Thousands of Obama administration jobs to be listed Wednesday

WASHINGTON — With its distinctive purple paperback cover and turgid government prose, the Plum Book comes out Wednesday and will be read eagerly by thousands of would-be members of the fledgling Obama administration.

Officially titled "United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions," the publication lists every political job in the outgoing administration — which translates to every political job opening in the incoming administration.

Or as the 2004 Plum Book described it, "data on over 7,000 federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment."

With a national jobless rate of 6.5 percent, The Washington Post described the Plum Book as a "road map to employment in tough economic times."

Although only 2,717 copies were printed on the first run and more than half of those go to Washington officials, the 2008 Plum Book is scheduled to be released online Wednesday at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plumbook/index.html. And President-elect Barack Obama's transition team has a job application Web site at http://change.gov/page/s/application.

The Plum Book comes out every four years and is regarded as a must-read by many applicants since the jobs list was first printed in 1952 as Republican President Eisenhower moved into a White House that had been occupied by Democrats Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman since 1937. Republicans needed a list of available jobs since they had been out of the executive branch for so long.

Knowing what the vacant jobs are, however, does not necessarily equate to getting hired to fill one.

"The odds of somebody picking up the Plum Book and applying for a job and getting it are pretty slim," said Stephen Hess, a Brookings Institution expert on the presidency who served in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations and as an adviser to Presidents Ford and Carter.

That said, Hess added, he did end up hiring two people for the Nixon Administration in early 1969 — a Washington lawyer and a University of Michigan law school professor — whose job applications crossed his desk, seemingly out of the blue.

"I liked what they had to say," he said. "So these things do happen."

The Plum Book is helpful "for some people," said Mark Gearan, who was deputy director of Bill Clinton's transition team in 1992 and is now president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. For insiders who understand the hiring process in a new administration, the usefulness is limited, he explained, but for newcomers to the process, the Plum Book could provide valuable insight.

Hess said a successful applicant to the Obama administration most likely "either already has a connection — has been in the campaign or with an advisory group — or is a prominent person" who has a reputation already known by the transition team.

And many of the positions will be filled later by Obama administration cabinet officers and their top aides. For instance, the 2004 Plum Book lists Colin L. Powell as Secretary of State. Once at his post, Powell probably hired the names listed below his — Lawrence B. Wilkerson, his chief of staff, Margaret H. Cifrino, his deputy chief of staff, Marjorie Jackson, his special assistant, Lawrence Bird, his staff assistant and Otis Pearson, his confidential assistant.

The new Obama administration will get even more job applications than most "not because the unemployment rate is high but because so many people were excited by his campaign," said Hess, author of a new book, "What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect."

In sorting through job applicants, Hess said, "obviously you start with your supporters and, in this case, there are a heap of supporters."

About a third of the jobs are political appointments or patronage positions that will go to Democrats. Others require special skills or security clearances. And, since the Plum Book lists jobs under the outgoing president, the incoming might change titles and responsibilities so a specific position might vanish as other ones are created.

Gearan said that some job-seekers apparently don't realize what an avalanche of applications are received and "have a tendency to over-reach" in the quantity of information they send in. If selected, they will have to provide a "great deal of information in the vetting process," he said, but they should consider the limited time that the transition team will have to read about their accomplishments and qualifications.

The 2004 Plum Book illustrates the vagaries of careers in a presidential administration. Colin Powell, of course, has been replaced by Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. A job applicant should not write in asking to replace I. Lewis Libby as assistant to the president and chief of staff to the vice president or Scott McClellan as assistant to the president and press secretary or Harriet Miers as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff or Karl Rove as senior adviser to the president. All have left the Bush administration since publication of the 2004 Plum Book.

The book is published alternatively by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Government Reform. This presidential year, it's the Senate's turn.

The Obama transition team Web site for applicants — http://change.gov/page/s/application — has an online form described as "the fastest and most accurate way to get your information to us." It is for non-career — i.e. political — positions.

"If you apply for a position now, you will not need to apply again after January 20th" when Obama is inaugurated, the Web site said. "Applications submitted now to the Obama-Biden Transition Project will be retained and considered by the Office of Presidential Personnel after President-elect Obama takes office."