{"id":23753,"date":"2021-03-11T16:43:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T21:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/?p=23753"},"modified":"2021-03-17T11:43:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T15:43:54","slug":"impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Impressions from 15 years in public service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Without question,\u202fI feel grateful\u202fand privileged to have worked as a civil servant. My career path included serving\u202fin three of the largest executive branch agencies\u2014the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs\u2014as well as\u202fthe sole\u202flegislative branch agency\u2014the Government Accountability Office\u2014responsible for helping Congress with federal program oversight.\u202fGovernment has given me so much, including the opportunity to positively impact various\u202fcommunities and people. Here, I share some of my thoughts on government service as one form of repayment to one\u2019s country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The federal government bears extraordinary responsibility\u202fand power<\/strong>.\u00a0Our government has over 2 million federal employees, a budget of more than $4.5 trillion and\u202fserves 330 million people. When crisis hits,\u202fas it unfortunately did in 2020,\u202fit is\u202fthe federal government that distributes the necessary resources and assistance to help people respond. Over the past 200-plus years, our government has consistently delivered when the stakes are\u202fat\u202fall-time highs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong>The time is now to renew our workforce and reinforce what it means to\u202fserve. <\/strong><\/strong>Despite this record of success, however, government and government workers have not always fully served and protected the American public and been good <a href=\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/our-work\/public-service-leadership-model\/#corevalues\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stewards of public trust<\/a>, particularly during major scandals and economic downturns. Yet\u202fI have discovered that\u202fcertain moments\u202fmotivate people to get involved and contribute to the greater good in some way. I\u202fbelieve\u202fwe are\u202fcurrently in such a moment. Confronting our nation\u2019s greatest challenges\u2014and seizing new opportunities to advance the common good\u2014requires public support, a strong civil service\u202fand partnership across sectors.\u202fDuring my career,\u202fI have\u202fseen our government mobilize incredible talent to solve very difficult problems, and right now we have a window of opportunity to recapture and reshape the narrative around government and public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong>There are unique things one can only do in government<\/strong>. <\/strong>I have served alongside military forces fighting for American freedom\u202fand the\u202ffreedom\u202fof\u202fothers. I have traveled the world offering training and resources to strengthen the capabilities of national audit offices that help their countries achieve the highest accountability and governance\u202fstandards. I\u202fhave helped craft forward-looking strategies to help ensure our country always supports the veterans who protect us and our way of life, and I have worked across sectors to promote security, trade, immigration and global supply chain management. Government jobs offer a unique opportunity to take on such responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Federal service is a gift\u202fthat can provide\u202funmatched experiences and lasting memories with extraordinary colleagues. Government service comes with a sense of duty and level of fulfillment unlike any other career.&nbsp; Perhaps my most important takeaway from government is that service is lifelong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many\u202fwho\u202fhave served\u202fin the federal government\u202fare\u202finspired by the people, mission and opportunity to directly impact others. Many\u202fwill continually\u202fsearch for\u202fways to\u202fimprove government from outside the civil service. I am one of those many\u2014currently contributing to the broader mission of making government more effective for the people of this country as executive vice president at the Partnership for Public Service. I share\u202fmy government experience\u202fwith others\u202fto\u202finspire service. I strongly encourage people to serve in whatever way and whatever capacity they can\u2014and our government will be better for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Without question,\u202fI feel grateful\u202fand privileged to have worked as a civil servant. My career path included serving\u202fin three of the largest executive branch agencies\u2014the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs\u2014as well as\u202fthe sole\u202flegislative branch agency\u2014the Government Accountability Office\u2014responsible for helping Congress with federal program oversight.\u202fGovernment has given me so much, including the opportunity&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":23754,"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":[9037,9078,4548],"class_list":["post-23753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-partnership-insights","tag-federal-workforce","tag-public-service","tag-recruiting-and-hiring"],"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>Impressions from 15 years in public service &#8226; Partnership for Public Service<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"James-Christian Blockwood, the Partnership&#8217;s executive vice president, previously served 15 years in four federal agencies. He shares his thoughts on government service and its unique power and position to positively impact\u202fcommunities and people.\" \/>\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\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Impressions from 15 years in public service\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"James-Christian Blockwood, who served in federal government for 15 years, shares three key takeaways from his time in public service.