If one’s hoping to land a tenure-track academic job, they will know as soon as they review the PhD student transcript which is required for all applicants for such jobs.
This could vary by government agencies.
For instance, the US Armed Forces does defray most/all costs of PhD programs of junior/field grade officers they sponsor to attend academic MA/MS/PhD programs as full-time students for advancement/to qualify for the 3 year FSA Prof stint. This came from the military officers being sponsored by their services.
Also, some civilian Federal Agencies do sponsor employees to attain Masters and even PhDs in Public Policy and related fields such as IR in the same ways some private corporations sponsored that in-law in getting her top-3 MBA. .