Once you go government you don't go back?

[ViviTheMage]

I've always heard if you get a government job you have a hard time going back to corporate?

Specifically IT.

Anyone ever go gov back to private and have them pass you over because you were once gov?

 

[HardcoreRobot]

90% of govt employees I have worked with would not cut it in the private sector

 

[JTsyo]

I would think a pay increase could inspire a move from government to private. Know of a few engineers that went from gov't to private but not IT.

 

[rpanic]

90% of govt employees I have worked with would not cut it in the private sector

+1

 

[Scarpozzi]

I don't make a lot of money, but the IT jobs in my area are very lacking. It's difficult to leave security when I know the few other IT jobs around here pay the same or less and don't give me the paid leave, insurance, or retirement benefits I get here.

It would be different if I lived in a larger city with more corporate headquarters IT shops. I'd be changing jobs every 4-5 years to keep things interesting. The other thing that keeps me grounded here is my wife...she makes double what I do, so money isn't that big of a deal at the moment.

 

[ViviTheMage]

90% of govt employees I have worked with would not cut it in the private sector

interesting ... i'd hate to be the one go getter ... haha

 

[Kelvrick]

interesting ... i'd hate to be the one go getter ... haha

I hear stories from my wife all the time about problems they have with employees at her county job. I'm pretty sure most of those situations would be resolved very quickly in the private sector.

In my experience, a public job tends to leave people unfulfilled career wise and frustrated at all the red tape and procedures in place. Also, trying to do too much often alienates you from coworkers who like the status quo.

 

[RedRooster]

I work for the feds, but I'm in that 10% of the competent ones.
The only draw for me is the pension, benefits, and very flexible work hours. If I had any initiative or drive at all, I'd move on to private sector and MAYBE make a little more money and be free of this union/slacker BS. Its hard leaving the comfort zone though.
It's true, there are a fair number of people who get hired mainly to fill diversity quotas and even though they have a degree of some sort, they're virtually retarded. We have two here like that.

 

[rcpratt]

90% of govt employees I have worked with would not cut it in the private sector

Agreed. That's low, if anything.

No experience with gov't IT people. My experience with most private IT people is that they're all idiots, though.

(Just kidding.)

(Kind of.)

 

[ViviTheMage]

I work for the feds, but I'm in that 10% of the competent ones.
The only draw for me is the pension, benefits, and very flexible work hours. If I had any initiative or drive at all, I'd move on to private sector and MAYBE make a little more money and be free of this union/slacker BS. Its hard leaving the comfort zone though.
It's true, there are a fair number of people who get hired mainly to fill diversity quotas and even though they have a degree of some sort, they're virtually retarded. We have two here like that.

In Sask? Nice!

Is it IT, or just ... analyst stuff though?

I have a few opportunist job options coming up with the county, and the city.

 

[RedRooster]

In Sask? Nice!

Is it IT, or just ... analyst stuff though?

I have a few opportunist job options coming up with the county, and the city.

I bounce around between mainly analyst junk but have some acting positions(better pay) in infrastructure and stuff from time to time. Although I guess that is one decent thing about unionized public sector is that you're not forced into a jack of all trades situation and payed at the lowest pay grade. I know my buddies in private sector get wrangled into doing things outside of their job description and eventually add it permanently onto their plate with no extra compensation.

Depends if you like a very stable boring paycheque and have more free personal time away from work to enjoy life, or if you want to grind it out in the corporate world for a few dollars more and possibly burn out a little sooner.

I'm lazy, for now. Until my co-workers REALLY start getting on my nerves, then I might change it up. hehe

 

[ViviTheMage]

I figured getting in as IT would be a good idea ... long term I do want to end up FBI/CIA/NSA agent.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm lazy, for now. Until my co-workers REALLY start getting on my nerves, then I might change it up. hehe

There's nothing wrong with being lazy. Free time >*. Giving all your time to a company gets you nothing. Nobody appreciates anything, and they'll drop you as soon as it benefits them to do so. Being an aggressive worker isn't much of a bragging point. That and $1 will get you a cup of coffee.

 

[Drekce]

I'm a computer engineer Fed. I've had numerous offers to go to private industry, but haven't done it for a number of reasons. The primary one is that I really love my job. I'm the chief engineer over a very large, complex software product that is used all over the world. The problems me and my team have to solve are always changing, which keeps the job fun.

On my team of 9 Government engineers only one is really not very good.

 

[RedRooster]

I figured getting in as IT would be a good idea ... long term I do want to end up FBI/CIA/NSA agent.

That is true, there's plenty of opportunity for that if you don't mind relocating. I'd love to get on with CSIS or even RCMP, just for a change of pace(currently with CRA). Like I say, there's no shortage of opportunity to jump around like that and keep all your benefits and pension.

 

[RearAdmiral]

I work for the fed as well. My mission is to change as many attitudes as I can in the govt. My team is excellent. It is actually very likely that our group will be asked by industry to do work for them and their customers. I don't think industry asking govt. for help doing actual work happens very often.

Where I am at least, things are changing and we are trying to push the losers out.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I hear stories from my wife all the time about problems they have with employees at her county job. I'm pretty sure most of those situations would be resolved very quickly in the private sector.

In my experience, a public job tends to leave people unfulfilled career wise and frustrated at all the red tape and procedures in place. Also, trying to do too much often alienates you from coworkers who like the status quo.

Right. Sometimes for what government jobs pay, it's more difficult to fill a position with a new employee simply because they may even be worse than the idiot you fire and try to replace. The red tape is annoying and no level of government seems to be totally free of it.

I can say that there are some levels of govt that have more resources than other and some jobs have decent benefits aside from the general state-wide benefits. For example, I work for higher ed in IT. I know a few K12 guys that work for local school systems. They don't get nearly as much paid leave as I get....nor do they get the same retirement package options. We're all on the same state insurance plans though...

 

[fisheerman]

My best friend just went to work for IBM after being a City Network Engineer for 16 years. He got a huge pay raise and loves the job

 

[ViviTheMage]

My best friend just went to work for IBM after being a City Network Engineer for 16 years. He got a huge pay raise and loves the job

good to hear it wasn't too tough for him to transition, even after 16 years of gov.

 

[fisheerman]

I left the consulting world as a senior software engineer about 6 years ago to take a job at a local government. A lot more time for R & D as well as not being tied to every billable minute was a plus.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

90% of govt employees I have worked with would not cut it in the private sector

This, this, so much fucking this.

 

[BoomerD]

90% of govt employees I have worked with would not cut it in the private sector

No shit. I worked for 7 years as the crane operator for one of the local public irrigation/electrical utilities. Not exactly government, but still a public agency. Seriously overpaid and underworked...and do NOT let work get in the way of the daily poker games.

I was constantly getting called on the carpet for "working too fast."

The superintendent would tell me, "Just slow down. We get paid by the hour here." It used to drive me fucking crazy...it'd take a week to get a couple of hours of work accomplished.

It damned near ruined me though...when I quit and went back to "the real world," it took a bit to get used to the faster pace...but I LOVED it. I'd rather work my ass off all day than to sit around and do nothing.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I work for the feds, but I'm in that 10% of the competent ones.

No you're not. You're in the 99.9999% of gov workers who have convinced themselves that they're valuable and competent.

 

[RedRooster]

No you're not. You're in the 99.9999% of gov workers who have convinced themselves that they're valuable and competent.

Zip it, penis breath.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Zip it, penis breath.

Kiss my balls. I have worked with many government workers. They all think they're competent. Few of them are.