Some good (6 figure) federal jobs open at my agency (Wash DC)

[sze5003]

It's not that difficult. I'm actually considering a career change to a software engineer and I've been learning Ruby and Java (With some Android on the side)

With previous coding experiance, Ruby should take about a month to get decent at it, with another month to get Ruby-on-rails proficient. Python should be really fast after that because they might as well be the same thing.

This groovy thing is new to me though. I consider mself at least somewhat knowledgable on the trends of software engineering, but nobody I've talked to have mentioned they used Groovy. It's all Ruby and Python.

I have some python courses for free to go through from udemy. I'm sure I can find ruby ones too. But those courses are simple and basically code is code, after all you just need to know how to use and implement it properly.

The tricky part with python is debugging and basically structure since variables can be declared and changed, there's no errors before compiling I think.

 

[SP33Demon]

Hahahhaaa... tell that to several people we let go in the last year at my current office and quite a few at my previous one.

So where do you work?

They obviously didn't make it past the probationary period. Once a govvie is past that, it's very difficult to fire someone due to performance unless they commit a crime or do something stupid. Usually the agency will just try to transfer them but that is just shifting the problem to another office.

How long have you been working with govvies? What I described above is practically an epidemic, and I've worked on-site at many different agencies (military and civilian as a contractor) like HUD which have completely worthless workers who don't do anything for half the day. Some were making 6 figures as well, it was disgusting. One agency (the one where they watch movies and I won't name since I have friends there), most are 12's (i.e. 80k and up) and don't do shit except data entry in spreadsheets since their bosses can't find anything for them to do. Govvie work is the best kept scam in the country, and I won't speak for all of them because some were very hard working. However, the ones who work hard do it because they want to, not because they have to. They are dedicated to the mission and had good work ethic/morals in general.

 

[dbk]

From my experience, to land an interview, u literally have to meet every single requirement that the job announcement asks for.. U almost have a better shot if u took the required skills/experiences and copy pasted it. While it's not reviewed by a machine, the people that review applications aren't necessarily associated with the ones that do the interviewing/hiring. A lot of times they have no idea what the job is...

A lot of applicants assume that the reviewer will understand why X Y Z can be substituted for requirements 1 2 and 3 but that's not the case...

 

[Jimzz]

They obviously didn't make it past the probationary period. Once a govvie is past that, it's very difficult to fire someone due to performance unless they commit a crime or do something stupid. Usually the agency will just try to transfer them but that is just shifting the problem to another office.

How long have you been working with govvies? What I described above is practically an epidemic, and I've worked on-site at many different agencies like HUD which have completely worthless workers who don't do anything for half the day. Some were making 6 figures as well, it was disgusting. One agency (the one where they watch movies and I won't name since I have friends there), most are 12's (i.e. 80k and up) and don't do shit except data entry in spreadsheets. Govvie work is the best kept scam in the country, and I won't speak for all of them because some were very hard working. However, the ones who work hard do it because they want to, not because they have to. They are dedicated to the mission.

sigh... No it is not. Only 1 of the past 10 people we have removed was in probation. 1 of our removals was a GS-14.

Again I work for the Fed Gov for 8 years now at different offices and we removed people all the time that did not fulfill their duties.

So where do you work?

 

[Jimzz]

From my experience, to land an interview, u literally have to meet every single requirement that the job announcement asks for.. U almost have a better shot if u took the required skills/experiences and copy pasted it. While it's not reviewed by a machine, the people that review applications aren't necessarily associated with the ones that do the interviewing/hiring. A lot of times they have no idea what the job is...

A lot of applicants assume that the reviewer will understand why X Y Z can be substituted for requirements 1 2 and 3 but that's not the case...

Right now unless you are a Vet is very hard to get an interview. That has to do with Veterans preference not HR or the person selecting.

And the ADs are built by the people that work in that office. HR adds/removes based on what Mangers tell them. My group tells HR what to put in the ads or not. If we get bad people its our fault.

 

[purbeast0]

after reading this thread, sounds like my current job has better pay and better benefits than the government stuff, so that kind of removes my somewhat slight interest of ever getting one.

 

[glenn1]

after reading this thread, sounds like my current job has better pay and better benefits than the government stuff, so that kind of removes my somewhat slight interest of ever getting one.

That's good, but this isn't a dick measuring contest. Hopefully someone without a job (or looking for a better one) and either currently/willing to relocate to DC finds the listings useful.

 

[purbeast0]

That's good, but this isn't a dick measuring contest. Hopefully someone without a job (or looking for a better one) and either currently/willing to relocate to DC finds the listings useful.

yeah i know i just found this thread interesting because i always thought the huge perk of a govie job was that the benefits were unmatchable with a pension, insurance, and general benefits. but now i know i've been wrong all along!

