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This is only one part of it, but pay grades for government employees in the US are far lower than private industry when it comes to things like software develop

This is only one part of it, but pay grades for government employees in the US are far lower than private industry when it comes to things like software developers. Just look at the GS rates [1], why would a good developer choose to make 50% or less of what they could make in the private sector? It'd be hard to convince the general public that we should be paying $100k+ for young devs working directly for the government, which is already more money than most senior level scheduled gov employees. So we then have this whole convoluted contracting process where consultancies run by people who know how to write and win bids, but know nothing about software engineering, end up being hired to write software systems. All because the government can't really build highly skilled teams on their own. Again, it's not all of the problem (not by a long shot), but it definitely contributes. Plus, the government employing people directly is socialism, but paying an incompetent consulting firm that plays middle-man to the system isn't. [1] https://www.federalpay.org/gs/2022 https://www.federalpay.org/gs/2022

luckylion 4y ago
They'd make 50% or less of what they make in the private sector for the difference in job security and workload.
miguelazo 4y ago
Partly because private sector tech salaries were artificially inflated to an insane degree by cheap money that flooded VC coffers.
- demuxxed 4y ago
  The money is real at some companies. We’re less than 100 people with more than 200m in yearly revenue. Market positioning is worth more than engineering excellence, but paying top salaries to reduce the execution risk is worth it. I would expect the leetcoding and system design interviews across the industry to get much tougher and juniors to get squeezed out before top salaries drop. Software has very high leverage in the right markets. It’s comparable to pro euro football where the teams that already have eyeballs will pay huge sums for top players in order to keep the eyeballs. Software salaries will only become more bimodal as VC money tightens.
  - miguelazo 4y ago
    No one cares about your revenue. So many startups purchase their revenue by essentially giving away their product at below-market prices, hoping to destroy the competition, like Uber did with taxis. It very rarely works. What's your company's net profit? Oh right, it's just around the corner...
alistairSH 4y ago
Make sure to drill into the pay scales by location... suburban DC gets a 30% bump. SV/Bay Area is >40% bump over base GS scale. Why would somebody take the .gov job? Same reason anybody would take a .gov job... Benefits (though that gap has closed). Work/life balance. Job security. Interesting work (agency-dependent). Inertia + location (many of my peers who are bureaucrats come from families of bureaucrats and are DC natives) Anyways, the government can't hire developers not because the salary is too low but because the electorate has decided the government should be "small" which forces outsourcing to the big name consulting/contracting shops.
- acdha 4y ago
  > the government can't hire developers not because the salary is too low but because the electorate has decided the government should be "small" which forces outsourcing to the big name consulting/contracting shops. I wouldn’t say “not” because those are really the same problem from different angles. Keeping salaries low encourages attrition, not adding or backfilling positions makes it permanent. The best part is that this process reliably produces expensive failures to provide the pretext for repeating it.
Spooky23 4y ago
I’ve worked for .gov, but not Federal. The appeal is: - Sense of purpose. You’re working to perform some function with integrity and to the best of your ability. There’s no profit driven pressure. - Career / Long Game. Typically you earn 50th percentile salary, but if you stay that doesn’t tell the story. In some places benefits are 50% of salary. That usually means best in class health benefits and often a defined benefit pension. - PTO - the place where I was at I received 7 weeks of vacation and 3 weeks of sick time annually. Government is a good place to start. McKinsey is a good landing zone for apprentice MBA types.

luckylion 4y ago

They'd make 50% or less of what they make in the private sector for the difference in job security and workload.

miguelazo 4y ago

Partly because private sector tech salaries were artificially inflated to an insane degree by cheap money that flooded VC coffers.

demuxxed 4y ago
The money is real at some companies. We’re less than 100 people with more than 200m in yearly revenue. Market positioning is worth more than engineering excellence, but paying top salaries to reduce the execution risk is worth it. I would expect the leetcoding and system design interviews across the industry to get much tougher and juniors to get squeezed out before top salaries drop. Software has very high leverage in the right markets. It’s comparable to pro euro football where the teams that already have eyeballs will pay huge sums for top players in order to keep the eyeballs. Software salaries will only become more bimodal as VC money tightens.
- miguelazo 4y ago
  No one cares about your revenue. So many startups purchase their revenue by essentially giving away their product at below-market prices, hoping to destroy the competition, like Uber did with taxis. It very rarely works. What's your company's net profit? Oh right, it's just around the corner...

alistairSH 4y ago

Make sure to drill into the pay scales by location... suburban DC gets a 30% bump. SV/Bay Area is >40% bump over base GS scale. Why would somebody take the .gov job? Same reason anybody would take a .gov job... Benefits (though that gap has closed). Work/life balance. Job security. Interesting work (agency-dependent). Inertia + location (many of my peers who are bureaucrats come from families of bureaucrats and are DC natives) Anyways, the government can't hire developers not because the salary is too low but because the electorate has decided the government should be "small" which forces outsourcing to the big name consulting/contracting shops.

acdha 4y ago
> the government can't hire developers not because the salary is too low but because the electorate has decided the government should be "small" which forces outsourcing to the big name consulting/contracting shops. I wouldn’t say “not” because those are really the same problem from different angles. Keeping salaries low encourages attrition, not adding or backfilling positions makes it permanent. The best part is that this process reliably produces expensive failures to provide the pretext for repeating it.

Spooky23 4y ago

I’ve worked for .gov, but not Federal. The appeal is: - Sense of purpose. You’re working to perform some function with integrity and to the best of your ability. There’s no profit driven pressure. - Career / Long Game. Typically you earn 50th percentile salary, but if you stay that doesn’t tell the story. In some places benefits are 50% of salary. That usually means best in class health benefits and often a defined benefit pension. - PTO - the place where I was at I received 7 weeks of vacation and 3 weeks of sick time annually. Government is a good place to start. McKinsey is a good landing zone for apprentice MBA types.