- Careers in public service can make an impact.

Doing work that you care about in government and nonprofit work can lead to a fulfilling and long career.

In the career center, we're going on the job in the local community to see what working in public service is all about.

Then we visit the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan to learn about the career pathways and career outlook for students looking to work in public service.

- [Narrator] The career center is made possible by General Motors and by these supporters and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat techno music) (birds chirping) (students chattering) (bell ringing) - Sorry I'm late for our meeting Ms. Pisani.

I've been working with a group of other students to try and get the school to replace our forks with biodegradable alternatives.

- No problem, Brooke.

In fact, it's great that you're taking an active role in trying to help the school become more conscious of their impact on the environment.

You know, there are careers in that field, too?

- Like working at the Department of Natural Resources?

- Yeah, that and other things, too.

Working in public service, you can do a lot of different things.

You can work for the government, you can work for a nonprofit, you can work for social services.

There are a lot of different ways that you can take your passions for causes and turn it into a career.

Let's take a look at this together.

(upbeat music) - So working in the community that you utilize for your own good and your own necessity, it's prideful.

You really own it.

You're going to the store on the same roads you work on.

So essentially your community's your office.

You get the freedom of being outside but you're still doing work.

And so that's- It's awesome to be part of the community that way and you're truly giving back.

There's thousands of jobs we do.

No pothole's ever the same.

No tree is ever the same you have to trim or get off the road during a storm.

I don't care how many times you do it, you know, there's always something that makes it different.

So you won't get bored doing these jobs.

The benefits are phenomenal working for public sector, you know, you get paid consistently and you'll get paid consistently for the rest of your life.

Recently I was just diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and with our benefit that we have, you know, it's a very expensive disease to work through and I've spent nothing.

They all got behind me here and it was whatever you needed we'll keep you here, let's move forward.

And so that support group, you know, you are who you're surrounded by.

(upbeat music) - It seems like there are a lot of careers and options in public service.

How do I know what's right for me?

- There really are a lot of options and at all different levels.

So some might require a degree, some might require certification and specific training, and some you might need to be elected to or appointed for.

There's also nonprofit work and that can take a lot of different forms, too.

Something that's really helpful might be to talk to somebody who's doing the work that you're interested in.

One of our students had an opportunity to go on the job with the City of Ferndale.

(upbeat music) - Today I'm in Ferndale, Michigan to learn what it's like to be a public works employee.

Dan Antosik is the director of public works and I think he has a lot for me to do today.

Hi, Dan.

Thanks for having me.

- Thanks for coming out today.

- So what parts of the community fall under public works?

- So under public works you have roads, sanitation, water, sewer, park maintenance, and then city fleet, vehicle repair and maintenance.

- Why'd you choose this line of work?

- I always had an interest in public service.

I originally wanted to be a city manager, but I kind of fell into the the role of public works and I found that I really enjoy this line of work.

I enjoy the fact that we provide critical services and that we can have an impact on someone every single day.

It allows us to really create a good sense of community that someone can be proud of.

Like walk out their door, like the streets are looking good, parks are well maintained, and so on.

So it's that everyday interaction that makes public works and the work that we do important.

- I think I'm ready to give it a shot.

What's on our schedule for today?

- So today we're gonna repair a water main, we're gonna make a stop sign, and then patch some potholes.

- Awesome!

- Well now we're gonna do a water main repair.

These are the water mains that are underneath the street delivering water to all the residents and the businesses.

This one's got a crack on it and we need to stop that water from leaking out.

This is the clamp that we're gonna use to repair the water main.

- Okay.

- Yeah, we're over here on the inside.

So it makes a good seal around the main.

Stainless steel outside so it doesn't corrode over time.

So this is just gonna slip right around the water main and then we'll tighten these bolts down and stop that leak.

Yep, just like that.

- Okay.

- Squeeze that together.

Slide that up, get it underneath.

Tighten those bolts up and then we can tighten it down with the wrench.

And see how as you tighten it down, the water is slowly letting up?

- [Brooke] Yeah.

- [Dan] That's a good sign.

It looks like you got the water main break repaired.

- Awesome!

- So this is our sign shop where we create all the random signage that you see around town.

Whether it's a stop sign, a street sign, no left turn, all that kind of stuff we create here in the sign shop using our printer and this table.

- Now this is the basic sign blank that we get.

This is shipped to us just like this with nothing on it.

Then we have to cover it.

Now that we have to sign blank on there, we have to trim around this.

- [Brooke] How important would you say signs are for our community?

- Extremely.

People wouldn't know what to do without 'em.

- That's true.

They like instructions.

All right, Phil, I'm ready for the next step.

- All right.

This is where the magic's gonna happen.

