Getting your Foot in the Door: The Impact of Public Sector Fellowships on Career Trajectories

• In Event: Gender and Public Sector Organizations

Abstract

Governments are struggling to attract and retain younger talent, resulting in an aging workforce. This challenge isn't solely due to a lack of interest—securing a government job is often complex and time-consuming. Fellowship programs could be a model for changing both recruitment and retention strategies in government. They streamline the application process, reducing administrative barriers in recruiting, and may also positively influence retention in government by providing support through mentorship and peer networks, as well as early career exposure that can shape long-term trajectories. Despite their growing presence, there is limited rigorous evidence on how public sector fellowship programs influence career outcomes. 

In a quasi-experimental design, we estimate the impact of public sector fellowship programs on career outcomes using data from four U.S. fellowship programs: Foster America, Govern For America, Presidential Management Fellows Program and Public Rights Project. These data include 17 cohorts of applicants whom we follow for up to 19 years (N=2,141; 31,153 individual-year observations). We employ a staggered difference-in-differences approach to estimate the effects of fellowship participation on career trajectories of fellows (those who were offered the fellowship and placed in a government job), compared to similarly motivated finalists (those who reached the last stage of the selection process but were either not offered or not placed in a fellowship). To map their career trajectories, we use individual-level job, education data and predicted gender and race/ethnicity data from Revelio Labs, a workforce database that compiles information from publicly accessible professional profiles.  

We find that fellows are 30 percentage points more likely than similarly-motivated finalists to work in government (federal, state or local agencies) in the immediate year post-fellowship. While the gap in government employment between fellows and finalists shrinks over time, it remains significantly different for at least 8 years after the beginning of the fellowship program. Importantly, we find no evidence that this effect is driven by a difference in the likelihood of having any job or engaging in education. Rather, evidence suggests these fellowships seem to be leading fellows to substitute into government away from careers in education/academia, professional services and the private sector.  

The human capital crisis in government is often framed as a crisis of motivation. This study takes a new perspective by exploring what drives career trajectories in government amongst similarly motivated individuals. The evidence presented collectively suggests that public sector fellowships successfully improve both recruitment and retention of early-career professionals in public sector careers. While we cannot identify the specific mechanisms underlying this effect, the results point to potential benefits of incorporating key elements of fellowship programs into traditional government hiring practices, such as cohort-based hiring, skills-based selection, and stronger onboarding support. These insights are especially timely as public agencies face increasing challenges in attracting and retaining talent. While aspiring public servants are often viewed as motivated individuals eager to serve, the impact of that motivation will not be fully realized if the current recruitment strategies do not succeed in helping them "get their foot in the door." 

Author

• Brenda Sciepura, University of California, Berkeley
  Presenting Author