<p>I'm not sure if this has been discussed, but what are the pros and cons b/w private and gov't jobs?
Those of you who chose private over gov't, or vice versa, what was your reason?
Those with experience in both field, how does the career path at gov't and private differ?</p>
<p>The reason I'm asking is almost 3 yrs into gov't job, but thinking of going private. Although I know the pay is a little better and the bennies + job security are excellent, there's little satisfaction.</p>
<p>usually, govt jobs are more secure and also the benefits are good. However, starting salary for govt jobs is very low compared to private companies. If you're young and don't need that much benefit for health or whatever, you can go with the money. As you get older,you can choose to work in the government for better benefits for your family.</p>
<p>I dunno, healthcare benefits at my company are pretty good. They take a little more out of my paycheck to cover my voluntary health insurance upgrade every month, but then again, my paycheck is quite a bit higher than it would've been if I'd gone with a government job. They pay for my transit pass, I get excellent training, and while they don't do 401K contribution matching, they do profit sharing and dump all of that into my 401K every year without my having to contribute a dime. (I do contribute many dimes, though.) So, I wouldn't necessarily count on benefits at a government job being better.</p>
<p>My mom's experiences at the DoD were that it was fairly difficult to lose your job, but if you worked really hard to succeed at your job (as in, worked the sort of hours that are required at most private jobs), you'd get a bunch of resentment from your coworkers for making them look bad. So, you'd have to be driven and do well at your job... just so long as you didn't do <em>too</em> well.</p>
<p>The government equivalent of my current job would be to check plans and calcs. Having worked with plan checkers before, I know I would <em>hate</em> being a plan checker. You sit at a counter for half your day and call numbers and explain things to people who don't understand what the protocol is, then the people yell at you. The other half of your day, you check plans that people have submitted to your agency to approve, and you find errors, and you call the engineer of record to discuss them, and <em>they</em> yell at you. Not my idea of fun, and most of the plan checkers I've talked to kind of look like their souls have been sucked out through their ears. I'll take my chances with private industry.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the hours are much, much better. You get nice lunch breaks and you actually work from nine to five, if that. When I used to do some work at a state department of transportation, everyone would come out of their offices at about 3 PM and start chatting with one another. It felt like an open house, or a party, or a happy hour without drinks. Then, by 4 PM, everyone would leave. By 5 PM, I was the only one left in the building, and there was nobody left to give my visitor's badge to.</p>
<p>I forgot to ask about the career potential b/w private vs gov't. How about tuition reimbursement and training, and profesional development?</p>
<p>I'm interested in hearing more from people who've had some exposure with both sectors, as I haven't worked in private and can't compare.</p>
<p>I've worked a total of 2 summers with a state DOT, almost 2 years (p/t during school year, f/t during summers) with a civil engineering firm and just over a year with a construction manager ((p/t during school year, f/t during summers and f/t after school). BY FAR, the DOT job was the least challenging, required the least effort, and was the least satisfying.</p>
<p>I just looked up the salary for a junior engineer at New York State DOT and it was more than I expected ($53k + $3k location differential for NYC). That's right around what some of the private consulting firms are paying in the industry here in NYC. I remember a few years ago, that figure was significantly lower for NYSDOT, so I don't know what happened.</p>
<p>The organizational culture is very different as well in the government. At least in my experience, you're not really encouraged to solve problems as much as you're encouraged to avoid problems. After a one year probationary, you can't be fired (this was the case at NYSDOT) unless you screw something up really bad - think along the lines of a catastrophe making front page headlines. Once you get promoted, that one year timer gets reset. Basically, you can't get laid off if you just perform average work or even below average work. At my office at NYSDOT, I was encouraged to take it slow and easy with everything. As long as I showed up for work, everything was fine and I'd get paid. There was no benefit to working hard. Once, my boss even slipped out in the middle of the day to go golfing. </p>
<p>Hours at NYSDOT were good. I was supposed to work 7-3:30 (this was a construction office), but on one project, I routinely left at 3:00. Once, my boss and I were in the field and had a 2 hour lunch at McDonald's because we had nothing to do back in the office. </p>
<p>Life at a private firm is significantly different. There was one project where we routinely worked 70 hour weeks for a few weeks to complete everything. One thing I noticed though is that everybody still had a smile on their face (usually), even at 1am. I won't generalize it to all private firms, but I'd bet my life you won't find that kind of an attitude at any state DOT. We liked our work and were satisfied with what we accomplished at the end of the day...err... night. I'm not saying we wanted to stay 'til midnight but nobody was complaining. People are just more willing to put in the hours.</p>
<p>The hours at that private firm were officially 9-6 with a one hour lunch, but people routinely stayed pass 6, even on normal days.</p>
<p>I didn't stay long enough in government to comment on career potential. At my current firm though, we do have a tuition reimbursement policy and we do offer a lot of in-house training. I was not aware of either policy existing at NYSDOT, though I could be wrong. </p>
<p>IMO, what it all comes down to is whether or not you enjoy engineering. If you do, go private. You'll work on more interesting project with more responsibilities and more challenges. If you don't enjoy it as much, then go gov't and you'll be able to collect your paycheck with minimal effort.</p>
<p>All of the above has been based on my personal experiences, and I'm not going to generalize it to anything. For all I know, somebody's gov't experience with NASA could be the complete opposite of what I wrote above.</p>
<p>@Ken
-) Does having an MS make a difference w/ regards to career adv and pay?</p>
<p>-) Based on my observation, LA city and LA county pays more for their engineers with up to 5 years of experience, while the pay for private usually surpasses that of gov't after 5 years.
Is this the case in NY?</p>
<p>-) How's the job security like in this economy?
I feel even the gov't job is not that safe in today's economy, given our mayor in LA almost lay off massive amount of people b/c of the recent budget deficit. If both sectors aren't secured to begin with, I would rather take up on interesting projects at private.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The hours at that private firm were officially 9-6 with a one hour lunch, but people routinely stayed pass 6, even on normal days.
[/quote]
-) Is this the norm? Do people stay over b/c of work, or just to impress the bosses? I can pull a 60 hour per week, as long as we're fairly compensated - which is why I raised my question over at another thread regarding CM pay & bonuses.</p>
<p>At my firm, people stay past six mostly because of the work but also, if everyone else is staying past six, and you're not, you kind of look like a slacker.</p>
<p>Having an MS does affect your pay, but I don't think it has too much to do with career advancement usually. It doesn't hurt though. </p>
<p>I can't comment on pay after 5 years. I don't know enough about it.</p>
<p>I haven't heard of any mass layoffs in this industry unlike that of the finance industry, where every other week a company lays off half its workforce. Companies are trying to weather the storm since things will definitely get better later on. I see people being juggled around from project to project to keep everybody employed. In the long run, things will only improve. The trick now is to get hired. The residential sector of my current company put a hiring freeze earlier this year.</p>
<p>At that company where people routinely stayed past 6... there were various reasons for it. Sometimes people have work to do. Sometimes people are timing their schedule so they can catch the train just in time. And sometimes people are just hanging out. At this company, everybody was friends and are pretty tight. It just doesn't feel like work really most of the time. Every now and then, after 6, the VP would blast some pop song through the intercom and sing along. Styrofoam darts get launched across the office. People race down the hallway in their chairs. It was just a crazy and loose environment half the time. The other half of the time, we're working late to make deadlines.</p>