Newsweek Takes on the Federal Talent Hunt

Newsweek takes up the subject of federal recruiting this week, with a story about agencies' efforts to intensify the hunt for talent. A few thoughts:

• The piece picks up on the age-old notion that "the biggest hiring crisis in U.S. government history" is right around the corner, which, of course, is where it seems to have been since the turn of the century. As Brian Friel reminded us on GovernmentExecutive.com just a couple of weeks ago, this long-awaited retirement tsunami seems to be turning out to be more of a manageable trickle.
• The piece contains some "ouch" quotes. Like this, from John Cassidy, 29, who plans to take a job with consulting firm Deloitte & Touche after graduating from Harvard University's Kennedy School this spring: "Why would you want to work for government when you can earn more and get more done working for a government contractor?" And this, from Matt Volner, who spent a year as a building management specialist at the General Services Administration, before quitting to become an actor: "The whole year was a Kafkaesque nightmare in which my job was to find out what my job was."
• Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service, again promotes his anti-JFK notion of inspiring today's youth. "Kennedy's message is no longer the right one," he says. "It's not about what you can do for government. We need to convey what government can do for you." As I've said before, I hope Stier turns out to be wrong, both because I think that today's youth are no less likely than their elders to be motivated by a desire to serve and because of what John Cassidy says above: If it's about getting something for yourself, you're always going to be able to do better outside of government. The problem now is that people who have grown up being told that government is a bureaucratic morass -- and then seeing it underperform in key situations -- think they can make just as much of a difference outside of government, too.