Obama Administration Job Search

I’m in Florida so I missed the annual meeting of the Trotter Group. I especially wanted to be there when Valerie Jarrettt, co-chair of the Presidential Transition Team, met with my colleagues.

If I had been present, I would have asked whether President-elect Barack Obama’s commitment to diversity extended beyond the Oval Office.

Fortunately, George Curry said what’s on black folks’ minds:

Now that Barack Obama has won the White House, will he be so eager to govern from the center that he will forget about his obligations to Blacks?

George writes:

On the question of Obama’s commitment to diversity, Jarrett was unequivocal.

“President-elect Obama, as should be no surprise to anyone in this room, would like his cabinet to be diverse – both in terms of race, in terms of perspectives, in terms of party, in terms of geography,” she said. “So he is looking to have a cross-section of America. Spending the amount of time with him as I do, I can assure you this is something front and center of his mind. Not because it’s the politically expedient thing to do, but because he would make better decisions by having diversity. He really believes in that.”

That's good news.

The bad news is that tens of thousands of Obama supporters will be competing for roughly 7,000 presidential appointments. To throw your name in the mix, go here.

Truth be told, getting a job offer may be easier than completing the seven-page background questionnaire. By contrast, the application for a federal bailout is two pages.

As the New York Times reports:

The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.

Only the smallest details are excluded; traffic tickets carrying fines of less than $50 need not be reported, the application says. Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun. They must include any e-mail that might embarrass the president-elect, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages.

The application also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”

The Times adds:

For those who clear all the hurdles, the reward could be the job they wanted. But first there will be more forms, for security and ethics clearances from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Government Ethics.

For more info, you may want to attend a discussion about the presidential appointment process organized by the National Bar Association and the National Congress of Black Women. The event will be held on Monday, Nov. 17, in the DC office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

You can download the flyer here.