How the Federal Government can Support Early-Career Workers
Working with early-career and junior technologists is a complex challenge for managers in the federal government because our field is just starting to build what a career path might look like, from entry level to more senior positions. On top of that, civic tech isn’t necessarily a popular career option for people graduating from college or other tech training programs — yet.
One way agencies and leaders can support their junior technologists is by assuming a continuous-learning mindset and stepping out of their comfort zones to identify mentors, communities and sources of support for early-career staff.
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At a previous agency, I helped stand up an organization that had a communication specialist on the team. However, my background is in computer engineering technology, and I didn’t know the first thing about supervising and advising a communications specialist. I had to take the initiative to identify a mentor for that team member.
In terms of fostering connections, I’m in the process of growing a BIPOC (black, indigenous and people of color) Slack channel for civic technologists. Once we reach a significant number and achieve proper coordination, I hope it can be seen as a support system for minority civic technologists.
Other resources include broader Slack communities, such as Black Code Collective and Techqueria, that can offer additional support to early-career employees as they get their footing in government.