Qualtrics Finds Fewer than Half of Recent Graduates Consider a Federal Career
In a recent survey, Qualtrics observed that more than half of recent university graduates are not considering a position in the federal government.
Among the more than 1,000 recent graduates from post-secondary schools questioned, 56 percent would not consider federal employment because of the complex hiring process (30 percent) and a lack of awareness of open government positions (20 percent).
One of the factors contributing to this trend is the apparent mismatch between skills needed for some of the most in-demand federal roles, and the perception of required skill levels among job seekers. Recent college graduates believed that being unqualified for federal employment was the biggest barrier to employment (36 percent), despite 70 percent of federal jobs not requiring a degree. Furthermore, Qualtrics found that 60 percent of recent minority graduates say they will not apply for jobs with the federal government.
“The work of the federal government is so crucial to all of our lives – and our country needs the best of the best applying and interviewing for the tens of thousands of open roles,” said Sydney Heimbrock, Chief Industry Advisor for Government at Qualtrics. “The federal government hires for a wide variety of occupations, and the work is flexible and impactful. This study makes clear that targeted improvements to federal agency recruiting – even simple fixes like promoting flexible work and career progression, emphasizing the mission-oriented nature of the work and rewriting job announcements to replace required years of experience with required skills – can have meaningful impact on who is aware of open positions and who decides to apply.”
The study offered four key recommendations to federal agencies:
Develop career ladder positions that enable on-the-job learning;
Advertise jobs by skills, not degrees or years of experience;
Identify the needs of applicants and employees at their current stage of their life and career; and
Promote diversity in the federal government so that people can see themselves reflected there.
Qualtrics further advised recruiters to highlight benefits recent graduates are in pursuit of, including flexible work-life balance (20 percent), good compensation (39 percent) and meaningful work (28 percent), when advertising job opportunities.
“In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is growing evidence that jobseekers are reassessing what they want to do, and how and where they want to work and live,” the report stated. “For graduates in particular, flexible work arrangements, including remote and hybrid opportunities, were a key factor in their decision to pursue a job.”
