Job-hungry graduates are lining up for a growing pool of entry-level roles at the ACT public service while federal departments shrink their intake of young jobseekers.
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The number of applicants for ACTPS graduate roles rocketed to 1200 in 2015 and 2016 from 750 in 2014, figures from the territory's government show.
While the ACT public service will hire 56 jobseekers for its 2018 graduate program, which will stop taking applications on Wednesday, it employed 39 in 2014.
Graduate positions at federal departments have contracted by 5 per cent to 1134 in three years.
ACT government graduates are earning more, taking home a base salary of $66,600 compared to a median figure of $60,100 for those starting their career at the APS.
An Australian Public Service Commission spokeswoman said its salaries and opportunities were competitive, but the APSC did not keep figures showing applicant numbers at each agency.
ACTPS graduate Clair Reidy moved from Brisbane to Canberra without a job to try her luck in the capital before being hired in the territory program.
Ms Reidy, who will rotate between three directorates this year, is moving into Justice and Community Safety after finishing a stint engaging community members and writing for artsACT.
She finished a masters degree in communications at the University of Queensland but found it tough cracking the public service job market.
The ACT government's use of written responses in the hiring process played to her strength in writing, she said.
"I walked away with a fantastic feeling about the assessment process," Ms Reidy said.
Deputy director-general at Access Canberra, David Peffer, started his public service career as a graduate at the ACT government nine years ago after looking for a job that put his economics degree to use.
Mr Peffer said while jobs at large organisations may come with more prestige, he preferred seeing his work bring change faster and closer to home.
"I was more in it for the impact and the immediacy of the impact," he said.
"For better or worse, you hear about it at barbecues at the weekend."
The prestige attached to working for large organisations was shifting as more value was placed on speed, Mr Peffer said.
Working closer to the community changed how he thought in his job, he said.
"All too often policy has turned on numbers. You lose a lot from that, you lose a lot of the human element."
