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I have been a federal employee for many years and for most of my career, lived and worked in DC.
Last year I took a job in "the field" and though I adore my lifestyle outside of the Beltway, my work, quite simply, sucks. I was hired to do much more big picture projects, but have been mired down in operations which are, quite frankly, not going to help me make it to my next career level: I am working at a level I did years ago despite my pay and learning no transferrable skills. The org that I am with is very backwards both in mindset and function, with lots of incestuous hiring and violations of nepotism regulations. Though I was painted a picture with lots of opportunity for advancement, there has been only one position which opened while I have been here, and it is not a position I am even remotely interested in. I feel like the bait and switch has been an intense one. I have been denied other opportunities like cross training because no one at my pay level gets any sort of training or IDP.
I am now faced with returning to the DC area, as this job is clearly going nowhere. In this sequestration environment its not an ideal time to look for work, and the only things I have seen open are in the DC area. I am applying. I have certainly dealt with other organizations in "the field" during my career tenure, and heard that my experience is not a unique one. Does anyone else have feedback on going outside of the DC are for federal work? What did you encounter?
Federal and related employment in general sucks big time. Save for a few of the scientific agencies like NIH, NASA etc., most are filled with quota and preference candidates with literally nothing to do all day making six figure salaries. The higher ups create their own mini fiefdoms, drawing 150K plus salaries with legions of permanent employees and a ton of contractors with very little work. There is zero accountability, little to no innovation, craven mentality etc. That is a big reason you see almost zero innovation out of the DC area though it has such a high GDP, higher than Silicon Valley, thanks to all the tax dollars flowing in with zero accountability and tons of waste. This applies to the contractors as well, fleecing taxpayers with exorbitant rates and very little to show for it.
I would think the field offices would be worse, with lots of incestuous hiring and nepotism.
Federal and related employment in general sucks big time. Save for a few of the scientific agencies like NIH, NASA etc., most are filled with quota and preference candidates with literally nothing to do all day making six figure salaries. The higher ups create their own mini fiefdoms, drawing 150K plus salaries with legions of permanent employees and a ton of contractors with very little work. There is zero accountability, little to no innovation, craven mentality etc. That is a big reason you see almost zero innovation out of the DC area though it has such a high GDP, higher than Silicon Valley, thanks to all the tax dollars flowing in with zero accountability and tons of waste. This applies to the contractors as well, fleecing taxpayers with exorbitant rates and very little to show for it.
I would think the field offices would be worse, with lots of incestuous hiring and nepotism.
I agree with some of this, but during my career I have been very lucky to work with some truly innovative organizations. There is definitely a lot of dead weight in federal service, but there are also organizations that are more on the ball. Unfortunately, a lot of programs are being cut due to sequestration, which is why I left my last, very rewarding position for the one I am in now. I am well and truly cowed by the waste and provincialness that I have experienced in this role. It seems like the further an agency or org is away from DC, the less they think people notice what they are doing.
That's Federal work for you. If you want a challenge you are generally going to find it in Private sector over Government. And you are encountering an "employment trap" I am almost 100% of the time going to hire an IT person from Google or Amazon over say someone from some random government agency. At the end of the day you have to be *extremely* careful with Federal employment especially in these times as you said many skills are non transferrable or simply years behind private sector. Federal is a different world and you have to be careful in that seperate ecosystem.
OP you don't really give any details about the work that you do. There are so many different types of jobs in the federal sector that it doesn't seem fair to just lump them all in one category. I'm fortunate enough to be in a job I love with transferrable skills, but each person's experience is unique.
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