How do public service fellowship programs impact fellows’ career trajectories?
Project Summary
Fellowship programs seeking to increase people’s interest in public sector jobs, promote diversity in the public workforce, and recruit talent to fill priority gaps in this workforce have expanded rapidly in recent years. Leveraging data on more than 2,000 applicants to four U.S. fellowship programs, we compared the career trajectories of fellows and similarly motivated finalists. We find that fellowship participants are 30 percentage points more likely than finalists to hold a government job in the year immediately following the fellowship period, and remain significantly more likely to work in government even up to 8 years after starting the fellowship.
Why is this issue important?
The government workforce is aging rapidly, yet governments are struggling to attract and retain young talent. At the same time, many areas of the public sector would also benefit from diversifying their workforces to better reflect the diverse communities they serve. Yet traditional hiring pathways may create cumbersome barriers for applicants, including longer-than-average hiring times, unclear and complex civil service exam requirements, long waits for exam access, and security clearances. Public sector fellowship programs offer one alternative pathway for motivated individuals to enter federal, state, or local government. However, little rigorous evidence exists on the effects of participating in a public sector fellowship program, including whether participants are more likely to remain in government work after completion of these programs.
What are we doing?
Using data from four public sector fellowship programs – Foster America, Govern for America, the Presidential Management Fellows Program, and the Public Rights Project – alongside professional profile data from Revelio Labs, we follow program applicants’ careers for up to 19 years, including up to 9 years after they finished (or would have finished) the fellowship program. Through a difference-in-differences approach, we compare program fellows to similarly motivated finalists to estimate the impact of participating in a fellowship program on individuals’ government employment, overall employment, and enrollment in graduate education.
What have we learned?
Compared to finalists with similar backgrounds and motivation, applicants who participate in fellowship programs are 30 percentage points more likely to hold a government job in the year immediately following the end of the fellowship period. While this gap between fellows and finalists shrinks in the ensuing years, fellows remain significantly more likely to work in government for at least 8 years after the beginning of the fellowship period. We find no clear evidence that this effect is driven by a difference in the likelihood of being employed, nor the likelihood of enrolling in graduate school. In contrast, finalists who don’t participate in fellowship programs are more likely than fellows to work in education or academia (e.g., state or private universities), professional services (e.g., management consulting or legal services), or other private sector (e.g., software companies, banking) in the years after the fellowship period.
What comes next?
This study suggests that public sector fellowship programs offer one avenue to improve recruitment and retention of talented early-career professionals in public sector careers. Future research could examine the specific mechanisms that underlie this effect, as well as those mechanisms that drive long-term persistence in government careers.