{"id":19426,"date":"2020-08-05T12:48:47","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T16:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opsweb.wpengine.com\/?p=19426"},"modified":"2021-08-03T16:40:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T20:40:16","slug":"why-do-federal-employees-enter-public-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/why-do-federal-employees-enter-public-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do federal employees join public service?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Federal employees cite many reasons for joining public service, including economic opportunity, the chance to do work they\u2019re passionate about and job security. For many federal employees, however, one motivation stands above the rest: the desire to give back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\nwas the theme that arose from a survey we sent in May, which received responses\nfrom 130 public servants at 45 federal agencies serving at all levels of\ngovernment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <strong>Gary R.<\/strong>, his upbringing inspired him to serve. His parents fled Germany after World War II to find new opportunities, and he wanted to give back to the country that gave them a fresh start. He served in the military but then headed to the private sector. However, federal service called to him once again, and he is now a curriculum manager at the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Elizabeth J.<\/strong> grew up with English as her second language but because she didn\u2019t have access to ESL classes, she spent much of her time sitting silently at her classroom desk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\nsaid if I ever got the chance to change this that I would,\u201d Elizabeth wrote. She\u2019s\nnow in a position to do so. As an employee of the Department of Education, in\nthe Office of English Language Acquisition, Elizabeth works to make learning easier\nfor ESL students across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The military is often a pathway to a lifetime of public service, which was the case for <strong>Sharon M. <\/strong>at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. She served in the military for six years and then in the Naval Reserves, while also running her own business. After 9\/11, her sense of patriotism and desire to help soldiers in harm&#8217;s way led her to return to full-time public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\nserve because I want to make a difference, and I want to help the soldiers and\nsailors in harm\u2019s way,\u201d Sharon wrote. \u201cI understand their situation; I was\nthere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other federal employees joined public service after working in the private sector because of the federal government\u2019s mission. <strong>Kirtida P.<\/strong> from the Food and Drug Administration had a high-paying corporate job where she saw unsafe products being sold to hospitals and used by staff. She left to work for the federal government, making it her mission to protect the public from dangerous health products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kyle B.<\/strong> began work at the General Services Administration to support America\u2019s 244-year-old legacy, which has made him feel like he is part of something greater than himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA private company is only\naccountable to its shareholders and gets to pick its customers via what type of\nproduct or service it sells,\u201d he wrote. \u201cPublic service does not get that\nluxury. Everyone is its customer. But this is why public service is so important\nto me; it matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To share your own experience of working in federal government, including why you decided to join public service,\u00a0take the <a aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.iad1.qualtrics.com\/jfe\/form\/SV_cSiNLez7mPlBfZr\" target=\"_blank\">survey<\/a>. You can also read more about stories from federal employees in a <a href=\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/why-do-federal-employees-choose-public-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blog post<\/a> highlighting responses from the 2021 #IServeBecause survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are interested in joining public service, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/gogovernment.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">gogovernment.org<\/a>, your guide as you consider, apply, and secure federal employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This post was updated in August 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal employees cite many reasons for joining public service, including economic opportunity, the chance to do work they\u2019re passionate about and job security. For many federal employees, however, one motivation stands above the rest: the desire to give back. That was the theme that arose from a survey we sent in May, which received responses&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":17283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sort-date":"","content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9038],"tags":[9037],"class_list":["post-19426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-partnership-insights","tag-federal-workforce"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v26.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why do federal employees join public service?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In May, we sent a survey to federal employees asking them why they are drawn to public service. For many of the federal employees who responded, one motivation stands above the rest: the desire to give back.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/why-do-federal-employees-enter-public-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why do federal employees join public service?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Federal employees cite many reasons for entering public service, however, one motivation stands above the rest: the desire to give back.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/why-do-federal-employees-enter-public-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Partnership for Public Service\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" 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