There have been a few threads on this topic in the past; maybe someone better than I am at searching the Eng-Tips archive can pull them up.
Advantages of the public sector:
A1. You're almost always the client. You're not selling, you're buying. This means a more relaxed you. In the private sector, in every single professional encounter, you're representing your firm and having some effect on its marketability, even if your official title doesn't have the word "sales" anywhere in it.
A2. In most engineering positions, bottom line isn't as big a factor in decision-making as it is in private industry. It's not about billable hours. It's about making sure that contractors follow the specifications.
A3. Benefits are good, hours are good. This can make up for the crappy pay. (@Greg: appallingly low pay for government workers drags down pay scale for all civil engineers.)
A4. Job security is often better than in the private sector.
A5. There are a lot of people who choose government work because of A3, so you get to be around people who understand that real life is important too, and it's not all about being a workaholic. This is healthy.
A6. Working for a DOT can get you some really cool and varied experience.
Disadvantages of the public sector:
D1. Despite A2 & A4 above, financial situations do get very weird, because you're at the whim of legislators who have no idea what it is you do. At the federal level, you can have a couple months of no funding at all, during which you do collect a paycheck but all your programs are up in the air. At the state level, it's usually not quite as weird but it still can get weird. A financial crisis in the public sector has a different flavor from a financial crisis in the private sector. It is much weirder, and has a lot less to do with the kind of economics you learned about in college.
D1a. Because it is politicians who set the budget, and people who appeal to politicians who are at the top levels of your agency who implement the budget, don't expect a lot of logic in financial decisions. If the legislators are fussy about line item A this year, expect some cost-cutting meaures in A that might increase B by more than the cuts to A, because no one in power is looking at the big picture. It's all about doing whatever The Bosses (politicans and also the travelling public calling the hotline to complain about real or perceived mismanagement or malfeasance) have their attention on this fiscal year. Next fiscal year the priorities will have rearranged.
D2. As a public servant, you will be subject to much more stringent ethics regulations. Comps that you might legally and ethically accept as a private sector employee might be illegal for government workers. There are some state agencies that won't let their workers accept so much as a cup of coffee or a logo ballpoint. (Some agencies are more reasonable and understand marketing toys and business lunches.) I know of at least one agency that doesn't allow its employees to park state vehicles at restaurants. (See D1a; it costs a lot more to order in. But see hotline reference above as well.) There may be other policies that basically assume that you and all your peers are a bunch of goddam crooks just waiting for the opportunity.
D3. Pay is crappy compared to what you'll see your buddies at the same career phase getting in the private sector. My starting salary was something like 3/4 what my classmates were starting at who went to fancy consulting firms. But see A3.
D4. A5 above is cool, but government work also, partly because of the bottom-line issue (or lack thereof), makes for a high tolerance for mediocrity or even incompetence. It's damn hard to get fired from a government job. And the focus on "perception, perception, perception" (see D1a and D2) means that in some offices what's valued most is not innovation and excellence, but keeping one's head down.
All in all, I am not at all sorry I took a government job. Your mileage, as they say, may vary. If the job looks cool, take it.
Hg
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