public sector. There are many
opportunities with the public sector now because of the demographics of the federal
work force. At the NRLB office in Oakland, for example, about 75% of the workers are
50+ years old. With a retirement age of 55, many of these employees will be retiring
in 4-5 years. This is true of other federal agencies as well and the ‘mass exit’ of
managers will mean that those recent grads hired today can move pretty fast through
the ranks. Before applying, do your homework. Go to the agency’s website and educate
yourself. Contact the local offices and make an appointment to meet with someone to get
more information. No matter how impressive your resume is, having that face-to-face
interaction is crucial. Be willing to relocate initially. There are always jobs on
the East Coast - for the NLRB they hire most often in Philadelphia, New York, and
New Orleans. Once you've become a federal employee you can find it easy to transfer
to another part of the country when other opportunities open up."
Michael was in a PhD program in Economics at Cal and realized he wasn’t interested in a career in academia so he left with a Masters Degree. After participating in the Presidential Management Internship Program he found a good fit with the National Labor Relations Board. Mike supervises a team of 6 investigators in the Oakland office of the NLRB, an independent federal agency with 30+ field offices that serves as the investigative arm of the General Counsel. He really likes the challenge of investigating situations to find out what happened. The NLRB follows up on complaints by either the union or an individual, takes affidavits, interviews witnesses, analyzes the facts and makes recommendations to the Regional Director.
Bill Heal, Jr.
"If it floats your boat, then give government a
look. If you want to make the big bucks, you came to the wrong place. If you want to do
something that has value, offers help to the people of the State, come on down. I
can tell you that we have more jobs, more variety in our jobs, and more opportunity
to learn than many private companies. I have worked long hours, normal hours and
taken time off when each of my children was born. Variety and flexibility, I guess
those are government's strongest selling points."
Bill runs a division of people who provide administrative due process to California State employees and applicants and to members of the public. These appeals can be in areas ranging from simple challenges of a civil service examination result to complex cases involving alleged discrimination or denial of reasonable accommodation. They receive approximately 5,000 appeals a year. Bill likes the opportunity to fix some things that are broken and to show employees or members of the public that government cares about their issues. Back to Government Career Field Home |
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