Sectors and Skills: Career Trajectories and Training Needs of MPP Students

Abstract

Public policy programs have come to attract students with increasingly diverse backgrounds and career aims, but curricular changes have been modest. Using a data set on MPP alumni from Harvard’s Kennedy School, we analyze career trajectories through different sectors and specializations, examining relationships among trajectories, perceptions of public service, and particular skill needs. Although government remains an important destination, we find a predominance of idiosyncratic paths and a diversification of employment trajectories over time. Perceptions of employment as public service and reports of skill use vary significantly by sector. Although certain general skills (communication, systematic thinking about problems, and workload management) are widely used, there are notable differences in other skill areas (policy design and political analysis are more used by government and nonprofit workers; economics is more used in the private sector). Programs may want to consider these differences in skill use in prioritizing what is taught, and how.