Managers might be good at what they were originally hired for (statistics, research) but they are very very poor at business management techniques, communication, being able to match employee skills with tasks and projects that suit their desires and needs, and so on. They care less about "you" the person with unique abilities, and just care that you can provide them the report, results, etc. that any one of 20 people could do. Don't be drawn in by the aura of the "Census Bureau". It's still a federal agency and a bureaucracy to a T. You go in bright eyed and optimistic, looking to do great things, and end up in a sea of paperwork, performing random tasks that you never went to school for, and are frustrated beyond belief. Whenever you ask something to question authority or current practice, you will get shouted down by those who haven't done a real day of work in years and get the perpetual "that's how we've done it before" and no other good reason for why something is going on. Statisticians and economists aren't the most social people either. Don't anticipate having a mentor of a reasonable age or people you'd actually want to hang out with or see outside of the workplace. And by the way, the neighborhood that the headquarters building is in is one of the worst in the DC area, if not any other metropolitan area. You won't be able to live within 10 miles of the place.
