Janier
Program Evaluation and Risk Analyst


Sometimes, I work individually. Sometimes, I am the team. [ Laughs ]  And other 
times, I work in a small group, and everybody has their own thing that they 
focus on, and we come together as a unit and then present. And what I like 
about my office is that we work for the Commissioner and the senior management team.

So it's kind of high-end work that we do. And it's like in-house consulting, 
but light, so we don't have to travel, and we don't have the stresses that 
typical consultants in the private sector have.

You do everything from the initial analysis to putting together the presentation. And 
I've found even special to my office that I'm actually the one who's doing the work, 
so I deliver the presentation as well.

Whereas in a lot of offices, you hand it off to a manager, and the manager gets 
to talk to the higher-ups. I like that we have access to the senior management 
team, and at some points, even the Commissioner.

One time, I actually went and did focus group moderator training. So I went out 
in the field, and it's all part of data gathering. So, and the project was to 
find out the habits of non-filers in the construction industry. And it's kind 
of hard to get these people to talk. So we actually went down
to Orlando, [ Laughs ] and we were in like the Disney area, and we got to speak
to these practitioners -- the tax practitioners -- the people who actually prepare 
the taxes -- as well as the construction workers who were at one point non-filers.

So we got to learn -- well, I actually asked them questions about why they hadn't 
filed, and if they have any difficulties with IRS, and what causes them to file now?

And that rolled into -- rolling that into some other information on the more 
qualitative end. And we did, like, some survey analysis, and we actually ran 
some numbers and did statistics and everything like that.

And then we turned that into a report for the senior management team. A lot of 
flexibility, great training opportunities, great advancement opportunities, 
'cause I think my salary has almost tripled in the 9 years that I've been here.

So I can't complain about that at all. Whereas, I see a lot of people that I went 
to grad school with, they came in, and they went private sector, and they were 
making really good money, and they pretty much stayed there.

So now we're on par, or I'm a little bit above them, even, and I have this 
flexible job and I don't have anything to worry about, and I'm just comfortable.

For my position, we're pretty much looking for people with a graduate degree 
in public policy and management. So you have to have a lot of analytical 
background, whether it's qualitative or quantitative. But ideally, a combination 
of the two -- qualitative and quantitative -- is the best bet.

Oddly enough, you know, I have to make this analogy all the time. Because you 
think, "Oh, IRS -- you must do taxes?" Not everybody in the airport or working 
for an airline flies a plane.

So there's a lot of different things you could do -- not necessarily related 
to taxes. But you should be well rounded in terms of being able to analyze 
a problem from beginning to end.