State job vs private sector IT job (Austin: pros and cons, cost)

[Bubchub68]

Hi all,

I am a developer currently working in private sector. I got a job for one of the state agencies. I need to take about 15% pay cut for now. Other than the pay difference, I bet there is going to be technological and cultural differences between private sector and state job.

Can someone provide some insight on the pros and cons of a state vs private sector job? Any constructive input will be helpful.

Thanks!

[CptnRn]

State jobs usually come with a pretty good retirement plan. It wasn't until years after I accepted a job with the City of Austin that I realize how fortunate I was to have the Cities retirement plan. I'm now retired with a healthy pension.

[Rynldsbr]

State job requires patience because nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, gets done in a reasonable amount of time. Procurement, project approvals, and any type of change take ten times as long as they do in a private sector position.


CptnRn is correct, the light at the end of the tunnel includes a livable retirement in most cases.

[spchtx]

Definitely has it pros and cons. My husband worked for the State of Ca for 14 years, and now he is working for the State of Texas. He said the department (which is the same department he worked for in Ca) is run much better than it was in Ca, and the people he works with are hard workers. He called himself a high paid babysitter when he was a manager in Ca, but he does not feel that way here. Benefits are good.

On the down side, the bureaucracy is definitely there. He started out at a lower pay just to get in the door. Now when new positions come up he can only get about a 3-6% bump with each "promotion." With his recent promotion, had he applied for that job from the street, they could have started him at a higher rate, but since he already worked for the agency he got a 6% increase. Gotta love bureaucracy!

Private sector, which he has done, required a lot of unpaid overtime hours, and the benefits were not as good. Pay was better, but you have to cost out the sucky benefits and the retirement plans, between the difference in pay.

[bw7985]

I can't speak for all state agencies, but in my experience, working for the state definitely has its pros and cons like others have said. My favorite part about working for the state is having a great work/life balance. About 95% of the year, I can leave my work "at work" -- I very rarely even think about my job once I have walked out for the day. There is never an expectation to work more than 40 hours/week. There are also a good number of holidays, which is nice. The people I directly work with are great and work hard, but you'll definitely see the stereotypical "state worker" hanging around every once in a while -- the ones who are just there for a paycheck -- because it is, in fact, difficult to fire people who work for the state. But I guess that speaks to job security, too (with the exception of RIFs, which some agencies experience more often than others).

As others have mentioned, the benefits and pension plan are quite nice (if you can last 10 years and get vested). I've also found that if you work hard, it isn't too difficult to receive promotions.

[DC-to-ATX]

I've worked both private sector and govt IT (fed not state though). Pros for govt: 4 days/week telework, good benefits, pension, most of my coworkers are hard working, dedicated public servants (contrary to popular opinion). Cons: we're doing a lot more with a lot less...I work over 40 hours pretty often in a high stress and very visible position, it's very, very hard to move the beast in a new direction...don't expect to be doing anything innovative...we still have projects on ALC.

[Trainwreck20]

I have worked both State and private sector, and it all depends on the specific agency and/or department you are working in. Some will be full of excellent people to work with, while others will be overloaded with dead weight. The 'personality' of a department or agency will change over time, but often very slowly.

At a higher level:
- Many agencies prohibit working overtime, since there is no money to pay overtime. The old 'compensatory' time has been scuttled, for the most part.
- I *think* there are officially 17 holidays, but you do not get makeup holidays for ones that fall on the weekend or overlap (my favorite: MLK day and Confederate Heroes day sometimes fall on the same day), so it is effectively about 11 or 12 days. If a lot of holidays fall on the weekend (i.e. Christmas is a Saturday or Sunday and you only get one day off instead of three), there is usually additional time given.
- Personal leave starts at 10 days, I think, and moves up to 15 within two or three years? Takes a while after that to get to 20 days. I think they still do sick leave separately, but maybe that has changed.
- You get paid once a month on the first of the month. That can take some getting used to, but makes budgeting simple .
- Pay raises are limited, especially if you are staying in the same position.
- Retirement is not as good as it used to be - it used to be simple 'rule of 80' (years of service + age = 80) before you could retire. Now, I think there maybe a minimum age (60?) but not sure. It used to be 5 years to be vested, now it is 10, I believe. I am not up to date on the latest, but worth checking into to make sure you know the rules that would apply to you.
- Jobs are more secure than private industry, but you can get fires, especially the higher-profile or more technical position that you are in. Higher up in the agencies, they can 'shelve' you or fire you quite easily depending on who the latest appointee is.

[Bubchub68]

Thanks everyone!

[Denver303TJC]

Lol, reminds me of back in Denver when a co-worker's husband worked for the State of CO and one day at work he was "working too hard", so the boss pulled him aside and asked him to slow down and told him that they weren't in "the corporate world". There's not a day that goes by that I don't wish it was ME who was working that job ;-).

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Denver303TJC

Lol, reminds me of back in Denver when a co-worker's husband worked for the State of CO and one day at work he was "working too hard", so the boss pulled him aside and asked him to slow down and told him that they weren't in "the corporate world". There's not a day that goes by that I don't wish it was ME who was working that job ;-).

Eh, had almost the same thing happen to me, but in the corporate world (IBM). I was just out of HS and was hired to work through some backlog. I pretty much finished it up in a few weeks, so the long-time employees showed me how to be not quite so productive :P.