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The USDS is part of the White House. They are directly under the President. 18F is basically a contracting agency, run by and for the government. They basicall
by timdorr 11y ago
The USDS is part of the White House. They are directly under the President.
18F is basically a contracting agency, run by and for the government. They basically take on work that's assigned to them by the USDS. The USDS does work as well, but typically more with a leadership and policy role.
- amorphid 11y agoAs I understand it, 18F started off as part of USDS. But the Obama administration wanted the program to outlive his tenure as POTUS, so they tucked 18F into the GSA.
- alaithea 11y agoThat's not correct. 18F predates USDS by about a year, and we are (and always have been) independent of each other, though there is a lot of cross-pollination in our work.
- wslack 11y agoI would be curious where this impression came from, as someone that works at 18F. Here's more info on how we came from the Presidential Innovation Fellows program: https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/20/one-year-in-and-looking-forward/ https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/20/one-year-in-and-looking-forwa...
- amorphid 11y agoWas talking to a Presidential Innovation Fellow, and probably just misunderstood what they were saying, or perhaps the Fellow had incorrect information.
- andrefrancisco 11y agoQuick clarification. 18F is not assigned work by USDS. Federal agencies come to 18F with proposed projects and then 18F chooses which ones it works on based on staffing/scope/impact etc. I'm an 18F employee.
- js2 11y agoWhat is it like working for 18F? Office space, flexibility of hours, commute, workstation, work attire, etc? Would someone who prefers the startup atmosphere survive for long?
- toomuchtodo 11y ago18F does have some remote positions available.
- wslack 11y agohttps://www.quora.com/U-S-Federal-Government/What-is-it-like-to-be-a-member-of-the-18F-team https://www.quora.com/U-S-Federal-Government/What-is-it-like... https://pages.18f.gov/joining-18f/ https://pages.18f.gov/joining-18f/ (I also work at 18F, and I highly recommend it)
- andrefrancisco 11y agoI love it. We have a distributed team so many people work from home and then we have offices inside GSA buildings in SF, Chicago, NYC, and DC. Hours are very flexible, we just try to have some overlap with teams in various time zones. In D.C., where I am, some people work 10-6, some noon-8, and some take breaks to pick up kids from school and then work at night. Attire is very relaxed. The kind of place where if someone wears a suit you ask what they have to do that day. We're a Mac shop, which is pretty rare in the government. No real software restrictions, and we provide most of our own IT/ops support. I'm working from the roof of the GSA building right now. View of the Washington and Jefferson monuments is hard to beat. Morale is really high. Culture and work/life balance is super important to the team and to management. People feel compelled to tweet about how much they like their job. I haven't worked at a startup, but many have and are happy to be here. There are plenty of government frustrations, but the size of the impact of our mission greatly outweighs any day to day annoyances. For me, the best thing is that when there is a problem, whether it's management, bureaucracy, or technology, the attitude is to address it openly and head on. And 18F has a group of really smart people, so those problems rarely last very long.
- melodykramer 11y ago