O ne of the government's elite recruiting programs has been swamped by applications from graduate students.
Universities this year nominated 3,073 students for the Presidential Management Fellows Program. The students are in their final year of study for master's, doctoral or law degrees. Of those nominated, 1,179 have been selected as semifinalists.
Only about half will be named finalists and become eligible for job offers in spring 2005.
"Once again, the proof is in the numbers," Kay Coles James, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said in a statement. "The interest in 'working for America' clearly exists among the best and brightest talent in America."
OPM oversees the fellows program, which was previously called the Presidential Management Intern Program. The competition to get into next year's class is tougher than in previous years, when at times as few as 500 graduate students applied, said Mike Beckmann, director of the fellows program.
"For many years, the program was almost dormant and pushed toward extinction," Beckmann said.
He attributed the turnaround to efforts by the Bush administration, universities and outside groups, such as the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, aimed at marketing and raising the visibility of the program.
President Bush issued an executive order in November 2003 that changed the program's name, removed an annual hiring cap of 400 positions and extended the program to agencies that operate outside regular civil service rules, such as intelligence agencies and some law enforcement agencies.
The fellows program also may be on the upswing because of renewed interest in public service after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Applications to take the Foreign Service exam, for example, have increased steadily over the past three years. About 20,000 applicants took the exam this year, and one in five typically makes it through the State Department's hiring process.
(Some recent poll data suggest that many young people look favorably on federal employment. In a recent survey sponsored by the Partnership for Public Service, 65 percent of college graduates said they would be interested in working for the government. Benefits, such as health insurance, vacation and retirement, were cited as the best reason to work for the government. The second most-cited reason was "being able to help people and make a difference in people's lives.")
For the presidential fellows program, OPM expects that agencies will hire from among 500 to 600 finalists selected next spring.
Beckmann said OPM will be rolling out regulations soon that will give agencies more flexibility in hiring for the fellows program. The regulations will add a new group, called senior fellows, and permit accelerated promotions for regular fellows.
Past practice has been to hire fellows at salaries starting at about $42,000, but the proposed regulations will allow agencies to offer higher starting salaries, probably in the $51,000 to $60,000 range.
Fellows receive a two-year appointment that provides them with rotations among various jobs and offices in an agency. If they successfully complete the appointment, fellows could be offered a permanent job.
OPM hopes to launch the senior fellows program next year. The preliminary proposal would allow agencies to recruit mid-career professionals and bring them in at the General Schedule 13 and 15 ranks (more than $70,000), which are typically reserved for supervisors, managers and professionals. Hiring of senior fellows would be left mostly to agencies, which would decide what kind of people to hire and how many, Beckmann said.
Pay Raise in Law
The White House announced yesterday that the president has signed the $388 billion catch-all spending bill for fiscal 2005. It provides federal employees with a 3.5 percent pay raise next year.
With the bill signed, the president's pay advisers will prepare an executive order spelling out how much of the raise will be allocated as a general increase and how much will go toward "locality pay" adjustments. Once the order is issued, OPM will publish the 2005 pay tables.
Officials said new pay tables will be ready before year's end.
E-mail: barrs@washpost.com.