Just kind of follow the letter.

Alright, that looks pretty good.

Okay, go ahead and roll your sign.

Go ahead.

You can go right off the table.

- Okay.

- Perfect.

All right, now push your button up and bring the roller right back on there.

Set it down.

Okay and as you're pulling, bring the roller over towards the sign.

- The big reveal.

(plastic crinkling) - The big reveal.

- How'd I do?

- We are gonna give you a 8 out of 10.

(student laughing) Now there you had a couple air bubbles there, it's no big deal.

Alls you gotta do is just pierce it and it just makes it disappear.

- Awesome.

- All right, so now we're going to get some potholes patched.

- Whoa.

- This is a pretty good one.

Paxton isn't the best section of road, so we need to keep these potholes filled until the summertime when we are actually going to be resurfacing this road.

So I'm just gonna try and get some of this water out and then all we're gonna do is take shovel fulls of this coal patch right here and then fill this hole up with it.

- [Brooke] Why is it so important to fill potholes?

- So, it's important to fill these potholes 'cause one, we wanna make it safe for the motorist on the road, but also, you know, a lot of the streets in Ferndale, they're also used by bikers, people run, and we don't want someone bending a rim on a bicycle.

We don't want someone tripping if they're on a run.

So this looks pretty good.

So what we're gonna do now is just tamp it down so it stays in place.

- All right.

It looks like we got it pretty good.

- Oh yeah, we're good to go.

Now, onto the next one.

Brooke, thanks for coming out and giving us a hand today.

Appreciate it.

- Of course.

With all the hard work you guys do, I have a new appreciation for this line of work now.

- It's tough work, but it's good work.

- After wrapping it up with Dan, I headed to the Ferndale Police Department to meet with Officer Jill Mahlmeister to discuss other ways to serve a community.

So you're a community engagement officer, right?

What does that mean?

- I take on a role of positive ways that I can interact with the community.

It could be such as doing presentations at schools, sitting on certain boards within the community, or even just public information.

- Ferndale is known to be a fun and energetic community.

How does that connect to public service?

- We have a ton of events here in Ferndale and it's just a great way for us to interact with our community on a human level.

We are, you know, officers, we're just people just like everyone else and just good to get out there and get to know everybody and have those positive interactions.

- What would you like people to know about public service careers?

- Public service work as a whole, if you're working for the city government, is it's an opportunity to give it back to your community, but it's also a very important role in our community is we wanna provide this safe, healthy, vibrant atmosphere for our community.

And I think it's so important that we provide it in many aspects, whether it's police services, fire, our department of public works, elections.

It really is a team atmosphere.

(upbeat music) - So what kind of education or training or experience do you think you need to get a job in public service?

- I'd assume volunteer work.

- I don't know.

Maybe go to college.

- So volunteering is always helpful and you might need a college degree.

So if you're interested in public policy like working for a legislator or working as a public administrator, then this video from the Ford School at the University of Michigan might be helpful.

(upbeat music) - So a career in public policy or public service really can mean a lot of different things.

A number of our graduates at the Ford School are working in public service through government.

So that could be federal, state, local, non-U.S. That could also be through an NGO or an IGO or a multilateral.

So you can make your policy impact in a variety of different ways.

And so it's someone who's dedicated to, you know, serving the public, enhancing and advancing the public good.

I think within public policies a commonality is asking questions and then problem solving to research and provide solutions to those questions.

And the question could be, winter in Michigan's pretty weird this year.

What is the direct impact of that?

Is that, you know, something related to climate or environments?

All of that is, you know, rooted in oh, I have this question.

What's the connection?

Well, let's investigate - Public policy was a way for me to turn my pain into policy.

I was in foster care growing up throughout my childhood and I knew that there was systematic barriers that young people faced in foster care.

So I wanted to make a difference within the child welfare system through policy to heal mine and other people's pain that have experienced the trauma of going through child welfare.

- Growing up as an Arab-American and as a Muslim and somebody that, you know, existed in the margin on a lot of issues, seeing injustice in the world, seeing under representation, it really was a catalyst and really was like the impetus of like, hey, you know, you need to do something about this.

You are here.

You have the privilege.

You have the responsibility to step up, to take on the mantle of leadership, and to help make a difference in the world.

Help, you know, impact the world even in the slightest way.

- Ford School's mission is advancing and developing leaders that can advance and serve the public good and also having, you know, diverse leaders that are representative of the, you know, populations that they're serving.

So I think with public policy, one nice thing is you can make an impact in so many different sectors.

You talk about, you know, non-profits or non-governmental organizations, those span so many different things.

They could be working in sustainability, it could be working in social policy.

And then at the government level we talk about the state of Michigan, the city of Detroit, the city of Ann Arbor.

