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The right place in the public sector (govt', academia etc), can be awesome. If the place has an important mission, that'll attract intelligent idealistic people
by nickd2001 5y ago
The right place in the public sector (govt', academia etc), can be awesome. If the place has an important mission, that'll attract intelligent idealistic people, who make very nice colleagues. If you get to work on up to date (or in some cases actually ahead of the game e:g open source that's not yet widely used) tech, while sufficiently relaxed environment that you've time to learn properly and retain those skills, that's really good long-term career value. Of course, headline salary is likely to be lower than private sector. But you might get a final salary pension, other perks, career might last longer if you avoid burnout. Having done both, I give big thumbs up to public sector. Even the not so good parts, if its a beaurocratic hole that can be a great chance to sort it out, quite fulfilling to fix messes...
- specproc 5y agoYeah, I'm a non-profit boy. Similar sort of setup. I'm never going to get crazy money, but the work's super interesting and I'm treated like a wizard. Plenty of downsides. You're often project-funded and subject to the various whims of donor-funded project cycles; and without the sharp discipline of the profit motive, lots of organizations end up being a bit of a bloated, navel-gazing mess. That said, having done this for many orgs for fifteen years or so, I can count the number of colleagues I've actively disliked on the fingers of one hand; have gotten a tonne of exposure to some really interesting places, people and ideas; and have found the sector as a whole incredibly supportive, friendly and fun.