Originally Posted by Unregistered

It's really quite simple.

If you are really really good, you wouldn't want to join them. Headhunters would be lining up to offer you a job. You exact expertise would have been wasted in the public sector because you wouldn't really be able to apply them.

In the public sector, they need more people who could understand the technicality of the job, but they don't need to be expect. In short, they are looking at, not industry expert, but people who demonstrated ability to manage and follow the system.

Someone from third party university generally don't fit the bill at higher management.
For junior position, they are looking for subject matter expert, and by virtue of being junior position, the applicants themselves wouldn't have established themselves in the field either.

Hence, the question is more hypothetical because it is unlikely to happen in real life.