There is so many different departments and units within each entity and organization.

So there really is an opportunity within public policy to make your mark or to make that impact in so many different organizations.

So our kind of focus in developing leaders here at the Ford schools, developing them from a career in professional development perspective.

So we'll provide skill development workshops, mock interviews, interview preparation.

- One of the things that I really love about a program like this and a bachelor's degree in public policy is that as long as you're interested in public service, as long as you're interested in leadership in the public realm, there are so many opportunities.

And what's really special about the Ford school is that they offer so much counseling, so much guidance, so much support, and at the same time create opportunities for you to talk to folks in the field, to really understand what a career path looks like.

- They provide me a support of people.

The students are really supportive.

The staff are really supportive and they were able to provide me what I call as a safe community to thrive, learn, and grow within my profession.

- I think within public policy there is the opportunity to create your own path.

In the state of Michigan, we have 83 different counties.

There are local government opportunities in economic development, working at a county manager level, and all of that is public policy.

It's some resources that would be certainly good for students interested in kind of this space would be the Michigan League of Public Policy, the Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Association of Counties.

You know, you could be a policy analyst on city council.

So you're working directly for a council member and advancing kind of their different policy areas that way.

You could be a legislative aid in the Michigan State House or for the state senate.

You could be a chief of staff to someone who's working in Michigan State government or at the federal level.

I mean there's pathways programs.

So if you're looking at USA jobs, you know recent graduates pathways are paid opportunities and there's a pathway there for you to be paid and then lead to a full-time role.

- In high school, I was the president of the Arab Student Union, which was something very near and dear to my heart.

I actually ended up at Michigan State University and I transferred to the University of Michigan.

And so that option is always available to folks.

And one of the things that stood out in my application to the admissions office was really my work in the community, my work in extracurriculars, and the folks who wrote me letters of recommendation that you know, spoke to my work ethic, spoke to my passion, spoke to the kind of experiences that I had, and what I can contribute to campus.

So if you have something you love, delve deep into it, focus on it and don't be afraid to explore or do what you love.

- Do you see an issue that you care about?

Okay, well what are the organizations that are actively working in that space?

And then what are the resources available?

Is it learning through what's going on in the news?

Is it talking to your local librarian about like opportunities and resources available to explore that policy area?

Is it going to office hours with your local, you know, congressperson and saying, oh, I care about this and I want to get involved?

Cause each, you know, certainly our 13 districts have a district office, too, so there's ways to get involved, have initiative, ask questions, and then kind of see where that path is going to lead.

(upbeat music) - Ms. Pisani, there was a lot of talk about internships in that video and I kind of know what an internship is, but would you mind explaining it better?

- Sure.

Basically, internships are temporary positions that allow you to get hands-on experience.

If you're working in the public service sector, this kind of internship could be with a government agency, it could be with a non-profit organization, or even with a politician.

- Aren't internships for college students?

- They can be, but there are internships available for people in high school, too.

There might even be a way we could set it up so you could get class credit while doing an internship.

It's something we'd need to meet and talk about and find the right place to to intern, but it is possible.

- So what's an internship like?

- It is just like a job.

Usually it's very early entry level work and it might include some job shadowing as well.

Internships are a great way to get some experience in a field you're interested in and they can also help to build your network.

The people you need at your internship can write letters of recommendation, help you find other jobs, and become mentors.

- My class schedule and my after school activities make me hard to have a job on top of all of that.

Is there something else I can do that's like an internship?

- Volunteer.

In public sector jobs, there are lots of volunteer opportunities.

If you're interested in learning about public policy and how running a political campaign works, you might volunteer to work on a campaign for a politician you believe in.

On the nonprofit side, there are lots of opportunities to volunteer and help out with their mission.

The important thing is to treat it the same way as you would the internship.

Show up, be professional, and learn all you can.

- So where can we find internships or volunteer opportunities?

- You can start by looking at the websites of the people or places you'd like to work for.

If you're interested in our local government, you could go to the town hall and inquire there.

There are also websites like USA Jobs and idealist.org that list internship and volunteer opportunities.

You can also just make an appointment to visit with me, your career counselor, and I might know of some great opportunities for you.

If you do volunteer work or get an internship, be sure to keep track of your accomplishments and stay in contact with the people you've worked with and met.

All of this is great to put on your college applications, if you plan to attend college, or to put on your resumes for future jobs or internships.

- So once we've gotten an internship, what do we do?

- That's a great question.

You know, I've been working on a video series all about 21st century skills.

Internships and volunteer opportunities are a great place to practice social skills and I just finished my newest video all about them.

Let's take a look.

(upbeat music) Um, hi.

I wanna talk about social skills.