 

[SunnyD]

No it's not. There are many ways around the commute, telework and buy a place that will be reverse commute. A federal job that pays 90K and up is the biggest scam in the area, you can find ways to live cheap and just rack up your savings. You can't be fired, and half the time they don't have to work. I've seen employees watching movies for half the day and not get in trouble, people sleeping at their desks, it's ridiculous. Don't even get me started on the vacation time. People talk about no federal raises due to budget blah blah blah but there are ways around that (merit awards, accelerated step promotions). Cry me a river, a fed job here is the biggest scam in the country.

Are you even from the DC Metro/NOVA area?

There is absolutely no "cheap way to live" in that general area unless you're willing to commute an hour plus or live in your car somewhere.

Well, I suppose if you're fresh out of college, single and willing to rent a room with a half dozen other people you might be good.

 

[purbeast0]

Are you even from the DC Metro/NOVA area?

There is absolutely no "cheap way to live" in that general area unless you're willing to commute an hour plus or live in your car somewhere.

Well, I suppose if you're fresh out of college, single and willing to rent a room with a half dozen other people you might be good.

there are "cheap" areas to live, but they aren't going to be in the best places.

also "cheap" is extremely relative, even in this area. people living in north potomac who have 800k+ houses would think a 400k house is cheap in my area. but then there are houses in pg county that are 200k which i consider cheap and i'd never want to live there.

 

[SP33Demon]

Are you even from the DC Metro/NOVA area?

There is absolutely no "cheap way to live" in that general area unless you're willing to commute an hour plus or live in your car somewhere.

Well, I suppose if you're fresh out of college, single and willing to rent a room with a half dozen other people you might be good.

Mortgage/rent is $1400, split with spouse = $700 each. Metro is 35 minutes and walk-able from home. That's not exactly expensive, nor is the commute bad. Yes, I work in downtown DC.

Bad commute and not affordable not found.

 

[SP33Demon]

sigh... No it is not. Only 1 of the past 10 people we have removed was in probation. 1 of our removals was a GS-14.

Again I work for the Fed Gov for 8 years now at different offices and we removed people all the time that did not fulfill their duties.

So where do you work?

This is my 4th on-site different govvie client and I've worked at the Pentagon and different military bases in the DMV over the past 15 years. Maybe your agency is the exception, but I've never seen anyone fired for incompetence after probation and I've seen more Fed corporate cultures than you. Really the only guys who lost their jobs were temp govvies who they couldn't find a perm position for. My friends and I always joke that being a Fed is the biggest scam in the country, and if my job didn't pay so well I would do it too.

 

[Jimzz]

This is my 4th on-site different govvie client and I've worked at the Pentagon and different military bases in the DMV over the past 15 years. Maybe your agency is the exception, but I've never seen anyone fired for incompetence after probation and I've seen more Fed corporate cultures than you. Really the only guys who lost their jobs were temp govvies who they couldn't find a perm position for. My friends and I always joke that being a Fed is the biggest scam in the country, and if my job didn't pay so well I would do it too.

So in other words you do not work for the Fed Gov and do not know the rules or see the entire manpower reports and how often they change. I do and what you are saying is the same BS people that do not know anything keep saying.

Read some of the cases here...
http://www.mspb.gov/

And maybe you will know something about employment at the Fed Gov.

Mortgage/rent is $1400, split with spouse = $700 each. Metro is 35 minutes and walk-able from home. That's not exactly expensive, nor is the commute bad. Yes, I work in downtown DC.

Bad commute and not affordable not found.

What city do you live in?

 

[brianmanahan]

yeah i know i just found this thread interesting because i always thought the huge perk of a govie job was that the benefits were unmatchable with a pension, insurance, and general benefits. but now i know i've been wrong all along!

not many private places give pensions, though the one i recently worked at did

 

[purbeast0]

not many private places give pensions, though the one i recently worked at did

yeah i don't have a pension or anything, but i have a really good 401k matching (they match up to 8%) and other great benefits. but it sounds like the government pension isn't that great now a days based on what people said in this thread.

 

[brianmanahan]

yeah i don't have a pension or anything, but i have a really good 401k matching (they match up to 8%) and other great benefits. but it sounds like the government pension isn't that great now a days based on what people said in this thread.

the govt one is slightly better than the private one i had - like %1.1 per year instead of %1. so not too great, but every little bit helps i guess.

%8 401k match is awesome! i only had %3 match where i was at but will get %7 at the new job.

 

[Hacp]

It says I only need 1 year of .net experience for the Software Application Developer job to get 144k? In addition, you get bonus points for knowing how to use GIT? Is this true?

 

[sze5003]

It says I only need 1 year of .net experience for the Software Application Developer job to get 144k? In addition, you get bonus points for knowing how to use GIT? Is this true?

I doubt it's just one year of experience. Probably need 3-5 in another language or in general. I had more than a year with .net while I was in school. I haven't used it since 2010/2011 so I don't even bother looking at postings with it since most of them require continuous knowledge of it.