Michelle Link is the chief human resources officer at Maximus.
Recently, I was trying to fill a cybersecurity role. The candidate had multiple competitive offers, but ultimately, she chose Maximus. Not because of the pay, but because of the career she could see herself building with us.
In technical recruiting today, that’s the norm, not the exception. Tech and AI talent have all the leverage, but what they’re really asking is, “Where does this go? Who will I become if I say yes to you?” If you can’t answer that, salary won’t save you.
When I talk with engineers, analysts, and architects, they’re assembling experiences and certifications that keep them relevant. Our job, as employers, is to make sure they don’t have to manage that portfolio alone or in the dark.
That’s what pushed us to move from “filling positions” to “building capabilities.” We’re investing in an ecosystem of opportunities, not a list of perks.
We’re training all of our workforce in AI. Not just the data scientists, but the people who keep programs running every day. It’s our way of saying, “You won’t get left behind by the technology curve.”
We built a skills-based job-matching platform so people can raise their hand for new opportunities based on what they can do, not just who they report to today. And here’s where I’ll be honest: as managers, we all tend to pigeonhole people a bit, often without realizing it. The platform corrects for those blind spots and makes their full skill set visible to the enterprise.
We’ve also made our career framework transparent, so people can see roles, levels, and what it takes to move. It changes the conversation from, “I feel stuck,” to, “I can see three different paths; help me choose and prepare.”
At Maximus, we back that up with tuition reimbursement that can also be used for certifications. Reimbursement is tied to a career conversation with their manager or one of our career specialists. Here’s another vulnerable truth: managers aren’t automatically good at those conversations. Many are deeply uncomfortable with career talks, especially when they touch succession or roles beyond their own experience. When those conversations don’t happen, people don’t wait; they look elsewhere.
Many managers only feel confident talking about careers that look like their own. The temptation is to either steer me back into your comfort zone or avoid the topic altogether.
So, we’re doing two things. We’re training leaders to spot potential and help find the best person for their next step. We’re also working to normalize the idea that a good manager uses their network: “I may not be the right person to mentor you into cyber, but I know who is.” That kind of humility is uncomfortable. It also keeps great people from leaving just because they couldn’t see a future with the one leader in front of them.
When you put all of this together, AI training for everyone, skills-based matching, transparent career paths, and real, if imperfect, career conversations, you get something more powerful than a retention tactic. You get a culture where people feel safe saying, “I want more,” and believe the honest answer won’t be, “You’ll have to leave to get it.”
That cybersecurity hire I mentioned at the beginning?
She didn’t come to Maximus just for the role we posted. She came because she could see the roles after that one, and because she met leaders who were willing to say, “I might not be the perfect guide for that journey, but I’ll help you find who is.” That’s what “careers, not jobs” looks like in practice and why talent chooses to stay.