What do you do with a degree in Public Policy?

Hello from the Career Center –

This summer the School of Public Policy blasted into the blogosphere with eight student internship sites. Those blogs were a great trip into the universe of policy jobs, so this fall, I’ve grabbed a tail fin to hitch a ride into cyberspace.

Every day, students, prospective students and their parents, and even alums, stop by to ask questions. Often, they can be answered with a quick factual outline of what we do and how we do it. More often, and especially recently since the dawn of the great recession, they tend to be philosophical – the queries of searchers. Either way, I find myself repeating myself.
Once I had a parrot, a beautiful blue-and-gold macaw that I loved very much: Cracker Jack, or CJ; and that big bird was devoted to me. He keyed into everything I said, and if I spoke with some emotion – any emotion, at all – I could watch him store the sound and process it in his mind. He’d perch on my shoulder, round, grey eyes dilating and contracting quickly, like quivers in the wrinkled folds that surrounded them. When CJ was pretty sure he had it right, he’d stretch out his brilliantly colored wings and hop to a fresh perch to face me. When he was certain he had my attention, he’d squawk out the phrase in perfect pitch.
“Bad dog!” he’d snap. The sound mimicked my voice so well, the puppy would shoot under the couch, tail tucked tight between her legs.

Sometimes when I answer a student’s question, I see them processing my words with the same concentration CJ gave to expanding his vocabulary. Since students can read, wouldn’t print be a better way for them to assimilate ideas that require this kind of reflection?

So, let’s experiment. Every week, I’ll pick one or two of the oft-asked questions to answer in my blog. That means that you, dear reader, must continue to feed me questions, in person or online. I’m amenable to almost anything, including a request for my legendary chocolate chip cookie recipe. In turn, I promise to feed you food for thought – and I’ll toss in recipes to stoke the fires that fuel your study. Dorm munchies and food to share.

For starters, I’ll answer the most fundamental question first:

What (on earth) do you do with an MPP?

My quick quip is, “Anything you want”.
But, that’s too easy. True, an MPP is the gorilla of graduate degrees since it prepares the alum for virtually any profession that requires ethics and critical thinking, but my off-the-cuff answer is facile. A better approach might be to compare and contrast an MPP with the more familiar MBA.
Both teach essential skills for management – assessing situations and devising optimal solutions; leadership. Courses like Research Methods and Statistics, Finance and Economics, Strategic Negotiation, Business Writing and Presenting are all critical to success in the real world. But the MPP diverges from the MBA in its view of the world. The MBA is narrow, focusing on winning what is essentially a zero-sum game. MBA students learn to beat the competition through concepts like differentiation, unique selling points, SWOT analyses. A good MBA always eyes the bottom-line while grabbing for another point or two of market share.
An MPP is different, a little broader. Public policy examines the complete spectrum of constituencies affected by an issue, looking for an optimal, equitable balance between competing interests. In Platonic terms, an MPP seeks the “public good”.
So, here at Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy, and at a dozen other institutions like ours, students develop the critical thinking skills that enable them to shape, understand and sustain a balanced worldview. We bring together an exceptionally diverse group of students and immerse them in the crucible of highly-interactive seminars where each is challenged to discover his or her own understanding of public good. And, then, we send them into the real world as leaders in public service.

When I look at what our alumni do, they truly do anything. Here’s an example of how broad the choices are:

Professor of Economics Aerospace Executive
Speechwriter at the White House International Elections Monitor
FBI Special Agent CIA Analyst
City Planner Construction Executive
Children’s Education Advocate Oil Industry Energy Analyst
Director of HIV/AIDS Clinics Director at the CDC
Provincial Reconstruction Specialist in Iraqi governance
Program Manager – New Orleans Redevelopment Agency

Starting in two weeks, the alumni will have their own blogspace so you can read what Life is like after the MPP.

If you’re just starting on this journey, Carpe Diem! Seize the day! There will be so many wonderful opportunities open to you; your greatest challenge will be to choose.
A trademark of my writing has long been that I include a time-tested recipe with my essays.

This week, I’m honoring my big old bird with homemade Cracker Jacks. They’re easy – and much tastier than the packaged kind.

Home-made “Cracker Jacks” (serves 4)

4 quarts popcorn, popped
1 cup salted Spanish peanuts (or pecans, macadamias)
1/ 2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/ 2 cup light corn syrup
1/ 2 teaspoon baking soda
1/ 2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 250-degrees.
2. Toss peanuts and popcorn together in a big metal bowl and pop in the oven.
3. Combine the butter, syrup and sugar in a heavy saucepan and heat over medium heat until it boils. Cook, STIRRING, until the mixture is thick and coats a wooden spoon. Don’t let it burn. (20 minutes)
4. Stir in the baking soda quickly. (Skipping this step just makes it stickier.)
5. Drizzle the caramel onto the popcorn mixture, tossing it lightly to coat.
6. Return to the oven for 15 minutes, stirring gently every 5 minutes.
7. Cool slightly on wax paper. Store in an air-tight can for up to a week.