IRS Recruiting Pitch: No Overtime Here

The Wall Street Journal reports today (full story is behind paid firewall) on a visit by Donald Korb, chief counsel at the IRS, to a gathering of Yale Law School students:

Before delivering his lecture, he delivers a sales pitch -- for jobs at the IRS: Work a 40-hour week (more or less). Get into a courtroom within the first month. Choose the city where you work. "I can't say enough about the value to your career," he concludes, breathlessly. "And that's my commercial."

Notice what comes first on the list. Let's face it, the IRS isn't the only agency to make "You don't have to work that hard" a central part (whether spoken or unspoken) of its recruiting efforts. Granted, the IRS and other agencies feel like they have to do this because they can't compete on salary. But it's hard to get the best and brightest go-getters if you're also trying to reach out to people who are just interested in sticking to a 9-to-5 schedule. Why not just drop the 40-hour-week thing from the pitch? Simply admit up front that you can't offer as much money as a private firm, but can provide much better experience. That's enough to make many law students eager to clerk for federal judges, after all.