I think what she's trying to say is, social skills are so important.

So let's take a deep dive into social skills and how we can improve our own social skills.

Hi, I'm Andrea Pisani.

I work with students every day to help them explore their passions and make great futures for themselves.

Let's talk about the skills everyone needs to make it in the 21st century.

21st century skills.

Social skills are a 21st century life skill.

Social skills are the skills we all need to communicate and interact with each other every day.

Social skills encompass the things we say, verbal communication, as well as the way we act, our body language or non-verbal communication.

But they also include how we understand others.

Social skills play an important role in our daily interactions and relationships.

With good social skills, people are able to communicate their ideas and feelings effectively to others, read and understand others' perspectives, handle conflicts well, collaborate with others, meet new friends, and work well with different people.

So, let's take a look at what social skills are, what makes them important for our 21st century lives, and what things we can do to help improve our social skills.

Maybe the most important social skill is learning how to effectively communicate your ideas, thoughts, and opinions to other people so that you can be understood.

Effective communication is the basis for all of our interactions with other people.

According to A. Barbour, author of "Louder than Words: Nonverbal Communication," words account for 7% of the information communicated.

Vocal tone accounts for 55%, and body language accounts for 38%.

Like this.

It makes me super happy to know that we say a lot more with how we say something and how we use our body language than the words we're actually saying.

Just as important is the ability to effectively read and understand other people.

This can be called active listening.

Knowing how to listen to others is crucial in any social interaction, enabling individuals to respond appropriately, show empathy, and build rapport.

Being understood and understanding others are the foundations to good collaboration, which is another one of our 21st century skills.

Working with others toward a common goal requires strong social skills.

Sometimes when working with others, conflict is inevitable, but people with good social skills are able to navigate conflict in a healthy manner, one that considers the thoughts and opinions of everyone involved, and comes to an acceptable solution for everyone.

Social skills also play a crucial role in expanding one's network, as they help individuals make meaningful connections with others, leading to opportunities for personal and professional growth.

We've got a really good idea of what social skills are and probably have some ideas about why they are important, but why are they important to employers?

Research performed by David Deming, a professor of education and economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, found that people who have combined technical and social skills are doing better in the job market than those that just have technical skills alone.

This might be because many of the jobs that could be performed in isolation, without much human interaction, can, thanks to advancements in machine learning and AI, be performed by machines.

Even highly technical jobs require working with others and as such, good social skills, something that computers aren't great at yet.

And Deming has found that social jobs are on the rise.

According to Deming's research, professions requiring high levels of social interaction such as managers, teachers, nurses, therapists, consultants, and lawyers have grown by nearly 12 percentage points as a share of all jobs in the United States economy in the last 30 years.

So now that we know what social skills are and why they are important personally and professionally, what can we do to help improve our social skills?

The first thing is easy: Meet new people.

Every time we meet someone new, we help improve our social skills.

You can meet new people by joining clubs, volunteering, starting a new job, participating in group activities, or simply just talking with people you meet in the world.

Meeting new people can be scary, but don't worry, everyone thinks that.

In research performed that the University of Chicago, 47% of people surveyed thought that strangers would not want to talk with them.

But 100% of the time those same people were able to have conversations with the strangers they met.

On the whole, most people like meeting with and talking to new people.

Once you've met someone new, you can practice active listening.

A few things you can do to improve your active listening skills are to summarize what someone tells you back to them.

This will show the other person that you understand them and also give them the chance to clarify any mistakes in understanding.

If you have questions about what someone said, you can ask an open-ended question to help clarify and deepen the conversation.

Active listening can also give you the opportunity to practice the social skill of empathy.

Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of others.

Being empathetic can help you build rapport with others and can also help you understand other viewpoints and opinions.

Empathy starts with being curious about other people and their lives, but you can also practice empathy by imagining yourself in someone else's situation.

How might you feel or think?

This might help give you insight into why someone is feeling or thinking the way that they are.

Social skills are crucial for successful and fulfilling relationships and interactions in both personal and professional settings.

Improving these skills requires practice and effort and can be achieved by participating in group activities, engaging in meaningful conversations, and actively listening to others.

With good social skills, individuals are able to communicate effectively, handle conflicts well, collaborate with others, and expand their network, leading to more positive and fulfilling relationships and interactions.

- You know, this has been so helpful.

I had no idea I can turn my passion for the environment into a possible career.

- And there is so much more to know and learn.

If you wanna learn more about careers in public service, please visit our website at mifutureofwork.org/publicservice.

There, you'll find videos, resources, and more to set you on your path.

Thanks for visiting me in the Career Center.

- [Narrator] The Career Center is made possible by General Motors and by these supporters and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat techno music) (dramatic music)