This is a very important point that folks starting out needs to be mindful of. I have spent half of my career in defense/Intel but my core competency was actually in skills (data analysis, modeling and simulation, prototype development, management consulting) that were dual use, as it were. That has allowed me to move back and forth between non profit and commercial work with ease as the opportunities evolved. Not that I was always deliberate about it but a key enabler was the fact that as I gained experience, I avoided getting pigeon holed and acquired skills that made me valuable beyond just my current employer.Yeah, I’m fortunate enough to be insulated it from it, but their are entire professional fields being wiped out and there really aren’t private sector employers to absorb them. Or if there are, they’re funded by the U.S. government. It’s pretty remarkable.
This is an interesting question. I'll say that I understand the OP's perspective, as someone who has spent my whole adult life employed by the government (military, in my case). See my very first post on this forum in 2014 expressing similar anxiety.
On one hand, I think there are jobs that have a clear private sector equivalent -- say, healthcare providers or lawyers or IT workers -- and for them it is the bargain that you described: lower pay but more stability and benefits.
On the other hand, I think there are plenty of jobs that kind of only exist in government, and the US Federal government is the premier place to do them, like being an intelligence or foreign service or law enforcement officer, and the government needs to pay well to recruit and retain the kind of people that Americans want in those positions. Clearly, many of the people doing those jobs are very capable, and could be very successful doing something else, but they don't obviously and immediately transfer to any equivalent private sector work. (This is often the problem for military folks who are separating and trying to translate what they've done into things that civilian hiring managers can appreciate.) By the time anyone reaches mid-level management in the Federal government, I think they're mostly being paid to retain their valuable institutional knowledge that took years to develop as they climbed the ranks, but doesn't necessarily have any value outside of government.
Even for someone like a lawyer, after enough years in one government agency doing one kind of work that doesn't exist anywhere else, you might become so specialized that you're no longer current on any type of legal work that would be practiced elsewhere. Last week a friend of mine who is a lawyer with the Social Security Administration expressed this feeling.
Anyway, I think it's very much worth exploring this. If there are outside opportunities to do just as well or better, that will certainly ease the anxiety. If not, I think it's always the right time to cultivate a Plan B by seeking more transferable education, credentials, experiences, etc. That has always been my advice to the people I've mentored.
Of course, these days, one needs to take AGI into account. Plumbing is looking mighty attractive compared to any desk job ......
Statistics: Posted by almostretired1965 — Thu Feb 06, 2025 11:00 pm — Replies 28 — Views 3226