The bureaucracy. Some say it’s an impersonal machine that breaks the spirit and soul of those who work for it. Others dread the long lines and the impersonal treatment when seeking to obtain a license or paperwork. If you don’t get the right paperwork, well, it’s the back of the line once again for you. When one thinks of the bureaucracy, they think that it’s a cold, menacing thing that swallows the average American taxpayer’s money.
While this may be true with some people’s experience with the local DMV or the IRS, not all government bureaucratic agencies are set to make your life a paper-induced death.
Arriving down in DC several weeks ago, knowing that I would be working at the U.S. Department of Transportation, I had heard all of the stories of people I’ve known interning in state government agencies and saying they were nothing but coffee runners and organizing mountains of paperwork needing to be processed. I had those fears too with working with the DOT.
After a month of signing paperwork and getting a background check, I woke up on the first day of my internship rushing to find my second form of government-issued ID. I spent the majority of the morning running around in a suit checking my mailbox every five minutes. I finally got the ID with 10-minutes before my assigned time to start at DOT.
For a half hour, I was running, hurdling and swerving through people and metro trains, I arrived at the office a half-hour after my reported start time. Sweating and nervous, I walked in like a wide-eyed deer in the headlights. I was worried, thinking what my supervisor would think of me showing up sweaty and late. After waiting a few minutes, I was ushered through the metal detector -- not realizing my belt didn’t match my shoes, as my supervisor pointed it out to me. Embarrassed, I may have shown it on my face; but when I saw my supervisor smile, I knew that it was all in good jest.
I was shown around after receiving my DOT badge and after getting a walk through. I arrived at my cubicle, which didn’t match anything from the horror stories that I had heard from my fellow interns. It was not only spacious, but I had my own computer, phone, filing cabinet and coat closet. It was multi-colored, nothing like the white painted cubicles you see in films.
Did I mention that the building is beautiful with a great cafeteria?
A week has gone by, and I can proudly state that the bureaucracy hasn’t crushed my dreams of working in government. In fact, I feel quite the opposite. It isn’t your typical nine to five job. It’s a dynamic career. I worked on a few projects where what I was working on could had an impact on future transportation standards and even get published in an annual standards manual. It’s an awesome feeling to know that working in a massive agency that the human component and interactions between administrators, directors, contractors and interns were that of a goal-oriented community, striving to make the transportation industry safer and more efficient. To be able to reach people on different levels and work with individuals with talents and passions; that’s what makes working for the government a great career path.
