Working For the Federal Government

Have you been hired by the federal government as a young professional? Its important to understand that working for the government is much different than other professional industries. It is a much more rigid environment than the private sector or college. Here are three points to consider stemming from my own experience as a young federal employee.

• You will be humbled.

It’s likely that if you were hired by the government, you have been an outstanding student and likely have an impressive work record from college. However, that will not matter once you are onboard. You will have to adjust to an entirely new learning environment. Your first three months will be about not just absorbing new information, environments, and personalities, it will be about learning to translate your academic experience into applying your ability to interpret and report to day-to-day requirements. You are going up against a multi-faceted, experienced, and perhaps jaded management team. Just know that they are not there to break you, you were hired for a reason, and its important for you to figure out why and exhibit those capabilities early on in your training. You will inevitably make mistakes and you will become frustrated, but you will figure things out if you slow down, absorb the frustration, and adjust to your environment.

• It’s okay to ask questions.

It’s important to know that you will not understand all the requirements without learning to ask questions. The goal should be to learn what the aim of the actions and processes you’re learning are in the grand scheme. You should know how your unit works within the broader enterprise and what your specific role is responsible for within that hierarchy. Make sure you take notes in all your meetings early on to get a snapshot of who the main players are, if there is a sense of urgency on certain issues, and to adjust your expectations for the long-term management of those requirements.

• Learn to prioritize.

This will be the most important skill to develop early in your career. You need to determine the scope of your portfolio and the time requirements or deadlines your management team has set. You can’t prioritize just based on what you know best, you will need to learn what the hard tasks are and become adept at taking on increasing responsibilities if you see any gaps emerge. It will not always be clear who is responsible for what at the onset, managers sometimes change requirements based on their team’s ability to master certain tasks. It will become clear that you are doing well when your team starts coming to you for questions for help. However, don’t fall into the curse of the competent. That is to say that the better you are at your work, that more your team will rely on you, and you will quickly become overwhelmed if you don’t learn to prioritize or to say no or that you don’t understand something. In the end, the better you are at time and personality management, the more you will enjoy working in a fast-paced environment and the more professional opportunities will become available in time and experience.