Member of the Week: Amy Phillips

Amy works at Booz Allen (http://www.boozallen.com/)

1. What was your path to public service/current job? As a government contractor, you work on the jobs that are assigned to you. But even that can change the course of your career. I started out as a project assistant, and when I was assigned to a contract were the client was using SharePoint I found that I had a real knack for SharePoint. I’m now a SharePoint developer for an Air Force contract.

2. What awesome projects are you working on now?

Mainly, working with the Air Force to take one whole area of processes and move them onto a SharePoint portal. A massive undertaking involving hundreds of people. But I get to do cool things in SharePoint, so that’s fun.

3. What have been some of your most memorable experiences in public service? The people. The amount of experience in the government sector on any given area is staggering. I know that the perception of government work is that it is not innovative, but from where I sit- that exact opposite is true. And that wouldn’t be possible without the people.

4. What advice do you have for people who are new to the public sector? No job is too small, no job is ‘beneath’ you. Take on any role, sometimes in those small menial jobs is a goldmine of a career.

5. Tell us about your side gigs.

I write, therefore, I blog:

Self- Proclaimed: Queen Of Inappropriate, Princess of Randomness, and the Duchess of the Non-Sequitur. A former military wife armed with a political science degree and an abundance of opinion. By day, I am SharePoint developer for a large Management Consulting firm. By night, I am blogger, social media junkie, and stressed out single parent. I believe in seeing the humor in any situation and if no humor can be found, then a heavy dose of sarcasm will have to do. You can find insights into my crazy here, my personal blog Accidental Musings.

I also write a book blog for GovLoop, for the Washington Times Communities and guest post on other blog sites such as BlogWorld.

In addition, I chair the Social Media Club for the Baltimore area. In this capacity, I work with some of the most influential media people in Baltimore and bring social media practitioners together in a productive setting. I am also the creative force behind Blogger Body Calendar 2011. I also run a boutique communications firm Social Pollen – focusing on Blogger PR, content writing, and social media management.