More ‘Big Balls’-type young feds are what the OPM chief wants

As the Office of Personnel Management seeks to increase the number of early-career workers in the federal workforce, the government HR agency’s director said that he wants more civil servants like Edward Coristine — a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer who currently works for an administration initiative to improve the functionality of agency websites. 

But Coristine is better known by a different name. 

“I wanna see people like ‘Big Balls,’ or Ed, as we call him colloquially…We need people like that,” said Scott Kupor in a Monday interview with right-wing commentator Benny Johnson. “We need people who are patriotic who say ‘I care about this country and I’m willing to do something good.’” 

The OPM director also referenced the effort to remove degree requirements from many federal jobs, particularly in technology. Officials under the Biden administration also promoted skills-based hiring, which generally entails assessing applicants on abilities rather than education or experience. 

“Ed is a great example. He dropped out of college. He never had substantive work experience before coming to DOGE,” Kupor said. “There was a famous quote from somebody in the federal government who said ‘We never would’ve hired Ed because he didn’t have a college degree and he didn’t have five years of work experience.’ To me, that’s just silly. We want people who are smart who know how to do good stuff.” 

Bloomberg News previously reported that Coristine was fired from an internship after being accused of leaking information to a competitor. 

While job stability has been identified as a factor that is persuading young people to work for the government, Kupor said that he is not aiming to convince potential applicants to spend their entire careers at an agency. 

“I don’t need people like ‘Big Balls’ to give us 40 years of their life in the federal government,” Kupor said. “The message that I want to bring across the country is ‘Come for two years. Come for three years. Do some good work for the government. Develop your skill set. And then, quite frankly, if you want to go into the private sector, God bless you.’ There’s nothing wrong with making money if that’s what your goal is in life.” 

Tuesday marks the beginning of Kupor’s federal recruitment college tour. His first stop is at the University of Florida, where he will have a fireside chat with Johnson. 

Kupor also said in his Monday interview with Johnson that OPM is trying to “institutionalize” DOGE, including by using technology and process changes to enhance efficiency. 

“All of these little things, which is hard operational stuff, that’s what we’re trying to do now,” he said.