Connecting Tech Talent with Opportunities to Serve in Government
After nearly seven years as a product designer and product manager at a major technology company, Jessica Watson was feeling burnt out and questioning her career direction. In 2019, she decided to take a leap and look for a new role, only to have the pandemic begin in early 2020. In those early months of the pandemic, as governments were struggling to go digital and provide services and benefits, Jessica joined thousands of technologists who volunteered their time and talents to help governments deliver, going on to volunteer with U.S. Digital Response (USDR), a nonprofit that helps connect governments, nonprofits, and technologists to respond quickly to critical public needs.
Jessica’s story is reflective of a much broader civic tech movement that governments at all levels are hoping to tap into as they seek to position opportunities for jobs with an impact in society to thousands of technology workers who have been laid off recently.
In 2022, the U.S. technology industry laid off over 150,000 employees, with 60,000 additional technology employees laid off in January 2023 alone.
On January 18, 2023, dozens of nonprofit entities, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and over fifty government agencies came together to host a Tech to Gov Forum and Job Fair.
The planning began little more than eight weeks before the event. “We had already been meeting around tech talent hiring issues, and this group knew we had to try and seize the momentum,” said Jennifer Anastasoff, executive director of the Tech Talent Project and one of the job fair organizers.
Stemming from ongoing collaborations between organizations in the civic tech and public service spaces, dozens of volunteers came together to conceive, plan, and execute the fair in less than two months, and during the holidays. A viral campaign across social media, especially prominent on LinkedIn, helped fuel interest and buzz around the fair among job seekers and agencies.
The Volcker Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering the public sector workforce to solve the challenges facing our nation, provided the technology backbone for the job opportunity fair. It has been hosting other virtual job fairs over the past few years, led by its talent connections team.
“We’ve been trying to find a way to build better two-sided markets… to connect job seekers with interest in public service and relevant skills with governments who need to hire them,” said Peter Morrisey, the Volcker Alliance’s Director of Government-to-University Initiatives. “We have a vision of acting in a pooled way on both sides of the equation to bring various kinds of groups together,” and applied lessons from prior fairs with insights from the civic tech community in planning the January event.
The event planners initially set a low bar for success, initially hoping for 250 job candidates and 20 government agencies. Ultimately, the Tech to Gov Forum and Job Fair was attended by 1,887 candidates, opposite 242 representatives from over 55 participating agencies. Together they had 3890 one-on-one conversations. Organizers had to create a waitlist for agencies due to excess demand.
Partnering with OPM and federal agencies was part of the key. “I’m not sure that agencies would have felt as comfortable participating had OPM not gone into this partnership with both feet in….we were able to work very closely with them,” said Angie Quirarte, Federal Partnerships Director at the Tech Talent Project. “I cannot understate the value of that partnership with OPM,” in the event’s success.
“Civic tech and public service organizations have nothing but good reasons to continue partnering together here,” Morrisey stated.
Anastasoff offered four ideas for maintaining momentum on this effort.
Continue to strengthen hiring. There is a big opportunity to strengthen technical hiring in government. Private sector has a clear and straightforward process that takes 30-60 calendar days. Government should set a goal to match that experience.
Be ready for the next moment.
Tell the story of people who have been brought in. People want to make a difference. Government offers that in a way no other employer can.
Seek help. No one, whether you are a job seeker or an agency looking for talent, has to do this alone.
Job Seekers – the federal government tech jobs portal can be reached via: https://tech.usajobs.gov/.
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