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dot.com Bust Gotcha Down? Try the Gubmint!
dsoltesz writes "This coming week is the Government's first Virtual IT Job Fair. A number of agencies are participating, including NASA, the Smithsonian, and the National Gallery of Art. While government jobs aren't exactly the highest paying in the nation, IT positions do rate in a special pay category (see tables 999A-F depending on where you want to work). The online job fair lasts from April 22 to 26, and hopes to fill 230 positions. Here's a quick list of IT Series 2210 specialties, or if you want a little light reading, try the 155 page, 1.7 MB detailed spec."
The beauty about gov jobs is that first, there is some stability, second, it is hard to get fired, unless youre a complete dumbass, and last, you have a chance to "move up". cons: bad pay, youre working for the "man". dam()
Useless sig.
You know, you really hit the nail on the head there: The reality is that there isn't a surplus of software development talent, but rather there is a surplus of unqualified/untalented people jockeying for whatever jobs they are (slashdotting, if you will, recruiters who end up making the choice a random draw). There are so many people out there who claim themselves to be SEs/SSEs, yet they don't have the slightest clue (I've had "n-tier" arguments with these clowns : Usually they're from the school of VB, and they only can parrot they've read without actually analyzing and applying intelligently). Note that the clueless come in all types and sizes: From Masters of Computer Science, to Super-IT-Institute, to MCSE -> There is no particular educational path that separates the flow, though I suppose there is a higher correlation with those who signed up for the type of educational institutes that advertise on late night TV.
Just meandering.
Nice troll.
Plenty of people have jobs
Plenty of people are living hand-to-mouth, have no savings, own nothing and are two paychecks away from being broke.
Plenty of people are underemployed, have nothing to do most of the day, and are tormented by management on purpose to get them to quit.
Plenty of people try to work hard and do a good job and get fired anyway.
Plenty of people have to choose between child care and medical insurance.
Plenty of people have to spend their retirement account on food.
Plenty of people have no meaningful contribution to their jobs.
Plenty of people spend the majority of their work day in unproductive meetings.
Plenty of people have to allow the company to control every moment of their workday, and attempt to control every moment of their off-time.
Plenty of people lose those jobs when management decides to reorganize the paradigms.
Plenty of people can't afford a house, ever.
Plenty of people can't afford to raise a family.
Plenty of people have watched their unemployment run out and the phone never rings.
Plenty of people have to lie in order to get hired.
Plenty of people have given up on ever finding another job, anywhere.
Yes, of course. All those thousands of people. It's all them. It's NEVER the fault of the incompetent people doing the hiring. It's never the fault of the businesses. They can do no wrong. They are blameless in their pursuit of profits.
Always better to blame anyone who complains than to fix the problem.
I'm a work study for the VA and work in a VA Medical Center...We've got some nurses who have made mistakes that have nearly killed patients, yet they still work there. As one nurse put it, it takes an act of God AND an act of Congress to get fired from the government...And that whole seperation of church and state thing makes it a bit hard for the two to get together.
Anyways. Let's see here, what's my experience with the computer people at my work...I need computer access to do my job, so I walk down to the building the computer people are in, and say I need access. They tell me I absolutely have to make an appointment and that I have to call a certain person's extension to do so. So I call that extension, leave a message with my name and phone number. I wait two days, nada. I call again. I end up calling 10 times in two weeks. NOTHING. My supervisor is getting pretty annoyed by now at having to let me use the computer while it's her logged in, and calls over to that extension and FINALLY gets a real person. She says my full name and how I need computer access NOW. The computer person says that she gave me computer access a week and a half ago. I say that if she did, she certainly didn't tell ME about it. Turns out the clueless person had given another person who had the same first name computer access, and didn't bother to see if the person calling (after she had supposedly given access to that person) had the same last name as the person who she'd given access to. Ugh.
-Jenn
Really?
I work for the DOD in a division of one of the military services. Our main business is weather. I've been a federal civilian employee since 1988. My computation date goes back to 1985 to include my military service.
I've been in the IT field since 1993. I have a BS in Information Science, which I worked towards and completed while I was employed by DOD.
When I started by current position in 1998, as a promotion to a GS-11 position, my gross annual pay (which includes the locality pay, an additional amount added to one's basic pay for cost-of-living expenses) was $38,593.
I received to step increases over the next two years, along with the normal 2-4% annual increases most federal employees get annually. In '99, my salary rose to $41,291. In '00, it went to $44,623.
Last year, the government realized that they were losing IT employees at too rapid a rate to the private sector and knew the only way to keep people employed in the service was to raise their pay to something comparable to the private sector.
In '01, my salary jumped to $52,226, about a 15% increase. This year, it moved up to $54.104.
In addition to my pay, I receive pretty decent medical benefits for with I pay about 25% of the annual cost (the Fed picks up up the rest). Also, my medical benefits expense comes off the top of my pay pre-tax.
I get cheap life insurance, and a pretty good retirement package, and I can contribute to a 401K-type plan that's done pretty well, with a government match of a percentage of my contribution. I get a generous annual leave and sick leave benefit.
If I took cash for the benfits, I'd say my annual salary would be close to $100K per year.
My bosses are appreciative of my work, and the job itself is challenging and satisfying. I have the freedom to try new ideas, including the use of open source concepts. We've had budget problems, and I've had to put some pet projects on the back burner...but mostly because I'm a one-man show. There's plenty for me to do, and they never hesitate to listen when I find new ways to solve old problems.
So, it looks like I work for a "small-medium sized company" (part of a larger organization) where I see "tangible results." Oh, yeah, I really feel like I'm doing something with my life.
Joe Dougherty, Florida, USA
The words I thought I brought, I left behind. So, never mind.