Financial Management Specialist Program
In 1998, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer created the Financial Management Specialist (FMS) Program to infuse GSA’s financial management community with multi-disciplined professional talent to maintain its core financial expertise. The FMS Program is dedicated to achieving a diversified workforce of financial management professionals to serve GSA’s financial organizations. Through an aggressive on-campus recruiting effort at Mid-Atlantic Colleges and Universities, the FMS program strives to attract a wide variety of recent graduates who embody the values of GSA and ultimately add to GSA’s ability to meet its strategic goals.
Program Details
The FMS recent graduates start their career at GSA by attending an orientation called "Career 101," a three to four week period designed to help the transition from college to work. They have the opportunity to learn about GSA’s financial community, meet GSA's key leaders, hear from program graduates, participate in career enhancing team-building activities, and attend a myriad of informational and professional development seminars.
Following the orientation, and for the next two years, the recent graduates participate in seven, 3-month rotational assignments throughout each of GSA’s organizations (OCFO, PBS, and FAS) and its business lines to gain exposure to a variety of financial environments. Rotational assignments provide opportunities to learn GSA’s accounting system, run financial reports, perform financial analysis of business line data, assist with the development of GSA’s Annual Budget, and review performance measure data.
The FMS Program also consists of formal classroom training that provides each employee with a Federal Management Program Certificate in Accounting, Budgeting, and Financial Management, making them eligible to enroll in the Certified Government Financial Manager’s Program, a credential recognized government-wide.
Program Goal
At the end of the two-year program, the goal of the FMS Program is to convert recent graduates to permanent positions within GSA’s financial organizations. Experienced senior-level professionals are available to provide coaching and mentoring concerning professional career goals and objectives, encourage career development, nurture personal and professional growth, and to serve as effective tutors, counselors, and guidance "confidants" throughout each person’s career at GSA. The Office of the CFO, PBS, and FAS have all placed FMS graduates in their financial organizations enhancing their ability to meet increasing workloads and customer demands.
