Motivated by Mission-Driven Work

Tracing her career path, Alyssa Ashbacher recalls finding her way to public sector HR “by accident, I suppose.”

Pursuing a career in human resources “was never on my vision board growing up,” Ashbacher, a senior classification and compensation analyst with the New Mexico State Personnel Office’s Career Service Bureau, recently told PSHRA.

In 2018, though, Ashbacher found herself in professional transition, after spending three-plus years working as a museum curator, exhibit designer and education programmer.

“I was unexpectedly drawn to a job posting with my local government,” says Ashbacher, who earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 2015.

That job posting was with the City of Alamogordo in New Mexico, which was seeking a human resources administrative assistant.

What exactly attracted Ashbacher to the role “is something I still can’t fully explain,” she admits now. But she knew it was “completely different from the career path I was on at the time.” And that intrigued her.

“I came across the posting by accident, and it kept pulling me back, even though I didn’t have a clear reason for considering such a big shift.”

The gut feeling that told her to apply was right. She got the job. And the HR leader who brought Ashbacher on board would come to play a critical part in Alyssa’s professional story.

“The HR director who hired me became my first mentor, and she’s the one who told me that HR is ‘the anthropology of the workplace.’ She saw potential in me that I didn’t yet see in myself,” Ashbacher says. “She’s the person who opened the door to public sector HR for me, and [she helped] set me on the path I’m on today.”

Motivated by mission-driven work, Ashbacher says its “the opportunity to improve systems that affect real people” that has kept her in the public sector, and helped lead her to her current position with the New Mexico State Personnel Office.

Ashbacher joined PSHRA in fall 2024, “to connect with professionals who understand the unique challenges of public sector HR, and to learn within a community dedicated to public service.”

Ashbacher earned an MBA in human resources management from Louisiana State University in 2023, and, looking ahead, she wants to continue on her current career track in compensation and classification.

“I’ve seen firsthand how much confusion and conflict can stem from unclear roles, organizational structures and dissatisfaction with compensation, so I’m motivated by work that brings clarity and alignment and addresses issues at the source,” she says.

“PSHRA helps me grow in this area by connecting me with people, resources and ideas that support my work in improving and maintaining the job architecture for my state.”