Public Sector. Throughout My Life,

¶ … public sector. Throughout my life, I have enjoyed working in various volunteer capacities, both formal and informal. Through those opportunities, I discovered how rewarding it is to help others. In fact, it was my desire to help others that led to me accepting my current position with Miami-Dade County. This position has helped me understand how essential public-sector work is to the happiness, safety, and welfare of people in the general public, despite the fact that many public-sector professionals remain behind-the-scenes. In fact, my experience in my current position and my educational experience helped me come to the realization that I will best be able to help others and fulfill my own personal and professional intermediate and long-term goals after completing my Masters in Public Administration.

When planning my life, I have come up with short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term goals. The successful completion of each series of goals will place me in an ideal position to tackle my next set of goals. My first short-term goal is to gain admission to Florida International University's Masters in Public Administration program. I have selected Florida International University because I plan to stay in the Miami-Dade County area, and I believe that a local university will be able to give me both an excellent education and a unique insight into matters of particular local concern.

It is my belief that the particular insight provided by a local university will place me in a better position to complete my first intermediate goal, which involves the completion of the coursework required to obtain my Masters in Public Administration. While the degree is important to me, the skills and knowledge that I hope to acquire as a student are of even greater importance. Currently, I view myself as a very competent county employee. I know that my heart is in the right place and that I work my hardest to ensure that I do my job in the best manner possible. However, I am certain that the lessons I can learn at Florida International University will help me become a more efficient and effective employee. For example, one of my most pressing work-related issues is the fact that I have yet to fully develop my time-management skills. As a result, I find that I go through periods where my workload is exceptionally heavy and other periods where my workload is exceptionally light. Although part of that variation is attributable to the fact that I work in the public sector and am called upon to deal with various emergencies, I feel that part of it is also attributable to a lack of proper planning. It is my hope that learning more about public administration will make me a more effective time manager.

Another of my intermediate goals is to increase my analytical skills. I feel that my education-to-date has given me a firm fact and knowledge foundation. However, I also feel that my undergraduate education focused on acquiring knowledge, rather than teaching me the skills necessary to use that knowledge to analyze various situations. After having discussed Florida International University's Masters in Public Administration program with some of your graduates, I am very impressed with the analytical skills that your graduates acquire. I believe that analytical skills are so important because problems cannot be solved unless they have been properly analyzed, and problem-solving is the primary duty of a public-sector professional.

One of my additional intermediate goals is to increase my knowledge of the skills required to be a successful public administrator. While my work experience has given me knowledge of one area of public-sector employment, I feel that knowledge is incomplete. While I know that I want to work in a public-sector job, helping to make the community I live in a better one, I am not certain what role I want to play. Through my education, I hope to learn exactly what is required to work as personnel director, special project coordinator, and a city manager. I feel that the more I understand about each of these roles, the better prepared I will be to determine whether I should concentrate my efforts on the big picture, by working with or as the city manager, or on the smaller picture, by working with public employees or coordinating special projects. Currently, I feel as I am most effective when working on a special project, but I need to explore the big picture before ruling out work in on a city or county-wide level. Then I feel I will be able to complete my last intermediate goal, which is to determine how I will apply my Masters in Public Administration to my professional life.