I agreeto Idea Hire Young People
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Hire Young People

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I was lucky and hired by NASA in 2008 at the age of 21. As a freshout of college with an engineering degree, I had a lot to learn, but was surprised with the older demographic!!

I am surrounded by co-workers in their 50s and 60s who are on their way out, near retirement! In 5 years, my fear is that I will still be the youngest civil servant in my building.

The government needs to hire college freshouts, not only to stimulate the economy, but to bring new ideas to the workplace. 20-30 somethings have a lot to offer America, but will become less and less involved unless the Federal Government leads by example and hires young.

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Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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Comments (9)

  1. Community Member

    Our two federal career interns were over 50. I think that some of this has to do with fear of lawsuits. Under federal law, you can only commit age discrimination against people who are 40 or older. So, I think management and HR are very reluctant to hire people under 40 if they have less experience than applicants who are over 40.

    2 years ago
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  2. Community Member

    I don't think the youth appreciate NASA like we did when I was growing up.

    If agencies like NASA hire young, think of that renewed wonder and inspiration!!

    2 years ago
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  3. Community Member

    Member posted: "Our two federal career interns were over 50. I think that some of this has to do with fear of lawsuits. Under federal law, you can only commit age discrimination against people who are 40 or older. So, I think management and HR are very reluctant to hire people under 40 if they have less experience than applicants who are over 40."

    I struggle to understand how the Federal Government is reluctant to hire the younger people. Experience is not soley based on age - it is based on a willingness to learn, and be mentored by those around you with more experience.

    Freshouts from college only have a new degree - not much experience, but you have to start somewhere.

    Someone took a chance on all of us - let's take a chance on our educated youth!!

    2 years ago
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  4. Community Member

    HUD - I hope that you would please listen to what I have to say. I enjoy working for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. I began as a GS-1 in October 1999. Through education, motivation, lots of hard work, love of learning, enthusiasm, volunteering for many extra responsibilities, constantly trying to prove myself worthy of a higher grade position, etc. I’ve received many “Outstanding's,” Cash Awards and Time Off Awards over the years.

    However, through all of my hard work and determination, I constantly have to battle the attitudes of those who forgot where they came from and that they were promoted through the years. I’ve constantly had to persevere through the attitudes of many higher grades individuals who constantly try to prevent talented, motivated lower grades from rising up to a higher grade level. I see the higher grades are treated differently than the lower grades. The lower grades are expected to make all the sacrifices for the higher grades. We’re expected to do things, that the higher grades refuse to do because they think they’re too good, we’re expected to stay behind to babysit the office while the higher grades receive the majority of the opportunities here at HUD. I’m writing this email because I’m not the only one who feels this way. There are many talented, motivated HUD employees below a GS-9 who feel this way, who feel stuck.

    I would love to see HUD adopt a true learning and knowledge empowerment organization mentality. I feel that anyone below a GS-9 who has proved themselves worthy of a higher grade level position should be given the opportunity to advance. The issue I’m facing is that Management doesn’t provide enough opportunities. You have hundreds or several thousand talented lower grades that are passionately competing against each other for just a few positions.

    It’s my hope that HUD would offer enough Upward Mobility positions, throughout every department, throughout HUD Nationwide, so that your internal talented, motivated, hard working workforce can advance within their career at HUD.

    2 years ago
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  5. Community Member

    I have applied for the Emerging Professionals Program. You are right about there not being enough opportunities for people to move up. The Emerging Professionals Program had 270 applicants and is planning to choose 60 applicants. So basically, 1 in every 4 and 1/2 applicants will be accepted. Why not let more qualified and interested people participate? Have you considered applying to other agencies? If opportunities aren't presented, eventually the agency will lose top talent to other agencies. I'm perfectly content to look elsewhere.

    2 years ago
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  6. Community Member

    I agree that we should hire young people, especially college graduates who qualify for the positions they are applying for. That being said, they still need the older more experienced ones to teach them. True there are fresh new ideas, but there are also the old tried-and-true. We need both.

    2 years ago
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  7. Community Member

    Two things - we all have to realize that not always does a college degree equal the right choice. There are many talented people government-wide without that piece of paper, and through hard work rose through the ranks. Sometimes that piece of paper is not worth much; yet the grad gets the job hands down because of it, whereas the support staff, who really run things many times and are more than capable of doing an excellent job (with much less training) are passed by because of the lack of education. Sorry, sometimes I'll take the no degree person with lots of knowledge and ability over anyone else. Honestly, your couple of credits of english and agriculture really doesn't help when you cannot write a letter, speak intelligently, and do mathematical comparisons. I realize the era of getting somewhere without formal education is nearly dead, but almost a quarter of a century ago, someone took a chance on me, and many others I know and we need to understand and keep those options alive.

    Second, and possibly even more important, to hire young people means the Fed has to offer what nearly all fortune 500 companies do. Health benefits to all (including same-sex/domestic partnerships/etc.), real telework across the board,(instead of just the idea and picture of it), flexibility on scheduling, and so on. The Fed needs to practice what it preaches, and demonstrate the things to get the younger generation to now say "Hey, they offer all this too, and for $5-$10k less, I'll take the job security they offer over the higher pay." (Although job security is touchy in today's climate, no??)

    We are too far behind the eight ball to compete effectively with the private sector when it comes to recruitment and retention.

    2 years ago
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  8. Community Member

    come on people,,,,,hire based on proformance, education, and not based on sex, or age, or race. When will our government have to stick with the policies it puts out. Stop all of this preference hiring BS. Just hire the best qualified, and put the same tests to everyone............You should see the different test criteria for different groups that apply to federal jobs. If this was the outside world, EEOC would jump in with both feet.

    2 years ago
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  9. Community Member

    I think the PC way of saying what you want to say is that the government should hire more new college graduates (regardless of age). You accomplish the same thing (bringing in new ideas) without discriminating.

    2 years ago
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