Sandbox

Weekly inspiration #22: Attracting the best and the brightest

February 9th, 2010 by Sandbox

This year, I had the privilege to follow World Economic Forum Annual Meeting from the inside. The week I spent in the Swiss mountains was totally inspiring, both for the people I met as for the discussions going on.

A session that especially passioned me was a dinner with Mexican President Felipe Calderón among other prominent guests. The question debated was how to attract bright people to a career in the public sector, which led me to some personal thoughts I wanted to share on this blog.

Many highly talented young individuals seem to primarily direct their creativity and drive to the private sector. Why is it so, and what measures could be taken in order to correct this trend?

There are two types of young talents: a minority is primarily attracted by high incomes and in this area, the public sector cannot compete with the investment banking or consulting sectors.

A majority of young people though seems to have other priorities: they want to have a role that makes sense and that gives them the opportunity to positively impact the society, put in short: change the world.

For a similar time investment, the level of impact is often higher in the private sector. Today, there are thousands of small start ups and social entreprises that have an impact disproportionate to their size. They work in agile structures and can do a lot with very little resources.

Another problem I see is that the public sector doesn’t reward talent enough: careers are too linear and too inflexible; there are for example few possibilities for intrapreneurs to realize their full potential, and the rules for going up the public ladder are too often based on age more than on skills and motivation.

What measures could be taken to change this situation?

- develop career accelerators such as MPAs (Master in Public Administration) in order to allow motivated young individuals to give a boost their career; administrations should support the candidates to the same extent than the private sector does for MBA students

- create more partnerships between universities and the public sector, introduce internships in interesting public positions during the academic cursus

- lower the barriers for accessing elected positions, for example by creating more programs to give young people the possibility to get involved people into politics during school already and to access first responsibilities

Do you agree with that? What do you think could be other ways to promote careers in the public sector? Do you have personal experiences you would like to share?

This article does not reflect the views of the World Economic Forum nor of the participants to that session. The statements above are my personal opinion and are mostly based on observations I made observing members of the Sandbox community.