Keep on Recruiting

A cadre of juniors and seniors rigorously preparing for on-campus interviews with a handful of select finance and consulting firms has become as ingrained at Harvard as Primal Scream or Annenberg hot breakfast. But beginning next month, organized on-campus recruiting will expand its scope to students who seek careers in public service. What has become a valuable asset for companies like Bain Capital and McKinsey & Company to tap into Harvard student talent may now similarly serve organizations like Ashoka, Pencils of Promise, and the Tobin Project.

It is exciting to see the Institute of Politics, the Center for Public Interest Careers, and the Office of Career Services team up to provide this opportunity for students. Given the large number of graduating seniors interested in pursuing public service careers, any sort of structural help is welcomed. This program will especially help in cases where students choose to join the private sector because they do not feel as though the process towards joining public service organizations is easily accessible. It is troubling that the fields that both require new talent the most and have a large pool of interested students often fail to hire graduates because of logistical barriers.

The new initiative will emulate consulting and finance recruiting in several key ways. Seniors will have to submit a letter indicating their “commitment to public service,” a resume, and a list of their top five participating organizations as part of the application for the event. This mix of availability and prestige will hopefully, as Amy Howell, director of the IOP's Office of Career and Internship Services said, make Harvard “the first place that” public services organizations look to hire.

The IOP, CPIC, and OCS also deserve special praise, as this may be the first initiative of its kind in the nation. Especially as Harvard's peer institutions are considering further integrating public service with the actual academic requirements of their universities, the public service recruitment initiative strikes a proper balance between showing an increased dedication to public service without mandating that students participate. Programs like this one may help reverse a trend of underemployment of Harvard students in the public service sector.

There are 20 participating organizations this year, and it would be fantastic to see this recruitment process expand both in the number of employers and recruitment fairs on campus with similar purposes in the coming years.