Lily Whiteman ’81 shared exciting news when she spoke to University students in the Butterfield Lounge on Friday: 50 percent of current federal employees will retire by 2010. That means lots of government job openings, and Whiteman told students how to find them and create winning applications.
Whiteman, who recently published “Get Hired! How to Land the Ideal Federal Job and Negotiate a Top Salary,” emphasized the many benefits of working for the Federal government. She explained that government positions offer job security and the opportunity to do important work, while salaries meet or beat salaries in the private sector.
“Lots of people think when you walk into a government office, it’s full of bionic bureaucrats,” Whiteman said. However, Whiteman argued that federal employees are often savvy go-getters doing interesting work.
She also addressed concerns some liberal-minded students might have about working for a Republican administration. Whiteman said that in non-defense areas, the work just goes on, regardless of which party is in power. She pointed out that the federal government offers a wide variety of jobs and job experiences and highlighted the differences between working for federal agencies, which are relatively informal, flexible, and secure, and working on Capitol Hill, which is formal, tightly scheduled, and doesn’t guarantee that your job will last past the next election.
Despite the potential drawbacks of congressional jobs, Whiteman said they are a good choice for some people.
“Congress is for you if you really want to know how Congress works and gain an in-depth knowledge about particular issues,” Whiteman said.
Whiteman was able to speak from experience about success in federal employment, although her own career did not start out smoothly. For the first two years after graduation, Whiteman, an Earth and Environmental Science major, worked in a consulting company in Denver, CO.
“I didn’t know what else to do with myself, so I wasted two years,” Whiteman said.
After that dead-end job, she decided to combine the Earth and Environmental Science degree she had earned with the skill for writing she had developed and come to enjoy while working on her thesis. She got a job as a technical writer, and then returned to Connecticut to earn a master’s degree in both Public Heath and Environmental Management.
She has since worked in four federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, and she served with Vice President Gore’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Now, she writes a career column for The Federal Times, leads career advancement seminars, and is also an independent communications consultant.
Fielding questions on how to get started in government, Whiteman shared her view on the unpaid internships that many students feel they need to take.
“Even if you’re just starting your career, you shouldn’t slave for free,” she said.
According to her, many branches of the government offer good salaries to interns, though coveted internships with Congressmen are usually unpaid.
Whiteman also told students that many federal agencies offer two-year career development programs for recent college graduates. Shira Hillyer ’06 found that information useful because she had had trouble tracking it down on her own.
“The entry-level programs are a lot harder to find when you’re doing a general search,” Hillyer said.
Deirdre Salsich ’07 was encouraged by Whiteman’s talk.
“It was a really straight-forward presentation,” Salsich said. “She made it seem like the process didn’t have to be so daunting.”
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