Daily Dose: Are You Being Too Close Minded About Your Job Search?

Are we being too closed minded when it comes to job searching?

In the Washington Post article, “Want a federal government job? Think outside the box” by Derrick T. Dortch, he thinks along with diligence, networking and self-promotion that we need to think outside the box when it comes to the job search.

He uses the example of someone working in the education field. When we think education — the obvious first place to look is the Dept. Education. However, there are many government agencies that offer educational programs and positions within their organizations.

Here are the examples listed in his article:

• The Department of Defense—runs its own school system for children on military bases. The Department of Defense Education Activity hires teachers and administrators to work in 194 schools in 14 districts located in 12 foreign countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico.

• USAID hire education specialists to help develop and evaluate education programs in other countries.

• The State Department has the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs that runs the Office of Academic Exchange Programs, Office of English Language Programs, and Office of Global Educational Programs.

• There are agencies that have “Office of Education” and education and outreach Programs for K-12 students.

• There are agencies that have an Office of Education that works with educators to attract and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and engage Americans in their missions—Such as the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Energy, NASA and more.

• The federal government does a tremendous amount of training and professional development— for example the State Department has the Foreign Service Institute, there is the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), FEMA has the National Training and Education Division (NTED) and agencies like TSA have a Training and Development Office.

For those of you on job search I hope this helps you expand your approach to the job hunt. In this job market I think it’s going to take some creativity and some flexibility to really find something out there… and on the plus side you never know the future opportunities that may come your way.

Does your agency have programs or departments that people wouldn’t think the agency would have? Please share either good examples in your field or maybe tell us about your experience working in an “out of the box” agency for your field.

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“Daily Dose of the Washington Post” is a blog series created by GovLoop in partnership with The Washington Post. If you see great stories in the Post and want to ask a question around it, please send them to [email protected].

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