Graduates prefer nonprofit jobs over civil service

Interest in public service careers is growing among graduating college seniors, but the focus is on nonprofit employment rather than federal jobs, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution.

"When asked about public service they tend to think about what nonprofits do first," said Paul Light, director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Service. "Seniors do not see government as the best place to go for helping people."

Though 67 percent of the 1,002 liberal arts and social work students surveyed said that helping people was the most important job characteristic for them, just 16 percent of those surveyed said that government was the most effective at doing that.

"Somewhere along the way, government lost its meaning as a destination for those who want to help people and make a difference," the Brookings report said.

The survey found that 62 percent of respondents have given serious consideration to working in a public service-related job with 36 percent equating public service to helping people. But more of those graduating seniors expressed interest in nonprofit organizations than they did in the federal government, survey results showed.

Aside from the belief that government did a poor job of helping people, Light pointed to the lengthy and paperwork-riddled hiring process as another reason recent college graduates are less prone to seek government employment. As many as 63 percent of the students described the government hiring process as confusing, and 78 percent said it was slow.

"Government at all levels needs to do something bold to … assure they will have the chance to serve their country through their work," Light said.

Light moderated a panel that included Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Volcker, chairman of the National Commission on the Public Service, a 10-member bipartisan group of former federal officials who spent last year studying the government's organization, outsourcing strategies and personnel systems. Rumsfeld said inefficiencies in the Defense civilian personnel system and hiring processes act as a deterrent to recruiting students.

"We offer them a ream of paperwork and promise to get back to them in three to five months," Rumsfeld said, describing how recruiters handle potential applicants.

"The decades-old system of hiring, firing, recognizing, promoting and paying civilian employees needs to change," said Rumsfeld, whose plan to revamp the Pentagon personnel system was included in the fiscal 2004 Defense authorization bill approved by the House late last month. "Civilian personnel are really managed outside the department with a set of rules and regulations fashioned for another era."

Volcker also blamed the antiquated civil service system for the disinterest in government employment.

"We have a personnel system that was designed for a different kind of government," said Volcker, whose group issued a report in January that recommended implementing more flexible personnel systems.

"After all the frustrations of trying to achieve some reforms, I think we have a real opportunity to effect some change," Volcker said, referring to the proposed National Security Personnel System at the Pentagon and the flexibilities given to the Homeland Security Department. "I hope that those two initiatives are followed by a broader framework making it easier to bring about changes across government."