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depends on what you really want out of a job. if you want security and less stress gov't is the way to go. but you're also going to find people that don't care
by matthavener 18y ago
depends on what you really want out of a job. if you want security and less stress gov't is the way to go. but you're also going to find people that don't care about quality, "doing it right", the latest technologies, learning, working hard, or sometimes working at all. you deal with the biggest bureaucracy in america... working for the gov't seems to be the opposite of the values purported by hn posts
- Devilboy 18y agoExactly why you SHOULD consider a government job. We need people willing to rock the boat from the inside if we want things to change.
- johns 18y agoExcept for that its exceedingly difficult to accomplish anything of worth without some political influence outside of your sections control. Doesn't matter how much buy in you can get from your management, you're still in the end at the mercy of someone else's political whims.
- pmorici 18y agoI think you are confusing political appointees with rank and file civil servants.
- johns 18y agoI was a civil servant for awhile. Politics frequently got in the way of our department's work. Political initiatives would interrupt the ones we were working on and would frequently change based on whatever they felt like legislating that session or whomever was newly appointed. Not every department would be like that, but in a lot of cases there's too much outside influence by politicians to get any real work done.
- bokonist 18y agoI'm curious - why use the word "politics", why not say "democracy"? i.e. "Democracy frequently got in the way of our department's work. Democratic initiatives would interrupt ones we were working on ..." I point this out because our society often denounces politics but enshrines democracy. Yet no one can logically explain the difference between the two. It's a fascinating cognitive dissonance. Perhaps you can explain?
- gaius 18y agoDemocracy is the will of the people, politics is the will of the politicians.
- bokonist 18y agoWhat is this mysterious "will of the people"? How is it measured except through the politicians the people elect? If the politician relies on polling to make every decision, is that "democracy"? Or should we have direct democracy with each decision being subject to a popular referendum? Although, even a referendum is not the "will of the people" - it's just the will of the majority. Perhaps then we should demand complete 100% consensus for every decision enacted? As a reader of hacker news, I assume you like to think of yourself as a person of science and reason. But when you summon phrases such as "will of the people" you have left that world. The phrase is empty - it provides no information, and contributes nothing to the discussion. Would you mind more precisely defining what you mean by "will of the people"?
- gaius 18y agoLet me give you an example. In the UK Gordon Brown was the Chancellor. The will of the people was that he managed the economy and that's all. The will of Gordon Brown however was to be Prime Minister, so he used his role as Chancellor to take power over unrelated departments by manipulating their budgets. That strategy worked pretty well for him. It's not working so well for we the people right now.
- old-gregg 18y agoWhat you just said applies to almost any business with more than 1K employees. I'd say any programmer considering a career at General Electric (random pick) is insane. It's a government job without government benefits.
- netcan 18y agoWhich is to say, of those earning in the top 25%-30% (varies a lot by country) this applies to the majority of people.
- Prrometheus 18y agoI have friends in software development at military contractors in the area. Apparently, after you work for three years you get "tenure" and you receive France-style job security. Since its more trouble after that to fire you than to just pay you, the worst that can happen for incompetence is that you get left alone with nothing to do. Also, if you leave, you are always guaranteed a spot if you choose to return. Nothing is good for job security like being removed from the discipline of the market. Hook up to the public teat and you can feed for life.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agoI hear stories like this over and over again. It's disgusting what 3 months of my labor per year goes to.
- nihilocrat 18y agoYou can continue your kneejerk conservatism when you get fired for not flushing twice. No, really, I'm not joking. Though it is sad to see what happens when people take advantage of job security and get paid to do hardly anything.
- yan 18y agoI understand you're being general, but as a specific example, my office is the opposite of that. (I work for federal gov't). A lot of extremely intelligent, diligent and competent people whose interests would belong right at home here.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- vaksel 18y agoI see it as 3 types of jobs really: a) government job as described in the post b) corporate job as described in the post c) start-up job Unless you are getting equity there is probably no reason whatsoever to work in the private sector. the beauty of government jobs is that you work for 20 years, and then you can retire, where you get 50% of your paycheck as your pension. I know for many wokraholics the mentality is that money solves everything, but most people will elect to get a slightly lower salary in exchange for a higher quality of life.