Interview, Deputy City Manager of Phoenix

Hello Everyone,

I recently scheduled a couple of interviews with some professionals in the public sector. The interview that I will be sharing is from our Deputy City Manager, Rick Niamark. Rick graduated with his masters degree in public policy and participated in the Phoenix management internship. He stated that he never planned to do the job that he has now, but he wanted to interact with the public and be apart of making positive changes for the community. His main responsibilities are to meet with several departments to gain an understanding on what these departments need from the city. Then he becomes apart of the solutions process, and often times presents many of these issues to the city council.

Rick explained that he is the odd ball in his office, as many of his coworkers have their degree's in public administration. Rick says that his skills in data analytics helps him bring diversity to his office, since he has an extensive background in numbers and economics as this is what his degree prepared him for. He explained that these skills were useful in finding solutions to problems, but he had to gain communication, writing, articulation, and leadership skills outside of his degree. He also stated that anyone that is interested in this career field should do the management internship for the city of Phoenix. However, you must have your masters degree to become eligible.

Rick advised me to become proficient in negotiation and diplomacy skills before I reached his position. He stated that these skills will set me ahead of my peers. The new trends for his career are simple; there is a shortage of city managers, and universities are starting to increase their degree programs for the public sector. He thinks that there is a bright outlook for students pursuing this career field, because of these trends. Even though, I am not interested in becoming a city manager, I set the interview to get an idea of what my options were. I think that this career would be very rewarding since I would physically see the results of my choices, but the long hours, stress, and politics may hinder my interest toward this career.