by David Marwick, KempMillJobAssist, 03.30.25
Lynne Curry’s March 10, 2025, article identified six challenges facing former federal employees as they seek jobs elsewhere and six steps they can take to overcome these challenges.
Based on her discussions with employers, she identified the following six challenges. Regardless whether these perceptions are well-founded or not, it is important for former federal workers to understand how (at least some) people in the private sector view them.
— Job security. — Different performance expectations. — Salary expectations. — Work culture shift. — Friction with new colleagues. — Lengthy job hunt.
She also lists six things that federal employees can do to prepare. — Assess their transferable skills and rebrand them for civilian jobs. — Focus on jobs involving compliance, project management, policy analysis, regulatory compliance and cybersecurity. — Look for positions with employers who hold federal contracts or work in heavily regulated industries and might welcome their expertise in navigating bureaucratic structures. — Rework their resumes by deleting government jargon and acronyms. — Engage with professional and industry contacts to access the “hidden job market.” — Pursue additional training and certifications to gain new skills and align existing skills with private-sector needs.
You can read the article, “Fired federal employees will flood the job market. They have worries, and so do employers,” by Lynne Curry, Anchorage Daily News, March 10, 2025, at https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2025/03/10/fired-federal-employees-flood-the-job-market/