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Partnership for Public Service\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/partnershipforpublicservice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-11T21:43:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-17T15:43:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpruce\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RPublicService\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@RPublicService\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"mpruce\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b90e0b62e3b78ebf9a65a1551be04c01\"},\"headline\":\"Impressions from 15 years in public service\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-11T21:43:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-17T15:43:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/\"},\"wordCount\":551,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"federal workforce\",\"public service\",\"Recruiting and Hiring\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Partnership Insights\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/\",\"name\":\"Impressions from 15 years in public service &#8226; Partnership for Public Service\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-11T21:43:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-17T15:43:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"James-Christian Blockwood, who served in federal government for 15 years, shares three key takeaways from his time in public service.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":375,\"caption\":\"public service\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Impressions from 15 years in public service\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/\",\"name\":\"Partnership for Public Service\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Partnership for Public Service\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/PPS-logo-with-tag.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/PPS-logo-with-tag.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":58,\"caption\":\"Partnership for Public Service\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/partnershipforpublicservice\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/RPublicService\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rpublicservice\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/partnership-for-public-service\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b90e0b62e3b78ebf9a65a1551be04c01\",\"name\":\"mpruce\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c1e7b558246b6834edcde27aabd7bc3d29de063484cbb5d11a5bd90a1aeb006?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c1e7b558246b6834edcde27aabd7bc3d29de063484cbb5d11a5bd90a1aeb006?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mpruce\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/author\/mpruce\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Impressions from 15 years in public service &#8226; Partnership for Public Service","description":"James-Christian Blockwood, the Partnership&#8217;s executive vice president, previously served 15 years in four federal agencies. He shares his thoughts on government service and its unique power and position to positively impact\u202fcommunities and people.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Impressions from 15 years in public service","og_description":"James-Christian Blockwood, who served in federal government for 15 years, shares three key takeaways from his time in public service.","og_url":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/","og_site_name":"Partnership for Public Service","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/partnershipforpublicservice\/","article_published_time":"2021-03-11T21:43:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-03-17T15:43:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":375,"url":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"mpruce","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@RPublicService","twitter_site":"@RPublicService","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/"},"author":{"name":"mpruce","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b90e0b62e3b78ebf9a65a1551be04c01"},"headline":"Impressions from 15 years in public service","datePublished":"2021-03-11T21:43:45+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-17T15:43:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/"},"wordCount":551,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg","keywords":["federal workforce","public service","Recruiting and Hiring"],"articleSection":["Partnership Insights"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/","url":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/","name":"Impressions from 15 years in public service &#8226; Partnership for Public Service","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-11T21:43:45+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-17T15:43:54+00:00","description":"James-Christian Blockwood, who served in federal government for 15 years, shares three key takeaways from his time in public service.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/shutterstock_647027731-e1615498690655.jpg","width":1000,"height":375,"caption":"public service"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/impressions-from-15-years-in-public-service\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Impressions from 15 years in public service"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/","name":"Partnership for Public Service","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#organization","name":"Partnership for Public Service","url":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/PPS-logo-with-tag.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/PPS-logo-with-tag.png","width":300,"height":58,"caption":"Partnership for Public Service"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/partnershipforpublicservice\/","https:\/\/x.com\/RPublicService","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rpublicservice\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/partnership-for-public-service"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b90e0b62e3b78ebf9a65a1551be04c01","name":"mpruce","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c1e7b558246b6834edcde27aabd7bc3d29de063484cbb5d11a5bd90a1aeb006?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c1e7b558246b6834edcde27aabd7bc3d29de063484cbb5d11a5bd90a1aeb006?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mpruce"},"url":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/author\/mpruce\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}