<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I've had 3 internships / co-ops so far and they've all been for the Federal government. If I want a Permanent position in the private industry will this be harder for me?</p>
<p>I've been told that private companies don't really value government experience. Is this true?</p>
<p>Oh, I'm in Environmental Engineering.</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>I'm not sure that they value it as much but in my experience they still value it. I worked for the government after my freshman year and the experience still seemed to help quite a bit when I was interviewing for this summer. At any rate there's not a lot you can do about it now, so I wouldn't worry.</p>
<p>"I've been told that private companies don't really value government experience. Is this true?"</p>
<p>I have never heard that rumor. I have many friends who worked with local state or city utility companies, and have received very nice private company jobs. </p>
<p>Experience is experience and with your vast internship/co-op profile, I say you have an excellent chance of working in the private industry.</p>
<p>thanks for the replies so far. Anyone else?</p>
<p>Is there any reason why you want a position in the private sector? I was thinking of interning for the federal government next summer and then take on a full-time position there after graduation.</p>
<p>I've never had an internship with the private sector before. Whats that like?</p>
<p>I don't necessarily want a private sector job, I just wanna see what my options are.</p>
<p>you guys are lucky you can find internships.</p>
<p>I used to work for a state agency before moving into the private sector. The biggest differences are that there's way less bureaucracy and things get done a lot faster. You typically get paid more, but you're not guaranteed to keep your job for life.</p>
<p>Hey Ken,
Did you have any trouble getting a job in private? I'm concerned because government experience is the Only thing i have.</p>
<p>Government experience is pretty good. Atleast you HAVE experience.</p>
<p>Don't you have experience? I looked at your profile and it seems pretty impressive.</p>
<p>Me? I don't have any experiences.</p>
<p>i was wondering which is going to earn more money in the long run? private or govt? and after like 20years will the salary start to decay?</p>
<p>Oh, I guess internships are harder to get in America.</p>
<p>I actually got my first job in the private sector through a friend. You will earn more money in the private sector period. Salaries do not go down. See lil_killer129's recent "Salary Tables" thread.</p>
<p>sorry for bringing up an old thread. </p>
<p>For anyone who has worked in both private and government, can you compare the stress level of the 2 jobs?</p>
<p>On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being very stressful, I'd rate gov't jobs at a 2 or 3. Private sector jobs can be as high as a 10 at times, but on average, I'd say 7 or 8. </p>
<p>The first thing I learned at my gov't job was to always cover your ass. You're not encouraged to take risks, think outside the box, etc. It's pretty difficult to get fired so don't give them any ammunition to do so. Just stay the course and you'll have a job for life. </p>
<p>The next job I had was with a traffic engineering consultant. People work 40+ hours on a regular basis, as opposed to my gov't job where people work 40 hours and not a second more. We did whatever we needed to get the job done, and that included one all-nighter for one particular project. Why did we do that? Because our client was throwing A LOT of money at us to get the job done. That would never happen in a government office no matter how much money was involved.</p>
<p>I have never heard this rumor. Actually I would think the opposite. I think your government work would be viewed as respectable among private industries. </p>
<p>If you can prove your past experience gave you useful knowledge then it doesn't matter where you worked. The fact will be, you know your stuff, you have past experience to prove it, they won't look down upon your experience because its for government.</p>
<p>That's just my viewpoint though.</p>
<p>It depends upon where you work.</p>
<p>If you're working for a state department of transportation, that's one thing, and more along the lines of what Ken's talking about.
If you're working for Sandia or a FFRDC, that's something entirely different, and more what JoeJoe is talking about.</p>
<p>I should have noted my response was based on my personal experiences with a state DOT and interactions with municipal agencies.</p>