Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 4691

Today I got offered a really, really enticing career move.

Essentially it's three years of special training followed by three years in DC interning at various places...six months here, twelve there, eight here, etc. At the end of all this I write a thesis paper of some sort and I get "professionalized" which means if I ever go to work for the government I would START as a GS-12.

Obviously this is way out of line with what I already had planned...but it is nevertheless interesting. The six-year commitment has me balking, of course.

I guess basically what spooks me about this is that...well...choosing a long-term career choice like this has so much...permanence about it. I would be 30 when I finished, and pretty much continue in that career field until I retired. It feels like once you "lock in" to something you're going to do for a long time...well...what's after that? Retirement? And then death.

Up until now it's been all artificial reality.
Strange how something this mundane can make me feel my own mortality :\

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 18145

Well. Speaking as a forty year-old, there are worse things than having your future locked up without worries as far as what yer gonna be doin to support yerself. Ask yerself a coupla questions: Is this somethin I can enjoy doin? Will it pay the bills? Are the benefits teh suck?

If you can answer all that to yer satisfaction, go for it. Don't be stupid, dammit! Jesus, I once thought that a twenty-five year watch would be a stinging indictment on my life choices. Now I think my felony record is more so, in that regard. Sign up. It's better than a career in the clergy, and yer well-suited for it anyway. And it sounds interesting. There are worse things than predictability in yer future. From this end, I can tell you it's an absolute plus.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: In a Blue, Blue State
Posts: 13077

#1. Would you enjoy the work? Nothing could be worse than locked into a career field that you hate.

#2. What are the benefits? Is health insurance partially paid by the employer? Is travel involved? What kind of retirement plan would you be under - is TSP an option?

#3. Is there room for promotions and career advancement? A dead end job is not what you want to lock into.

#4. Would your career be affected by politics?

#5. Is overtime pay available, or would you get comp time instead?

#6. Will this career cause you to be based in different areas of the country - possibly somewhere you do not like?

Just a few things to consider.

Starting at GS-12 isn't so bad if you are paid decently during the training and internships.

Last edited by billgerat on 02-07-2004 at 05:44 AM

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

quote:

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Originally posted by squee
START as a GS-12.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: In a Blue, Blue State
Posts: 13077

And Mug is right about predictability in your future. I never planned a career in government service when I was younger, but now at least I know when I retire that I have a damn good pension plan to live off of, and I won't have to eat cat food when I'm old and grey.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: In a Blue, Blue State
Posts: 13077

quote:

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Originally posted by Phil
GS-12 is...................?

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

The US Government pay people in hourly rates rather than salaries? Bizarre. That hourly rate is a bit shit mind.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
Posts: 10477

You can be one of those guys that retires out of the government at an early age and then gets a job in the private sector, drawing a government pension and making a full salary. I work with a bunch of them.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19584

Everytime I flirt with Mugtoe, he tells me it's a career move.

Careers are easy in that case.

Muggie has pretty eyes and he can talk a blue streak.

-m

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
Posts: 6971

Oh come on squee. You have decided you want to go the route of the government, your best option is to take any opportunity they throw your way and go with it. Will you enjoy the work? Of course, if you want to enjoy it. Will it pay well? Dude, you are better off than many people your age, and they are going to pay you some pension for "retirement" at a higher rate, no? Grab onto your balls and scream at the top of your lungs, "Yes sir, I'm the motherfucker for this job!"

Capice?

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Little Rock.
Posts: 2598

quote:

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Originally posted by Vegas
Will you enjoy the work? Of course, if you want to enjoy it.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 5131

quote:

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Originally posted by billgerat
I won't have to eat cat food when I'm old and grey.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 4691

quote:

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You have decided you want to go the route of the government

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Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 16306

Squee, your origin post here is somewhat lacking in detail. Would this require an additional term of service in the military to qualify for the position?

Which alphabet soup agencies would you intern with? Based on what little you've said, it would surprise me not at all if the GS-12 position at the end of this path were with No Such Agency in sig-int work.

My advice? Take the ball and run with it. You are temperamentally badly suited to pastoral work, and I don't think the Jesuit's will have you. Frankly, you'd hate molecular bio on the day to day lab grunt level, and I don't think you have the flair for doctoral level or post-doc level research programs as a principal investigator.

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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Mountains
Posts: 4698

quote:

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Originally posted by squee
I guess basically what spooks me about this is that...well...choosing a long-term career choice like this has so much...permanence about it. I would be 30 when I finished, and pretty much continue in that career field until I retired. It feels like once you "lock in" to something you're going to do for a long time...well...what's after that? Retirement? And then death.

Up until now it's been all artificial reality.
Strange how something this mundane can make me feel my own mortality :\

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Dumbfucksville!
Posts: 12164

squee, go with your heart. If it just doesn't feel right to do, don't do it. If you're gonna commit to something like that, I feel that you should either be excited about it or forget it.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
Posts: 6971

To reply:

Squee, yes you have chosen the path of the government. What do you think you are doing right now? Sure, you can change your path, though I do not see you posting about opportunities not funded by Uncle Sam.

You can always leave a "career." You can always do something else. If you want true independence, quit your job, leave the military, and do something on your own.

Sabine, future goals? Make your own goals. If a job takes you somewhere towards your goal then go for it, if it does not then do not bother. "Job stability" does not exist, it is something people crave so they can lose their sense of adventure and become docile members of the TV watching peanut gallery. Besides, nothing external will make you happy. Either you are happy or you are not.

quote:

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Originally posted by rodney
Doesn't always work that way, it's like saying a marriage will work if you really want it to.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Little Rock.
Posts: 2598

Not true. Hating your job and then saying to yourself "Well maybe if I look at it this way.." or "Maybe with time it will get better." is just deluding yourself. To say one controls their happiness by changing their outlook is crap. Apply that logic to anything else and it doesn't work. A job and a marriage are actually a lot alike, both require some form of commitment and have payoffs and drawbacks, and regardless of what you think a job requires that more people at least treat you decently enough to be happy. If your boss walks in every day rips you a new one just because he feels like it or is having problems at home you can't just say "It's okay because at least I got me them benefits!" Poking your head in the sand rarely solves the problem, in fact it just makes it easier for the problem to eat you alive.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: In a Blue, Blue State
Posts: 13077

quote:

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Originally posted by BnB
But he will anyway cause it tastes like chicken and liver.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
Posts: 6971

quote:

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Originally posted by rodney
Not true. Hating your job and then saying to yourself "Well maybe if I look at it this way.." or "Maybe with time it will get better." is just deluding yourself. To say one controls their happiness by changing their outlook is crap. Apply that logic to anything else and it doesn't work. A job and a marriage are actually a lot alike, both require some form of commitment and have payoffs and drawbacks, and regardless of what you think a job requires that more people at least treat you decently enough to be happy. If your boss walks in every day rips you a new one just because he feels like it or is having problems at home you can't just say "It's okay because at least I got me them benefits!" Poking your head in the sand rarely solves the problem, in fact it just makes it easier for the problem to eat you alive.

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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: My Own Reality
Posts: 321

holy shit you're not even thirty... quit fucking stressing and live alittle

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 4691

quote:

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Originally posted by Vegas
To reply:

Squee, yes you have chosen the path of the government. What do you think you are doing right now? Sure, you can change your path, though I do not see you posting about opportunities not funded by Uncle Sam.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Boston
Posts: 6971

Maybe I have completely misread you in the aspect. Then again, I know nothing of joining the military and what goes along with it. My suggestion: figure out what YOU want to do and plan a path to get there, and never stray from that path. If that involves leaving the military, Virginia, and the USA, so be it.

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