2012 PMF Survey

Here is the promised survey for the 2012 PMF class.  I want to stress that I am not associated with the program, it is unlikely that anyone from the program will even ask for this, and I have no plans to reveal any information except through aggregation.  It is intended to benefit future classes.  Please respond as thoroughly as you are comfortable.  If you have any concerns, you can email me at pmfellow AT gmail DOT com or reply in the comments.

I will keep this form open from now until around April 1, 2013, so please feel free to provide updates whenever you have them.  If you are a returning visitor to the form (i.e., you've already submitted answers once), choose the Returning Visitor option and make sure to put in the same name you used initially.

The direct link to the form is here.

2012 PMF Survey Development

Based on a suggestion in the previous comments thread, I am looking for questions to put on a survey for this year's job fair. If we can collect good, honest data about your experiences and how you approached the job fair and whether it met your expectations or not, I think we can present future applicants an accurate picture that can help them determine whether the job fair was worthwhile or not. I do have last year's survey, which was generating responses pretty regularly through September of 2011, with the last response in February of 2012. As soon as I get a chance, I will see what the data says.

Here are last year's questions:

• What is your name (first and last or pseudonym)?
• What school did/will you graduate from?
• Do you have a veteran's preference?
• Did you attend the job fair?
• How many interviews did you have BEFORE the job fair?
• How many interviews did you have DURING the job fair?
• How many interviews did you have AFTER the job fair?
• Have you received an offer?
• How many offers have you received?
• What agencies made you offers?
• Did you accept an offer?
• If you accepted an offer, what agency, location, and position did you accept?
• If you accepted an offer, was this offer a result of the job fair?
• What is your area of study?
• Notes/Comments

These are a start, but I think we can do better. The first thing that's apparent is that we will want to handle returning responders.  I didn't have adequate provision for that in the original form, but will be able to work that into the next iteration of it.  Beyond that, at a minimum, I think we want to know:

• Are you a new or returning visitor to this survey?  (Yes/No)  (Conditional branch)
• What is your name (first and last or pseudonym)?  (Free Text)
• Did you attend the job fair?  (Yes/No)  (Conditional Branch?)
• If not, why not?  (Free text)
• How many interviews did you have before the job fair?  (Number 0+)
• How many interviews did you have during the job fair?  (Number 0+)
• How many interviews have you had since the job fair?  (Number 0+)
• Have you received any offers?  (Yes/No)
• If so, how many?  (Number 0+ or N/A?)
• Did you accept any offers?  (Yes/No)
• Do you feel that these offers were a result of the job fair?  (Yes/No)
• What is your area of graduate study?  (Free Text)
• What is your area of undergraduate study?  (Free Text)

Are there other questions we should ask?  It might be worthwhile to develop the conditional branches a bit more so that we can capture a wider range of responses, but I don't currently have any questions in mind.  I'll take your suggestions.

2012 PMF Job Fair Recap + Updates

Today is the last day of the 2012 PMF job fair. I see on the PMF site that at least a few of the 2012 class have secured appointments. How are the rest of you doing? Any promising leads as a result of the job fair? Exciting experiences? Anyone get appointments without going to the job fair?

I don't have any new updates beyond this. There hasn't been a great deal of newsworthy information. One thing that I saw earlier this month, and which probably won't go anywhere, is a letter from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform [PDF] to OPM director John Berry regarding communications issues with finalists. While the commenters on the original WaPo article reporting on this were quick to suggest that the Committee is wasting its time over some email glitches, I'm not sure it's quite that simple. I guess we'll see if anything comes of it.

I am still planning to do some data analysis on this year's applicants and finalists. Due to work constraints, though, I haven't really had the time. (I might not even have all of the data; once I find out I can follow up with another post) If someone is interested in doing this and has free time and ability, let me know and I can help you get started.