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Some people might not have realized USDS is still around since it was best known for the Healthcare.gov rescue under Obama. But it's still here, and still hirin

Some people might not have realized USDS is still around since it was best known for the Healthcare.gov rescue under Obama. But it's still here, and still hiring people to work on problems like this www.usds.gov/join

coleca 9y ago
I am glad to see it's still around. I was worried that it would be cut with the change in administrations since it reports into the White House. The USDS is a shining example of civil service and the best of government.
- murtazab 9y ago
  Has work there changed with the new administration? Wondering how much USDS tech goals change with different administrations.
  - Matt_Cutts 9y ago
    Hey there, I'm the USDS Administrator. Most of our projects are the same, like making sure that veterans can get their health benefits. We've found partners in the White House who really want to make government work better for the American people. An example is Chris Liddell, who was CFO for Microsoft. Every administration is going to be different and have different interests, but we've been able to find common ground on projects, and those projects are helping people who need it.
  - ceworthington 9y ago
    Our mission has remained very consistent: use design and technology best practices to improve government services. The new administration has different policy priorities, but it has been remarkable to see the bipartisan support for our mission. Our work has remained largely the same. The major difference is fewer technologists are raising their hands for public service now, which constrains our ability to improve things.
    - dragonwriter 9y ago
      > The major difference is fewer technologists are raising their hands for public service now I suspect you are making a false, or at least unwarranted, generalization from “federal executive branch” to “public” here.
      - ceworthington 9y ago
        Good point! Lots of ways to serve.
F00Fbug 9y ago
Hmm.... I apply every 6 months or so and get the thumbs down. Not sure what they're looking for. I've got 30 years of every kind of experience (dev, DBA, network, security, product mgmt, analytics/data science, business mgmt, and more) with good credentials and they never bite. I wish I knew more what the ideal profile was; I'd love to help out!
- steven777400 9y ago
  I wonder if the environment of experience is significant? USDS positions itself like a startup (even their page has a section on "dress code" which mentions being like "any other startup"). Someone whose experience is primarily enterprise or BigCo might be less appealing. It would be interesting to see a roster of current USDS FTEs and their backgrounds (I didn't see a "Who's Who" on their page, but didn't look extensively).
  - noir_lord 9y ago
    I think that startup mentality might bite them in the arse. I saw "React on Ruby" and winced. There is nothing wrong with that platform as a "We are in a market where things will change radically in two years" but for the VA? Where things might change once a decade, that's a recipe for pain. Look at where the Web was 5 years ago (hell React didn't exist) never mind 10. Angular is 7 years old, KnockoutJS is 7, jQuery is the grandaddy at 11, React is 4. Not a criticism (they are clearly doing important impactful work) more a concern. If someone said to me "You will have to support this for at least 10 years" the choices I made would be extremely conservative.
    - mquander 9y ago
      There's nothing that would prohibit maintaining a Backbone or Knockout app (or just one written with a bunch of non-spaghetti-code jQuery) today, and it's hard to say that any other choice for writing a piece of software with a GUI would have fared better. Why do you think that using React will have a worse result than that? I think that of the kinds of tools people are using to make web applications in 2017, React and Rails are probably in the more conservative, most likely to be maintainable in 10 years category. (I wouldn't believe this about Rails except it's been so popular for the past 10 years.)

coleca 9y ago

I am glad to see it's still around. I was worried that it would be cut with the change in administrations since it reports into the White House. The USDS is a shining example of civil service and the best of government.

murtazab 9y ago
Has work there changed with the new administration? Wondering how much USDS tech goals change with different administrations.
- Matt_Cutts 9y ago
  Hey there, I'm the USDS Administrator. Most of our projects are the same, like making sure that veterans can get their health benefits. We've found partners in the White House who really want to make government work better for the American people. An example is Chris Liddell, who was CFO for Microsoft. Every administration is going to be different and have different interests, but we've been able to find common ground on projects, and those projects are helping people who need it.
- ceworthington 9y ago
  Our mission has remained very consistent: use design and technology best practices to improve government services. The new administration has different policy priorities, but it has been remarkable to see the bipartisan support for our mission. Our work has remained largely the same. The major difference is fewer technologists are raising their hands for public service now, which constrains our ability to improve things.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > The major difference is fewer technologists are raising their hands for public service now I suspect you are making a false, or at least unwarranted, generalization from “federal executive branch” to “public” here.
    - ceworthington 9y ago
      Good point! Lots of ways to serve.

F00Fbug 9y ago

Hmm.... I apply every 6 months or so and get the thumbs down. Not sure what they're looking for. I've got 30 years of every kind of experience (dev, DBA, network, security, product mgmt, analytics/data science, business mgmt, and more) with good credentials and they never bite. I wish I knew more what the ideal profile was; I'd love to help out!

steven777400 9y ago
I wonder if the environment of experience is significant? USDS positions itself like a startup (even their page has a section on "dress code" which mentions being like "any other startup"). Someone whose experience is primarily enterprise or BigCo might be less appealing. It would be interesting to see a roster of current USDS FTEs and their backgrounds (I didn't see a "Who's Who" on their page, but didn't look extensively).
- noir_lord 9y ago
  I think that startup mentality might bite them in the arse. I saw "React on Ruby" and winced. There is nothing wrong with that platform as a "We are in a market where things will change radically in two years" but for the VA? Where things might change once a decade, that's a recipe for pain. Look at where the Web was 5 years ago (hell React didn't exist) never mind 10. Angular is 7 years old, KnockoutJS is 7, jQuery is the grandaddy at 11, React is 4. Not a criticism (they are clearly doing important impactful work) more a concern. If someone said to me "You will have to support this for at least 10 years" the choices I made would be extremely conservative.
  - mquander 9y ago
    There's nothing that would prohibit maintaining a Backbone or Knockout app (or just one written with a bunch of non-spaghetti-code jQuery) today, and it's hard to say that any other choice for writing a piece of software with a GUI would have fared better. Why do you think that using React will have a worse result than that? I think that of the kinds of tools people are using to make web applications in 2017, React and Rails are probably in the more conservative, most likely to be maintainable in 10 years category. (I wouldn't believe this about Rails except it's been so popular for the past 10 years.)