Moving from education sector to private sector?

borumas

Hey guys, I've been working for a school district now for 5 years and in that time have moved from a computer technician to a network technician and lately have really had to desire to find work outside as the pay is peanuts and the appreciation level of my work is even worse from management. I have worked for a small computer company in the past and as a contractor for IBM in the past as well and I did really enjoy working for IBM but I was wondering what other people's experiences might be of private versus public sector jobs?

nel

ive been in the same situatio but in the UK.
i moved in the private sector to a big company and i would never look back. theres so much more oppurtunity for learning and for climbing the pay scale. the only thing i would say about a big company is they have individuals who are specialised to a specific area so sometimes you may not touch on the stuff you wanna learn.
overall i found the public sector abit of a joke. no real prospects, no real pay, no appreciation, nothing! like i say this was my experiance. i have just got a new job as a sys admin at my place but i am relocating to a different country! so im v. happy at the mo!

one more thing - i found in the UK that public sector jobs were more secure than private but until recently the UK government are starting to cut red tape and make shift of some ppl - dont know if this is the same in the US?

borumas

Thanks for the reply, our government hasn't made any changes that affect us to my knowledge. I think you are right about being able to move up quicker in a private sector job as here our evaluations have no effect on our pay raises- so the lazy guy gets the same raise as someone like me who works their tail off. Congrats on the promotion and relocation, sounds pretty exciting.

blargoe

Public sector, small IT shops, contracting.... these are great ways to broaden skills relatively quickly. Long term, private sector is probably better in most cases if you really want to max out your potential.