Call to Serve Toolkit

The Call to Serve toolkit serves as a “how-to” guide for schools looking for ways to better inform students about federal job and internship opportunities.

Understand the Federal Landscape

How can a career professional or other advisor stay informed about what federal jobs are available and the best strategies for helping students pursue these opportunities? This section will give you some tools to help you know where to get information, so you can better inform students, key staff and faculty on your campus.

Fast Facts on Federal Hiring
Use this guide to give to faculty, students and others interested in quickly building their knowledge about the federal workforce.

Coming Soon!

Where the Jobs Are
The single most-frequently-asked question by students is, “What jobs are there in the federal government for someone like me?” Typically, “like me” refers to a student’s major field of study: what jobs are there for engineers… sociologists… public health majors?

Where the Jobs Are outlines government-wide projected hiring needs through 2009 and is based on a survey of 34 federal agencies representing nearly 99 percent of the federal civilian workforce. The survey identifies nearly 193,000 “mission critical” jobs that need to be filled in the next two years — and this information is presented by agency and by occupation. This document, therefore, can serve as a critical tool for helping students decide where to start their job or internship search.

TIP: Putting a link to the report on your Web site will help those interested in learning more about agencies target their job search.

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Best Places to Work
All federal agencies can be a good place to work, but based on the opinions of federal employees, some are better than others. Based on data from 221,000 civil servants, Best Places to Work in the Federal Government ranks 283 federal agencies and subcomponents according to job satisfaction. More details and analyses of each agency can be found on bestplacestowork.org.

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Promote Federal Service on Your Campus

It will take more than passing out materials and holding career fairs to inspire and educate students, faculty and administration members about the federal workforce. It will require changing the way they think about federal jobs. The Partnership’s goal is to help university coordinators create a long-term, sustainable focus on federal public service on their own campus, and to create “a movement” across the country, similar to John F. Kennedy’s call to service that moved a nation to action more than a generation ago. This section includes materials that can help lay the foundation for a campaign to promote federal service on your campus.

FAQs: How to Promote Federal Service
This document answers key questions everyone should ask as they set out on an effort to promote government service: How do I develop and conduct a campaign? What if I cannot conduct a “full blown” campaign right now? How do you know if it is working? How can I attract students to federal public service?

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Case Studies
Different strategies work on different campuses. Case studies from Clark Atlanta University, The George Washington University, Louisiana State University, The Ohio State University and Stanford University contain many great ideas and provide insights into what types of efforts work best in a broad variety of settings.

View Case Studies »

Student Assessment Survey
What gets measured gets done, so it is important for schools to establish benchmarks to try to gauge the effectiveness of outreach efforts. You can use the student assessment survey to establish a baseline and track changes regarding your student body’s knowledge of and interest in federal jobs. This survey can be tailored for your school.

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Student Evaluation Form
The student evaluation form can be used to help gauge the effectiveness of specific on-campus events.

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Educate and Advise Students

This section represents the heart of the toolkit. It contains an extensive collection of materials that can be used to educate students about federal opportunities and tips about how best to utilize them.
Examples of these resources include workshops with training manuals for career services professionals and faculty/administrators; information for students about federal programs and about career opportunities; and additional resources that can be used in conducting your campaign.

Think about how you can incorporate these resources into other activities and outreach. Be creative! Many schools have included the links or PDF documents on their Web sites. They have also gotten these resources into the hands of key faculty. For instance, if you have a strong engineering department and notice that there are many entry-level engineering government positions, connect with the dean or faculty members to encourage them to distribute the engineering quick guide to engineering majors.

Workshops and Training Materials

The “Find and Apply” Workshop and Training Manual
Many students are interested in working in federal service, but they often don’t know how to search and apply for federal jobs and internships. Career center staff and faculty may not have the answers, either. The solution is the Partnership’s “Making the Difference: Find and Apply for Federal Opportunities” workshop. This is a great way for you to teach your students how to navigate this federal hiring process, and, with very little effort, this same workshop can be used to inform faculty, administrators and other career center professionals. With Web screen shots and sample application questions, the participant should walk away from this session feeling confident about how to find and pursue a federal opportunity.

The presentation includes a script, background notes and links to additional resources so you can field a variety of questions that could potentially come your way. Once you get comfortable giving the presentation, you can train other members of your staff to teach it: career services staff, faculty, public service offices, and the like.

Download PowerPoint
Download PDF evaluation

"Mastering the Federal Application Process: KSA Writing and Federal Resumes" Workshop and Training Manual

The federal application process can be frustrating for job applicants and their advisors. This workshop will help get you and your students through the process, by giving you a ready to use presentation with complete notes. Use it on your campus and proactively increase understanding of the federal applications process, such as how to write effective KSA essays and create a federal resume.

Download PowerPoint
Download PDF evaluation

KSA Writing Worksheet
One of the biggest and most confusing challenges facing federal jobseekers is how to ace the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) section of the standard federal job application. This worksheet is designed to help students through the process, step-by-step. Use it individually, post it online, or create a workshop to get students comfortable with this essay writing process.

