NYNP blog post 3-10-10

Six career tips from two experienced public servants

Last week's Leadership and Strategy class featured guest speaker Dall Forsythe, Professor of Practice at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service and former budget director for the State of New York under Governor Mario Cuomo. Forsythe and Professor Sermier were colleagues at the NYC Board of Education under Chancellor Frank Macchiarola. They discussed their experiences with leadership in government and also shared concrete career advice.

Three career tips for the short term
Forsythe shared three career tips for young professionals interested in public service:
1) Be able to communicate well both with words and with numbers. Governor Cuomo used to say the following when hiring a candidate with little experience: "What's the difference? He's smart and he can write well."
2) Understand politics.
3) Consider working in a budget office. They are great places to work - you learn a lot, you gain skills, and you gain professional credibility.

Three reasons to find your passion in the long term
Sermier shared three reasons to find your professional passion:
1) If you are ambitious and want big opportunities in your career, you need to develop the right skills and a good reputation; this requires actually doing the work well over time, which requires passion.
2) To be a good leader, you must display optimism, and in order to do that during tough times or amidst irritations, you need to work at a job you value, so that the small stuff is irrelevant to your fulfillment.
3) If you work at something you enjoy, you won't need to make a lot of money because you won't be obsessed with retiring.