Thread by @ACotonio

Due to @mzbat's mentor post, I'm going to start a thread about federal civil service, and why you should seriously consider it! I realize that's a touchy subject for some (considering current politics), but there's a lot of benefits to it:

2/ Juniors especially should think about it. You can work your way into the security clearance world, and rapidly move around with contractors. Fed contracts are a high risk/high reward area, but you can gain tons of exp and fill your resume up with interesting mission support.

3/ Its tough, but not impossible to go straight into fed civ svc. Consider fed contracting as a starting point, or a way to push further into a specific IT domain (any infosec sub, infra, etc). @ClearanceJobs (clearancejobs.com) is one of the best for fed ctr searches.

4/ Clearance review times have been dropping, so now is a great time to try it. I'll be honest; it is *really* difficult to get a cleared org to pick up a new person without a clearance. It's a numbers game... just throw out resumes and hope. Seriously.

5/ Cleared or not, fed civ svc is awesome for several reasons:

- Its stable. Even in infosec, you're prob not getting calls at all hours for emergencies. In my org, the uniformed military personnel pick up that stuff on shifts. I'm retired USAF, so I get why it's done.

6/ So you'll prob only work 40 hrs a week, with extremely rare OT. Hard to overstate how rare. In 20 years of total gov svc, I can count on my fingers how many times the civilians got pulled into OT. This is fantastic for parents, obviously.

7/ Crazy good benefits. Medical/dental can be cheaper and pretty comprehensive in comparison to many private orgs. Here's a snap of some dental plans for you to compare. Obviously, some private orgs may offer better but some of these are pretty good:

8/ Here's the downside... you're never going to make crazy money as civil service. Pay bands in my org/area for infosec is $75K-$132K, but I'm also in a pretty low cost-of-living area. You won't make Silicon Valley money doing this, but there's reasons to consider it.

9/ Fed civ svc gives you a real pension. Practically no one else in the US does that anymore. It's 1.1% for most, 1.7% (I think) for law enforcement. On top of it, the 401K matching is decent (100% on the first 3%, 50% on the next 2%). It isn't insanely good, but good enough.

10/ Sorry, meant 1.1% **per year** of retirement. E.g., 30 years of service = 33% of your top 3 salary. So if you're making $100K at retirement, you'll get $33K for the rest of your life... on top of your 401K contributions. That's pretty awesome imo.

11/ Forgot to include medical. Y'all tell me if these are decent or not. I have Tricare from the USAF. Here's a snap of some plans from opm.gov/healthcare-ins… :

12/ The mission. This is a big one for me, personally. I want to feel like what I'm doing is important everyday, and civ svc (or contracting) is a fantastic option for that. I've done IT/infosec my entire adult life, and have literally, directly saved lives during a mission.

13/ Every day, I know my contributions at work make a difference. I'm staving off nation state attacks, and hardening systems that matter to many Americans. That gives me a good feeling every day when I log off.

I feel like I can point at something and say "I did that!"

14/ Telework/remote is also an option. In my org, I work from the house 80% of the time. Some of my team is 100% (unless classified work that day), but I actually like going into the office sometimes for the social exposure. Even as an introvert, I need some contact lol.

15/ Disabled folks: This is a welcoming option. Every single person in my shop is disabled in some manner (deaf, mobility impaired, etc). Disability even gives you a bump on the resume stack if you choose. Ask me more about a "Schedule A" letter if you're interested.

16/ Opening the floor for questions! We can turn this into an AMA if you'd like lol.

//

17/ Addendum. Look for federal civil service jobs on USAJobs.gov. You'll mostly be looking in the 2210 series for IT stuff, but you can try keywords for other series if you're trying a different field.

Sorry, but I can't guide you outside of IT stuff. GL! //

18/ Addendum 2. A really important thing to remember: Look for a federal job while you're working and happy, not when you're unemployed. It is a long, long, long process. It can literally take years of silent rejections, and even months to onboard if chosen. //

Addendum 3. Sorry I didn't get to these earlier. I'm very adamant about work = work. I don't touch phone/personal CPU during office hours.

Also, someone mentioned earlier (and I cannot find it now, sorry) that clearances aren't necessary for most jobs. True!

Ad4. I was offering my experience with the DoD. Please keep in mind that there's a lot of awesome agencies out there that don't need a TS/SCI. Consider the IRS, GSA (18F), and more! //