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Information for Students on Jobs and Careers

Academic Quick Guides
Students identify with their academic major or interest area, so we created major-based Academic Quick Guides that list the agencies that hire the most people with those majors, sample positions, and other key information to help students find federal jobs and internships. The purpose of these guides is to help students see that that there are good jobs and internships in government for people with interests like theirs.

TIP: Print them double-sided and use these guides at Federal Career Fairs, panels and other events. Also, get these guides in the hands of key faculty and departments to strengthen their understanding of jobs in federal government, and have them distributed to students. Some schools have put links to these Quick Guides on their own Web sites.

Download All Academic Guides

Agriculture and Forestry
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Art and Design
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Biological Sciences
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Business
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Communications
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Computer Science and IT
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Education
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Engineering
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Environmental Sciences
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Foreign Languages
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International Relations
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Law
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Law Enforcement
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Medical
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Physical Sciences
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Social Sciences
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Social Work
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Information on Security Clearances
Since the typical deadline and application period for summer internships and jobs that require security clearances is in November, students and graduates need to apply early. Hence, this information needs to be out early in the school year.

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Student Loan Repayment
The Student Loan Repayment guide explains the program and how some students can take advantage of up to $60,000 (a maximum of $10,000 a year) in loan repayment by working for the federal government. It is important to note that not all agencies participate in the student loan repayment program, that student loan repayment is only for federal student loans, that the payment amount is currently taxable and agencies may not repay the maximum amount annually.

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Student Programs
The Student Programs guide is a great introduction to internship and entry-level programs to help give your students ideas about how to get their foot into the door.

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USAJobs.gov and StudentJobs.gov Guides
Use these guides to advise students about two of the best searching Web sites for federal jobs and internships: usajobs.gov and studentjobs.gov. These guides can be added to your career services Web site, given out to students and alumni, and handed out before and during career fairs. On both sites, job seekers can search and apply for thousands of positions, create and save up to five federal resumes, and have positions emailed to them as they become available.

USAJobs
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StudentJobs
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The Red, White and Blue Library
The Partnership for Public Service created the Red, White and Blue series of handbooks to provide an overview of federal job opportunities, sorted by areas of interest.

Download Entire RWB Library

Red, White and Blue Jobs
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Red, White and Blue Business
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Red, White and Blue Engineering
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Red, White and Blue Homeland Security
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Red, White and Blue Liberal Arts
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Red, White and Blue Public Health
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Additional Resources to Support Your Campaign

Federal Profile Posters
The federal profile posters offer a useful way to promote public service on your campus.

Download All Posters

Abdel, Research Scientist, Department of Veterans Affairs
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Anna, Program Analyst, Department of Energy
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Dak, Director of Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Defense
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Jesse, Attorney Advisor, Department of State
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Saunte, Foreign Affairs Officer, Department of State
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Annenberg Speakers Bureau
If you want to bring a federal employee to your campus to offer first-hand insights about government service, there is no better resource than the Partnership for Public Service’s Annenberg Speakers Bureau. The Speakers Bureau consists of dynamic, federal employees who are available to speak at colleges and universities across the country about their federal experience and the work they do.

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Request a Speaker »

Service to America Medals (Sammies)
One of the most effective ways to inspire people to enter public service is to tell the true stories of government’s unsung heroes. The Service to America Medals recognize the best of the best in federal service and help people see what can be achieved in government service by literally showing what is being achieved in government service. Two minute videos of Sammies winners can be downloaded and used before or during any class or workshop to put a face on government.

To access additional information on this program, the award recipients, and videos of Sammies winners, visit servicetoamericamedals.org.

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Build Agency Relationships

Promoting federal public service isn’t enough if you truly want your students to see government as an employer of choice. Building strong, sustainable relationships with individuals from federal departments and agencies is what will provide students the knowledge and opportunities to pursue a career in the public sector. This section provides you some tools to begin building those relationships.

Federal Career Day (FCD) Toolkit
The FCD toolkit walks you through the decision-making and implementation steps for hosting and conducting a federal career fair. It provides information on how to get agencies on your campus and fully utilize them once they are there. The FCD toolkit also contains several customizable templates. Even if your institution does not feel that a FCD is right for your campus, the resources and event ideas can help you establish strong relationships with federal recruiters in other ways.

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Download Resources

Directory of Agency Contacts
The directory of agency contacts can be used in your fair and event outreach throughout the year. Just as you may use this directory to build relationships, be sure that your university’s contact information is updated, as well, so agencies can reach out and build strong relationships with your university. While these contacts are happy to help you better understand their agencies, please refrain from sharing their contact information with students. You’ll find more success by developing relationships with these contacts and then passing along information to your students.

TIP: Most agencies have job and /or recruitment Web sites. Use these sites to find out more information about an agency. Contact the agency representative for relationship building or specific questions that you are unable to find answers for on the Web site.

Download PDF (updated 6/8/10)

Directory of University Contacts
The directory of university contacts can be used to contact regional Call to Serve member schools to jointly host events.

Download PDF (updated 7/20/10)

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