5 ms·
Any idea what the compensation is like? Would the "tour of duty" be considered a sacrifice or is it a viable way to make a living for a talented engineer?
by jchendy 11y ago
Any idea what the compensation is like? Would the "tour of duty" be considered a sacrifice or is it a viable way to make a living for a talented engineer?
- kingkilr 11y agoSalary range is $116,021 to $158,700. (From va.gov/ds/, where I work, I believe this is the same for all the other Digital Service teams though)
- notsony 11y agoSo basically it's more "mercenary" than performing a "tour of duty" to serve your country.
- rdl 11y agoMarket for the people USDS is hiring generally is higher than that in cash, plus better benefits, plus 50-100k/yr in equity. There is some sacrifice, but not an insurmountable one.
- dnesting 11y agoWhy do you put it that way? Everyone serving in military takes home a paycheck, but that doesn't make them mercinaries. The top tech talent that we aim to attract to USDS often can make far more than these salaries staying in the private sector, so appealing to a sense of civic duty and offering short-term engagements is what we have to do to recruit.
- notsony 11y ago> appealing to a sense of civic duty and offering short-term engagements Which is why everybody loves getting a letter asking them to turn up for jury duty, right?!
- jchendy 11y agoI think lots of people would enjoy serving on a jury if two things were fixed: * You don't have to spend a full day in a courthouse doing nothing during the selection process * The government guarantees you will continue receiving your normal income during the trial
- jfoutz 11y agoThe army is all volunteers. But they still get paid.
- acchow 11y agoWouldn't it be difficult to attract top talent (or even mediocre talent) in that range?
- bpicolo 11y agoBottom of 116 is pretty huge. Even for the Bay Area thats not a bad start
- rdl 11y agoThe actually-doing-tech-work GS levels (GS-10 to GS-13), by comparison, are 50-60k. That is where government pay is still the big impediment. $116k/yr for your entire mid/late career would also suck (compared to 200-400k in industry), but for <2 years, I can't see that alone being a huge issue, unless you have kids in college, are paying for a mortgage elsewhere, etc.
- kctess5 11y agoHonestly, that's much better than I was expecting. Two years working to improve our shitty government systems in exchange for a quarter of a million? Sounds like a fair short-term deal, even if higher comp is available elsewhere...
- liyanchang 11y agoI'm currently at the US Digital Service so figured I'd add some color. There are many subtleties about how government hires that makes this a really interesting question. We are brought in either under Intermittent Consultants or Schedule A hires. This means that in exchange for being able to hire you by name rather than going through a more structured process through USAjobs.gov, you can only work for 2 years. Therefore, no matter what the pay, it's probably not a viable long term career. It's also important to note that this is probably a good thing - I've been at Healthcare.gov and USDS since Jan of 2014 and I'm finding that I'm getting adjusted to some of the bureaucracy. It's therefore actually key to balance experience with fresh perspectives. I'd also say that the salary ranges - it's in part based on what you used to make in the private sector but has a hard ceiling. For everyone who comes, it's more than enough to survive but not a long term career move for anyone. And of course, there are no stock options or equity stakes :D.
- jchendy 11y agoThanks for the info, that's pretty interesting. Are you ever allowed to go back and do another 2 years?
- kingkilr 11y agoI'm not an expert (by any stretch of the imagination) on federal hiring policy, but my appointment is 2 years, with the opportunity to extend another 2 years. No clue what happens after that.
- liyanchang 11y agoI'm not certain about the exact intricacies of the Schedule A hiring authority so I may be corrected by someone later - but my understanding is that this would not be possible to be rehired under the same hiring authority. People have joked about doing both a Schedule A and an Intermittent Consultant[0], which would allow you to do 4 years (2x2) - as we've just hit our 1st birthday, no one has tried it yet! [0] There are some slight differences in how pay, retirement, and some other benefits are distributed, so they are mostly but not entirely interchangeable.