2013 Budget – Pay Changes – .5% Pay Raise, Increase Retirement Contribution by .4%, FERS Supplement Cancelled

The White House just announced their fiscal 2013 budget request. Some good recap from GovExec & Washington Post A couple big pay updates: 1) Pay raise -Bump of .5% pay raise in 2013 for civilians, 1.7 for military 2) Increase retirement contribution – Increase the percentage feds pay into their retirement by 1.2 (.4 percentRead… Read more »

Finding the Right Combination: A Lesson in Leadership

Leadership requires constant growth and understanding of not just yourself and your management style, but also of your employees and coworkers. Critical to leadership is having a keen understanding on how to best navigate your environment to produce desired results. At any stage of your career, you can be a leader and exhibit leadership qualities.Read… Read more »

Esri Federal GIS Conference: Connect and Explore!

Esri’s upcoming Federal GIS Conference is just a few weeks away! We’ve been talking about all of the wonderful sessions and resources that will be made available at the conference. At the Esri FedCon, attendees will have the opportunity to learn and grow, but also to connect with one another! What better way to doRead… Read more »

The DorobekINSIDER Book Club: Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries

For the past several years, I have been hosting something I call the DorobekINSIDER Book Club — it is something like the Oprah Book Club but more wonky. Essentially, we select a book that is tied to my favorite words: It helps the government do its job better. We invite the author… and then weRead… Read more »

The Challenges of Transparency for Government

“Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset.” – President Barack Obama An interesting discussion to have is what is driving government to be more open and transparent. Is being more open occurring out of necessity by government dueRead… Read more »

Lessons Learned from “Failed” Projects

We’ve all had group projects that haven’t gone quite as we would have hoped. In the end, some of the failed projects we participated in can lead to some incredible insights and help us grow as professionals and leaders. Based on my experiences in projects and working on teams, here are a few of myRead… Read more »

GovGigs Training: Extreme Makeover: Government Resume Edition

On Thursday, (2/2), GovLoop hosted a GovGigs training webinar on “Extreme Makeover: Government Resume Edition.” During the training we discussed how federal job seekers can take their resume from good to great. Throughout the training we heard from our two Expert Resume Reviewers, who revealed their recommendations for moving a resume from ineffective to incrediblyRead… Read more »

What Makes A Good Mentor?

Mentors often provide valuable insights and institutional knowledge about an organization to a younger workforce. By working with a mentor, new employees are given new perspectives on organizational issues and are provided the opportunity to grow professionally and learn from their mentors experiences. What makes a good mentor? At all the places I have worked,Read… Read more »