OPM revamps management intern program, weighs pay hike

In an effort to revitalize the 25-year-old Presidential Management Intern program, the Office of Personnel Management is considering increasing the pay of entry-level interns, the agency says.

OPM mentioned a proposal to boost interns' salaries in a recent statement announcing that the PMI program's headquarters will move from Philadelphia back to Washington. The program's main administrative offices were shifted to Philadelphia in 1995.

The headquarters move, first announced in a letter to 7,000 current and former program interns and senior government officials, comes on the heels of a half-year program review, and is the first of several changes OPM expects to make in the coming months. An OPM spokesman said other possibilities include an unspecified increase in entry-level pay up from the current GS-9 level, and a greater emphasis on taking advantage of opportunities to rotate assignments during the program, an option currently available to interns but one that officials believe is under-used.

It makes sense to house the program, which prepares some of the nation's top students for federal management positions, in Washington, "where the eyes of the world are looking for direction and leadership during these challenging times," said OPM Director Kay Coles James in a statement. Locating the internship's headquarters in Washington will make it more "contemporary and attractive to college graduates."

President Jimmy Carter issued a 1977 executive order creating the PMI program, which he hoped would attract civil servants with "exceptional management potential who have received special training in planning and managing public programs and policies." A 1982 executive order from President Ronald Reagan expanded the program to draw applicants with a "clear interest in, and commitment to, a career in the analysis and management of public policies and programs," not just those with specific training in public management.

In 25 years, the two-year-long program has groomed about 6,000 graduates with management potential for federal jobs. Each year, deans and department chairs at graduate schools across the country nominate students whom they believe would make good PMIs. In January and February, nominees who decide to apply take day-long tests to assess their writing and oral skills. OPM sends out acceptance letters in March, and agencies then have the opportunity to choose interns for specific position openings.

The PMI program still attracts a wide pool of top candidates, but in recent years, some agency officials have lost track of the program's original intent, said John Palguta, vice president for policy and research at the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington advocacy group, and former director of policy and evaluation at the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Some agencies are using the program as an easy way to hire talented people to fill job openings quickly, and not as a way to cultivate outstanding leaders, Palguta said. PMI training lacks a focus on long-term career development in many cases, he said.

Not much has changed since MSPB issued a report in August 2001 critiquing the program for failing to hire interns who would fill the federal government's long-range management needs, Palguta added. But the headquarters move and the other program changes under consideration at OPM are a good sign that substantial improvements are on the way, he said.

"The move is probably not a bad thing, but that alone is not going to make it a successful or unsuccessful program," Palguta said. "Physical location is not as important as efforts to identify and recruit interns with outstanding leadership potential."

Frank Hissong, a program analyst at the Bureau of Land Management who graduated from a management internship program that preceded the PMI program, also said he views the headquarters move as inconsequential.

Changes such as increases in entry-level salaries and a greater emphasis on encouraging interns to rotate to various positions, coupled with an effort to recruit good leaders, would make much more of a difference, Palguta said.

One of the 750 interns currently in the program, who requested anonymity, said that the PMI headquarters location did not really play at all into his decision to accept a position at the State Department. "It happened to be convenient for me when the headquarters was in Philadelphia, because I lived nearby," said the PMI, who began the program in September and is working as a foreign affairs officer. "But it didn't really matter. I kind of wonder why [the headquarters] weren't in D.C. to begin with."

Pay also did not factor much into the State Department PMI's decision to join the program, though "obviously higher pay would be great, particularly in D.C."

Hissong said he believed pay is not a motivating factor at all. He joined the program in response to President Kennedy's call to service. Even if this notion is antiquated today, Hissong said, he thinks that young leaders would be more likely to aspire to become PMIs if they were promised internships where they could take on impressive responsibilities. "The last thing they want to do is file for two years," he said.

The program's reputation and an interest in foreign affairs prompted the State Department PMI to apply. In addition, the prospect of opportunities to rotate among positions was a big draw, he said. "It's a great attraction. It provides an opening to jobs that you might not otherwise know about and gives you a chance to shop around."

In order to spend some substantial time at the State Department, his "home agency," the unidentified PMI has not rotated to a second position yet, but would like to before his two years as an intern are up. His supervisors support this ambition, but some managers might not be as receptive to the idea of rotations, he said. The PMI, who interviewed at several different agencies before choosing the State Department, said some, including the Office of Management and Budget, told him up front that he would not be able to rotate to other positions. OMB has good reason for discouraging rotations-the office likes interns to stick around for at least one budget cycle-but this is still a potential deterrent for good candidates, he added.

Ultimately, agencies determine how to use their PMIs, accounting for the wide range of experiences that the State Department intern said he has noticed after talking to his peers at other agencies. But as the program administrator, OPM should set high standards and do a better job of monitoring how agencies are doing, Palguta said. In his view, OPM could measure success at each agency by tracking the percentage of PMIs who remain in federal management positions after the program is over, the length of time they stay, the amount of time spent on training interns and the extent to which PMIs take on rotational assignments.