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Dot-Commers vs. Government Contractors
StrangeBeer writes: "When the dot-Com movement went bust, it sent thousands of former employees running for cover (or the unemployment line, whichever was closer). One place they didn't go was the way of the Government Contractor who, incidentally, is doing just fine right now with or without a recession. Various reasons are given for this and one I'd like to point out is that the government managers would rather hire an underqualified person with a security clearance and later train them in their tradecraft. The vast majority of these kinds of employees are coming from other kinds of federal work (military, civil service, etc.) and not defunct dot-Com companies."
Also, it is no fun working for the government. Career prospects are poor, the people you work with are second or third rate with a job-for-life mentality, and technological change much slowers. No one who has worked for a startup, even one that failed, can stand that kind of stagnent atmosphere.
All the atrocities in the recorded human history have been carried out by the agents of whatever government has been in power at the time.
I will not wear your flag. I will not serve an entity based on segregating people based on where they were born.
...they can always shake down the citizens for more money or pile on some more deficits rather than fold. If people would come and throw you in jail and take all your money if you didn't buy a BeBox, Be would have done a lot better. Wouldn't have been right, but they'd have done a lot better.
Who wants to work with a bunch of drones anyway? Not me... that's the whole reason I gave up on my original career path... as a mechanical engineer, probably working in the defense industry. It wasn't the subject matter that bored me, it was the people I worked with. My colleagues now are writers, artists, musicians, activists, filmmakers, chefs, and charity workers in addition to being software engineers. It's a much richer existence than hanging out with guys who do nothing but collect a paycheck and play with model trains.
Military aside, I generally sneer in the direction of federal employees. One of the biggest problems I've seen is that the Gov hires complete morons to do a semi-complex job, gives them a watered-down training on how to do the job, and then wonders why the job/project is costing 500% of what was budgeted. Oh yeah, and the government also has a shady history of purchasing very expensive toilet set covers, and the like. I don't forsee intelligent spending on the part of the government in the near future, employee payroll included.
Transistors and Beer!!