2013 PMF: Post-Application Thread

Now that the application period for the 2013 PMF program has closed, it's time to talk details.  I wanted to keep discussions of assessment details to a minimum during the application period to preserve the integrity of the assessment itself.  There's no guarantee that any of the materials used this year will be used again, but the principles should be roughly the same.  So here's your opportunity to talk about your experiences with the assessment.  How do you think you did?  What kinds of questions were asked, and how effective do you think they are in determining sutiability for federal employment?  What was your experience with the online assessment?  How many people do you think applied?  New for this year: given that most applicants are on the East Coast, how did the hurricane impact your ability to complete the assessment?  And, are you sweating the impending fiscal cliff at all?

From my perspective, I have to say I am very pleased with the communication coming out of the PMF Program Office for this application cycle.  They have taken to Facebook pretty well and seem to be communicating better than at any time I remember.  For those who don't know, that's one of the reasons I started this blog, because there wasn't any real communication.  Even so, though, I hope people who find their way here still find use for this blog as a means of expression outside the official channels.

2013 PMF Application and Assessment

Just saw this via the PMF Facebook page:

Mark your calendar! The Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Application will launch Monday, November 5, 2012 on USAJOBS.gov and the PMF Website, pmf.gov. The streamlined application will include a three-part online assessment. The online application and assessments must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, November 19, 2012. Anyone that received an advanced degree in the past two years, or current students that will receive an advanced degree by August 31, 2013 are eligible to apply; and a nomination form is no longer required. Please join the PMF email listserv (http://listserv.opm.gov/wa.exe?SUBED1=PMF&A=1) so you can be notified when the PMF Assessment Study Guide is available, and receive application reminders. All the best! -PMF Program Office

So you have between November 5 and November 19, 2012 to complete both the online application AND the assessment.  That's what they mean by streamlined.  It's good to finally get some idea of that.

It's also worth noting the eligibility window for applicants.  If you have completed an advanced degree within the last two years OR you are a current student who will complete an advanced degree by August 31, 2013, you are eligible.  It's good to get confirmation of that as well.  In reality, this means the eligibility window for application to the PMF program is three years.  If you are a current student now, and you will complete a degree by next year's deadline, it looke like you will be able to apply for 2013, 2014, and 2015 before you're out of chances.  Just something to keep in mind.  Not too shabby, I think.

Oh, and one more thing, also via the PMF Facebook page.  If you become a finalist and you otherwise qualify, you can be considered for the Technology Fellows program as well.

What do you all think?  Is this good timing?  What do you think about combining the application and assessment into one step?  This is your open thread for the 2013 PMF application process.  I will probably open another thread to talk about your thoughts on the assessment itself, but I think it's best if we wait until after the application/assessment period closes to discuss particulars.

2012 PMF In-Person Assessments: Reactions

The PMF Program should have completed the in-person assessments today. Up to this point, I've been mostly silent on the issue because I didn't want to risk influencing the assessment process. Now that it's finished, I think it's fine for everyone to share their experiences and talk more freely about how they think they did. Include as few or as many details as you are comfortable sharing.

The next update, the one where we find out who is a finalist, will be sometime in January. In the mean time, let's hear from you all.

2011 PMF Assessment Preparation: Open Thread

The PMF application period for 2011 is closed, although schools still have until October 31 to send in nomination forms. As of 10/22/2010, over 9100 applications had been received (not all of these will turn into nominations). That's a 4.5% increase over last year's figures (8700).

Now that the application period has closed, it's open season for assessment preparation. I am intending that this article be used to gather materials and resources to help people prepare for the assessment process.

This year's program brings with it some adjustments to the assessment process. In prior years, the assessment was a one-step process consisting of a proctored exam with three sections: 1) Critical Thinking (like a logic test), 2) Life Experience, and 3) Writing (wherein the tester is given some passages to revise and some grammar questions). This year, the assessment apparently has been broken up into two phases, an online (unproctored) exam and an in-person interview phase (though I need some confirmation of this). Further, online assessment has been altered to a new format and now consists of the following parts (described more fully below): 1) Situational Judgment, 2) Life Experience, and 3) Writing Sample. The combination of these changes represents a larger shift in methodology for the PMF program, at least in my short history with it. I will leave it to my audience to speculate on the impact of these changes to the rigor and prestige of the program, as well as its ability to meet some stated goals (diversity, namely). First let's look at what the assessment restructuring looks like. Since I don't have any additional information yet, I am drawing this from the contents of the PMF Program Office's latest preparation guide.

• Situational Judgment: These questions pose scenarios drawn from real-life situations that a PMF may encounter on the job and asks the tester to select a response from the given choices. The response is supposed to be what the tester would actually do in the given scenario, not what he/she thinks the right answer should be. The preparation guide gives some sample questions that presumably prepare one for the kinds of things that appear on the actual test. No special knowledge is needed to succeed on this portion.
• Life Experience: This is not different from the same portion in previous years. Like the previous section, there is not really a set of right or wrong answers, so you are encouraged to be honest about your experiences here. Again the sample questions provide an indication of what to expect.
• Writing Sample: The final section is the writing sample. This has not appeared in the last few assessment cycles, so I couldn't say whether or not it's ever been included. Instead of presenting the tester with passages in need of correction, this year testers are expected to write on a given topic. The writing sample assessment concentrates on written communication skills; consequently, testers will be judged on clarity of writing, coherence and organization of ideas, and proper use of grammar. As far as I can tell, the actual content is not graded (I could be wrong).

The second phase consists of in-person interviews, presumably for those who have achieved some minimum score. I need confirmation of this, so if you can point to any information on it, let me know. Until I have such confirmation, everything I write about the interview is highly speculative. Also, having never been through this particular interview, I could only guess at its structure. It has analogs in other programs (United Nations National Competitive Recruitment Exam and the Foreign Service Officer Test come to mind), but I simply don't know enough about the PMF version to provide meaningful advice.

Since the format is greatly altered this year, materials that were helpful in previous years may have limited utility this year. Specifically, the shift from the Critical Thinking assessment to the Situational Judgment assessment means that guides like the DHS Manual of Job Related Thinking Skills is probably no longer suitable. Does anyone know of other exams that have sections comparable to the Situational Judgment assessment? Any other materials you'd like to share? Comments are always welcome.