Dodging Students: DOGE Effects on Recruitment of Recent Graduates
Image Courtesy of Wallpaper Safari
By Elliana Arnold
Since its formation as an advisory body earlier this year, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has pursued its mission to cut government spending and to carry out plans for a reduction in force, upending the work opportunities for not only current federal employees but also for graduating college students who are entering the workforce.
DOGE states its goal is to cut costs, save taxpayers’ money, and reduce the national debt, and it has sought to do so by terminating contracts, directing agencies to justify their spending and find areas to cut spending (e.g., DEI initiatives, foreign aid, educational grants, building leases), and cutting federal jobs.
In the last few months, DOGE has vigorously reduced the size of the government’s workforce through the use of mass layoffs and buyout programs with over 50,000 confirmed cuts and over 100,000 more planned for the future. While some employees have been reinstated, a large number have not.
According to The New York Times, “reductions could affect at least 12 percent of the 2.4 million civilian federal workers,” and they have already hit a multitude of agencies, the latest of which have included the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, AmeriCorps, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
They go on to report that some agencies have been directed to “eliminate at least 40 percent or more of their staff, cuts they say they cannot make without jeopardizing their agencies’ missions and sapping morale.”
In addition to the tens of thousands of workers laid off, the cuts are also affecting this year’s graduating class of college students who are looking to enter the federal workforce. Pathways to federal careers, such as the Presidential Management Fellows Program, which was aimed at connecting graduate students with federal work opportunities, are being terminated. Congressmen from both parties have expressed concern about these cuts discouraging talented young people from joining various agencies, creating a recruitment problem for this upcoming year.
Zach Oliu, a senior electrical engineering major, worked with radar technology at his internship with the U.S. Naval Research Lab (NRL) under the Department of Defense (DOD) last year. They had planned to convert him to full-time after his graduation this spring and had gotten so far as to offer him the position and begin to forward the contract letter to him when they got word from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that everything had been frozen.
Oliu began mass applying to other private companies, such as Amentum, Northrop Gruman, and Lockheed Martin, but he discovered that since many of them have contracts with the Navy or other agencies, they also couldn’t hire him until they knew what was going to happen with their contracts, leaving him in a difficult position.
He’d remain in this tough spot because he was later notified that he was exempt at the NRL, meaning that he matched some of the criteria that would allow them to hire him. Unfortunately, the NRL still needed to wait for HR before officially bringing him on board, and since HR receives new directives frequently, they’re hesitant to continue the hiring process.
Oliu explains, “Everyday something is changed, revoked, or added,” and in addition to the immense confusion, people are worried they’ll be fired if they do anything. It’s a stressful environment for the federal employees and for students like Oliu who are stuck in a limbo, unsure of what to do as he receives other job offers.
Owen Halbrook, a senior politics major with a minor in sociology and an Intelligence Certificate, has experience on Capitol Hill as a congressional intern, and he explained that since the DOGE cuts happen more on the executive branch side, congressional interns will feel the effects more indirectly.
According to him, part of the internship is creating your network, which relies on people staying in the positions they’re in. However, they’re losing a lot of connections, particularly with the members they liaise with in the executive branch.
Halbrook explains that he has noticed that uncertainty is driving students away from federal work, especially graduating seniors. He believes that these cuts will lead to many students going to work with private companies and then hoping to find their way back to federal work someday.
Oliu shares a similar belief, expressing his concern that the government is cutting a lot of younger, motivated minds and deterring them away from that kind of work.
While graduates are hoping that their federal work and internships line up accordingly for this upcoming year, many are feeling a shared frustration from having their hiring processes or programs frozen for the time being. Currents of stress, expectancy, and worn patience will run through the lives of some students from the class of 2025 for the foreseeable future.
