Watch the entire discussion here.
One of the students entering a new federal career track at Arizona State University had never been on an airplane. Another had never been to Washington. Both raised their hands anyway when asked whether they might be interested in federal service.
That story runs counter to conventional wisdom in Washington, where discussions about the federal workforce often center on recruiting challenges and competition for talent. The educators and practitioners who gathered for a recent panel on public service described a different obstacle. Their concern was not a lack of interest, but that many students simply have not been exposed to government careers in a meaningful way.
Students often know the work, but not the government careers behind it
Students arrive on campus with a detailed understanding of some professions. They know what engineers do, what doctors do and what financial analysts do. Government careers are often far less visible, even when agencies employ people with exactly those skills. Shannon Portillo, director of the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University, said students frequently spend years preparing for STEM careers without learning much about the role government plays in those fields. They recognize NASA, for example, but do not necessarily think of it as a government employer. Students interested in improving health, environmental outcomes or local communities often associate that work with nonprofits while overlooking the role government plays in shaping those outcomes.
“When people say they want to do public service, they rarely are saying they want to work for the government,” Portillo said. “It’s because they don’t necessarily know all of the work that the government is doing.”
The experiences described by Portillo and her fellow panelists suggest that visibility matters more than many workforce discussions acknowledge. Students are making decisions about careers without a full picture of where those careers might lead. Once that picture becomes clearer, interest often changes with it.
Exposure and mentorship are changing career decisions
At Arizona State University, the Next Generation Service Corps was designed to introduce public service to students across the university, not only those studying government or public administration. The program now includes roughly 450 students from more than 100 majors. Engineering students, business students and future scientists participate alongside students pursuing more traditional public affairs careers. The common thread is exposure to public problems, community engagement and leadership development.
The university recently added an accelerated federal career track that gives students a year in Washington after graduation, pairing academic work with internships, mentoring and direct experience inside the federal ecosystem. The first cohort includes first-generation college students and students whose lives have unfolded far from federal institutions.
The conversation repeatedly returned to mentorship as one of the most effective ways to bridge that distance. Students may understand that they want meaningful work, but they often have only a vague sense of how careers actually develop. Alumni, practitioners and public servants help fill that gap by sharing stories about the decisions, detours and opportunities that shaped their professional lives.
“It makes a huge difference for students to hear about someone’s story and the impacts that they’ve been able to make,” Portillo said.
Programs run by the Volcker Alliance point to the same conclusion. Margot Conrad, a senior director at the organization, cited survey data showing a 64% increase in interest in government careers among participants in one public service program. At the end of the experience, roughly 80% said they intended to pursue public service. Those numbers do not suggest a generation turning away from civic work. They suggest a generation responding to information, relationships and firsthand exposure.
As universities build new pathways into public service, agencies are adjusting their recruiting efforts as well. Federal agencies have expanded campus outreach, invested in internships and experimented with new recruiting tools designed to connect with students earlier in their career exploration. Eddie Ribas, chief human capital officer at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said those efforts have helped agencies reach students who might never have considered federal employment. FERC has hired 25 recent graduates into one of its mission-critical occupations and continues to use internships as a pathway into agency careers.
Public service is becoming part of a longer career journey
Much of the federal workforce was built around a model in which employees joined an organization, stayed for decades and retired from the same system that hired them. The panelists challenged some common assumptions about the next generation of public servants, instead describing students who think about careers differently. Many expect to move among government, nonprofits, academia and the private sector over the course of their working lives. That mobility is not necessarily a sign of weaker commitment to public service. As Conrad put it, many now see government service as “one step in their journey,” a chance to make a difference while building skills and experience that can be applied across sectors.
That perspective also shapes how students view uncertainty. Recent years have brought funding and hiring freezes, organizational disruption and persistent debate about the future of the federal workforce. Yet Portillo said the students entering Arizona State’s programs are often less concerned than the alumni advising them. Having grown up through economic shocks, political turmoil, a pandemic and rapid technological change, many simply want to understand how to navigate the system. “The students aren’t concerned about it,” she said. “They want to know how to navigate it.”
That perspective may be the clearest signal to emerge from the conversation. The panelists were not describing a generation that had rejected public service. They were describing a generation that frequently discovers government careers later than other professions and responds positively when someone takes the time to explain where those careers lead.
And what about the Arizona State students who had never been on an airplane or never been to Washington? For Portillo, Conrad and Ribas, they are not outliers. They are evidence of how much untapped interest still exists beyond the traditional federal orbit. Once students can see what government work actually looks like, many are far more willing to consider it than workforce discussions often suggest.
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