OPM Touts Success of PMF Program

The Office of Personnel Management announced on Friday that the 2010 job fair for the Presidential Management Fellows Program was a great success, drawing more than 2,000 PMF participants from more than 87 federal agencies. The job fair, held March 30 through April 1 in Washington, D.C., resulted in a number of job offers, OPM said. To date, more than 7,000 PMF participants have joined the federal government.

Some experts have suggested that portions of the PMF program, which targets recent master's graduates and provides two years of rotational experiences at government agencies, need an overhaul. For example, critics have argued that the PMF program has an impersonal application process and does not do enough to retain top talent. Did you participate in the PMF program and join the federal government as a result? What criticisms or praises do you have of the program, particularly when it comes to recruiting and retaining IT expertise?