Participants in the Presidential Management Fellows program generally have high opinions of their work experiences and the rotational assignments that are designed to prepare them for federal management careers but they held less positive views of their agencies.
Four-fifths were satisfied with their experience in the PMF program, which is for recent graduates of masters level work, although only two-thirds were satisfied with their agency. Opinions of immediate supervisors fell during the course of their fellowships, with less than half by the end believing their supervisors had good people skills and only three-fifths saying they had good technical skills.
Regarding their personal experiences, only half of fellows thought their assignments offered opportunities to enhance their leadership abilities, only 61 percent said their development needs were considered, and only 65 percent felt their assignment was a good match for their skills and experience.
One result was that they were about evenly split regarding whether the experience left them with a more positive or less positive view of working for the government.
The study by the Partnership for Public Service gauged experiences of the PMF class of 2011 after they had finished their two-year fellowships that lead, in most cases, to offers of permanent federal jobs. In this case, 87 of the 101 surveyed received such offers and all but four accepted them.
The report is here: http://www.ourpublicservice.org/OPS/
