Chibi's Journal: Working for the Federal Government?

I'm going to turn 28 soon, and it's suddenly hit me... thinking about a change in careers... I've been working in internet development the past 4 years, and I've enjoyed it immensely, but I've started wondering, "is this really all there is?"

My job has been able to provide me with a good income, and, while my finances are skewed a little bit too much towards entertainment, I'm in good shape overall.

I have an undergraduate degree in Public Policy, and the Federal government is in need of tech workers, both in management and actual techies in the trenches... but I've only heard negatives about the government from techies... stories about old technology, beauracracy, lazy co-workers (not that the govt would have a monopoly on this one), etc. People I know in liberal arts think that working for the government would be a great idea...

So, what better decision than to put the question before a bunch of strangers on the internet? What do people think about working for the Federal government?

Depends...

[Kedyn's Crow]

I guess it depends on which branch of the federal government you were planning on working for. A quick google search brought up this article [internetnews.com] about the Dept. of Interior. Givin this scandal I wouldn't consider this to be a good workplace environment for a techie. Other departments like the FBI, Homeland Security, and CIA probably require that you tack lie detector tests, monitor your e-mail, etc. Before you take a job with a department of the federal government I recomend that you research that department's

Been there, done that.

[caseydk]

I spent about 20 months working for the Library of Congress. They have the standard bureacratic BS, but they're willing to try just about any Open Source technology that comes along... They love Java and have been using Jakarta Tomcat since atleast Jan '02. They're also in progress on building some xml repositories and trying to work with industry to build standards for metadata storage and communication. Pretty cool stuff all the way around and they have some seriously sharp geeks mixed in... Of course

I like it.

[dsoltesz]

I work in the DOI with a scientific research group, and I'm pretty happy. For me, I have a cool job, I get to live in a small town, I love the people I work with, and of course, there's flexitime, flexiplace, and flexishoes. Suit and tie? No way. Yeah, that DOI shutdown thing was a little annoying for a few days. It's over, and someone else's department will be hit next. A lot of the government is still trying to get a handle on the whole "Information Super Highway" thing, but I think most of them are gett

Not quite gov

[cptgrudge]

I'm not quite a government worker, but my salary is paid by taxpayers. I work as a sysadmin for a small independent school district. We're big enough to get good eduactional pricing, but small enough to make (some) quick changes if there is need. I do really love my job, but as with any organization with a large bureaucracy (school districts are no exception), some things are slow to change.

As an example, the previous sysadmin (my former boss) was terrible at his job. Security was virtually nonexisten

Be careful

[Morrigu]

There's some tradeoffs to be made in working for the Feds. First, you will NEVER get paid as much as you will in private industry, or even as a contractor doing the same (or more) work that you do as a gov't employee. You WILL have to deal with bureaucracy, arbitrary ways and methods of doing things, stupid politics, forms and official procedures, and some gamut of oxygen thieves posing as civil servants.

However, you get near-perfect job security (it nearly takes an act of Congress to fire anyone, unless