Helpful PMF Links

• Official PMF FAQ
• Official PMF Assessment Preparation Guide
• Academic Outreach Presentation - good background and statistics. Note the slide with respect to a limited number of attorney positions.
• Agency Guide and Fact Sheet - What the agencies receive when considering fellows.
• Aaron Helton's blog - Great site from a 2009 Fellow.
• Vanderbilt presentation - Good introduction explaining the process.
• PMF Alumni resources page - Dated but useful.
• DHS Thinking Manual - Check out the Deductive Reasoning section

Your Comments

Please leave your comments on the PMF assessment or program here.

Presidential Management Fellowship Update

Congratulations to all of you who completed the assessment. Being nominated by your school is an achievement you should be proud of. Next, you should be receiving notification of your status as a finalist. Historically, this has happened mid-March [Edit: see comments, this year finalists will be notified on or around March 6]. Click here to see last year's finalist letter. The job fair will be at the end of April [Edit: March 24-26] - check out the alumni group's survival guide here.

PMF Study Help

Walter Tersch, a fellow Chicago-Kent alum, provided the following information regarding his experience with the PMF Assessment Battery. You can reach Walter via his LinkedIn page. Many thanks for your input, Walter. I've also created a PMF tag that will bring you to all the PMF posts on my site.

"The online study guide helped a lot -- in fact, one of the Writing Skills questions had almost exactly the same fact pattern as one of the questions in the online study guide. My suggestion to PMF information-seekers? Check out the DHS Thinking Manual that my co-worker somehow located online: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/dhs/thinking_manual.pdf . The "Deductive Reasoning" section of this Thinking Manual gives very detailed information about how to work the PMF "Critical Thinking" problems, and provides dozens of questions with helpful answers/explanations. An hour or two with the Thinking Manual's Deductive Reasoning section the night before the Assessment enhanced my confidence and knowledge."

2009 PMF Assessment

Many thanks to all who sent emails regarding the PMF program. For those who will be taking the assessment in the next few weeks, please email me the details of your experience. I would like to share your thoughts and suggestions for 2010 nominees. It will be an exciting time to work with the new administration - best of luck!

2007 PMF Finalists Announced

Congratulations to those selected as Presidential Management Fellows Finalists for 2007. For the complete list, click here. 792 were selected from over 3,200 nominations.

Feel free to use the comments section to discuss travel plans or possible get-togethers. Congratulations!

PMF Finalists Announcement Delayed; PMF Job Fair Info

EDIT: Great comments. Thanks Sarah, Thomas, Saidheifer and Steve.

I was just contacted by a representative of the PMF office and was informed that the list of 2007 PMF finalists will be posted on or before March 20. Thanks for the update, Kye. See comments for details.

Here are some notes on the job fair for those who want to be prepared:

Remember, the PMF Finalist designation does not guarantee you a job; your best bet is to attend the PMF Job Fair on April 4-6, 2007 at The Washington Convention Center. As an added bonus, the cherry blossoms are estimated to bloom at that time. Be sure to check out the Job Fair Overview and Agenda. Also, don't forget to RSVP. You can click here to research PMF openings. The Presidential Management Alumni Group has a great website and this survival guide for the job fair.

A senior level member of our staff recommended that anyone who travels to D.C. should fly into National (Reagan National Airport, DCA). From there you can take the Metro (yellow line) straight to the convention center. For those of you who currently live in the D.C. area, please add your comments on places to stay and things to do.

2007 PMF Finalists List

The official 2007 Presidential Management Fellows Finalists list will be posted here. In 2006, finalists were notified on or about March 9. Good luck.

PMF Job Fair

The Presidential Management Fellows job fair for finalists has been rescheduled to April 4-6 at the Washington Convention Center. Now that testing has concluded, nominees will be notified within a few weeks by email if they have been selected. Click here to access the official website. An overview, agenda and RSVP form is posted. Good luck, everyone.

EDIT: See this updated post.

Update: If you are looking for more Presidential Management Fellowship information, please click the "PMF" label below.

PMF Assessment Battery Complete

I took the PMF Assessment Battery this week. It was straightforward and seemed relatively easy. The three scored sections were similar to the study guide and I was able to finish each section with about 25 minutes to spare. I think too much time is allotted for the writing skills section as most students finished it with more than ten minutes remaining.

Update: If you are looking for more Presidential Management Fellowship information, please click the "PMF" label below.

More PMF Assessment Information

I received several requests for more information on the PMF Assessment test. This summary is from a fellow Chicago-Kent student who took the assessment last week, and I share it with her permission:

• As for the format, there were 42 questions for Part A, the Critical Thinking portion. In this portion, you had 50 minutes. There were 6 situations given to you and each situation had 7 questions that you answer for the situation.
• Part B was 125 questions on Personal Life Experiences and you had 40 minutes to complete this section. They were very similar to the question in the Prep Guide in terms of picking from MC-questions answers about your past high school, college, graduate school and work experiences. They did emphasize that they have a right to check the validity of your answers.
• Part C was the Writing Fundamentals portion. There were 40 questions for 4 documents that you had 70 minutes to answer. I finished each section, after double checking my answers, about 10-20 minutes early, especially part C.
• There was an additional Part D that is not graded. It was an experimental questions section that contained about 30 questions (I don't exactly remember) and took about 5-10 minutes. But again, this portion was not graded and was optional.

My Career Services offices also informed us that nominees will be notified in mid-March if they have been selected as finalists. So if you are selected, be prepared to make quick travel plans to Washington because the spring job fair is at the beginning of April. For more information on the PMF program click here.

EDIT: See Thomas's comments.

PMF Assignment

For those of you who were nominated by your school for the Presidential Management Fellows Program, you should have received your assessment date and time by now. I have been scheduled for late February at the Chicago location. After the assessment I will post my review of the process.

Presidential Management Fellows Program Nominee

I am excited to announce that my school has nominated me for the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program. The next step in the process is the PMF Assessment Battery, a series of multiple choice tests that evaluate my critical thinking skills, life experiences, and knowledge of writing fundamentals. The PMF Program has provided a 17-page guide that provides examples of questions that may be asked. There are several assessment centers across the nation and they will begin testing at the end of the month. I have yet to receive an assignment but I am looking forward to finding out my testing date.

Presidential Management Fellows Program

After a two-month delay, the Presidential Management Fellows program application opened today. The PMF program is for graduate degree students seeking employment with the U.S. government. The PMF Finalist designation gives the graduate access to a two-year rotation and a higher pay scale, up to GS-13. The application process includes a student application on USAJOBS.gov. Next, the school will nominate deserving applicants from its school. Each nomination receives an interview and may be selected to become a PMF finalist. Finalists are then invited to a job fair and are allowed to bid for PMF openings within various agencies.