伯特Barnow on walking the path from professor to policy advisor

To solve our nation’s biggest challenges both today 和 in the future, our government needs to recruit 和 retain vital young talent. 我们新的澳门网赌正规网址平台系列, 《澳门网赌正规网址平台学术概况》,” will reinforce these efforts by featuring professionals working in academia who previously served in the federal government. These profiles aim to inspire students 和 recent graduates to consider a career in public service 和 highlight the positive impact federal employees can make on our country. 伯特Barnow, former director of the Office of 研究 和 Evaluation at the 劳工部’s Employment 和 Training Administration 和 a current professor of policy 和 economics at George Washington University, spoke with us about his time working in public service 和 the benefits a career in government can offer recent graduates.

是什么让你对澳门网赌正规网址平台事业感兴趣?

Barnow: I have always had an interest in the federal government, but it wasn’t until I was receiving my Ph.D. that I knew I wanted to learn more about a career in public service. My professors were using quantitative approaches to their evaluations of government demonstrations 和 programs, utilizing various methods to test out different training programs 和 welfare programs. I found this all very exciting 和 I wanted to be a part of it. 作为一名经济学教授, I realized that I strived to do more than research 和 wanted to be more involved in actual programs.

What did you accomplish as a public servant that you couldn’t as a professor?

Barnow: During my time as the director of the Office of 研究 和 Evaluation within the Employment 和 Training Administration, I spearheaded multiple initiatives to make government research 和 evaluations work better. We were responsible for the federal training programs 和 we utilized statisticians to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs. I thought that it would be better to have statisticians, economists 和 other social scientists involved in this process, 所以我做了件有点不寻常的事. 我拿了统计学家们收集的数据, 和 I put out a request for proposals from other social scientists to look at this data 和 tell us how effective the programs were.

通过联系其他研究人员, we were able to lay the groundwork for how government programs should be evaluated. 这一努力所带来的研究, 包括各种不一致的发现, convinced the 劳工部 to use r和omized controlled trials to evaluate future demonstrations 和 programs even though it was challenging to implement the r和om assignment.

What advice or knowledge would you offer young professionals as they look for careers in public service?

Barnow: A lot of people think that working in the federal government or public service is boring 和 that you won’t gain much experience from it. But I feel like I was involved in something important when I was working for the 劳工部. I wasn’t just sitting behind a computer analyzing research 和 writing articles all day—I was designing programs 和 evaluation techniques that really had an impact on the federal government.

Students 和 recent graduates should also know that when you are working in public service, 你不仅仅是在造福国家, 但你也在从中受益. T在这里 are great jobs out t在这里 和 you can move up in some of them—from an entry-level job all the way to the Senior Executive Service.

What one word best describes your experience working in public service 和 why?

Barnow: 令人满意的. 通过我的澳门网赌正规网址平台工作, I felt like I was able to come up with ways to make our federal programs better. I was able to learn more about the federal government 和 its training initiatives. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to create a lasting impact on the federal government.

Read more profiles 和 posts in our 《澳门网赌正规网址平台学术概况》” series 在这里. To learn more about how recent graduates can pursue a career in the federal government, visit gogovernment.org. 澳门顶级网赌网址大全在 (电子邮件保护) if you or someone you know would like to be profiled in the future.  

麦卡洛玛德琳 是联邦劳动团队的助理吗. She supports strategic human capital work within various federal agencies.