Government job vs private company

I have recently gotten two job offers from a local village as help desk/desktop support and a big consulting firm downtown from where I live. I've been thinking a lot about which job I should take. Both are contract to hire with same pay but the government job has more benefits such as a pension,cheap subsidized housing. They both offer health benefits as well. The thing is I'm a young guy (22) and I've been told its better to move around companies as you will get paid more but long term I do like the job security of it. I'm still trying to finish my BS as well but with the consulting firm its next door my campus and the hours are set unlike the village job where I may be called in for emergencies since they are in charge of public safety and entertainment venues. I know with the village I will learn a lot for sure since the manager is close to retiring and needs people to move up. The consulting firm said they have people move out of help desk and up the latter but I honestly just can't choose which job to take. What do you guys recommend long term such for me?

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Comments

pert

I recommend not doing gov't work until later. Every experience I've had with it is filled with bad people with bad habits. I don't know why it is that way, or if the problem is just my perspective. I would get started in competitive, cut-throat style industry and learn those habits, learn to be competitive. Later on down the line, when you have settled down and have a family, thats the time to look for gov't jobs.

Just to reiterate. This is my opinion, not stating any of this as fact.

NetworkVeteran

pert wrote: »

I don't know why it is that way, or if the problem is just my perspective.

I suspect it's because there are few incentives in government or union jobs to out-compete your co-workers or competition.

Nyblizzard

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

I suspect it's because there are few incentives in government or union jobs to out-compete your co-workers or competition.

Bingo. Came up in a staff meeting last week (local government)

neo9006

Let me state this since I am an government worker, I would go with pert's answer if I knew what I knew now I be working somewhere else, depending on what state your in and stuff and how it works, I would recommend going private for awhile make that money and then be in the position down the road for the government job. That is my thoughts on it from my perspective.

zdx

neo9006 wrote: »

Let me state this since I am an government worker, I would go with pert's answer if I knew what I knew now I be working somewhere else, depending on what state your in and stuff and how it works, I would recommend going private for awhile make that money and then be in the position down the road for the government job. That is my thoughts on it from my perspective.

I have been looking for any entry level IT position for the past few months since I don't have much experience apart from my computer lab aide job at my college. This village job runs much like a business since they have very few residents(2000 pop.) and more businesses (In fact more hotel rooms than residents!).

The private job offers 50 cents more then the government job.

I feel that a government job is very difficult to find and this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for someone in my position.

ahardinjr

I work for a large Federal agency in cyber security and the trend I see is people tend to go private sector / consulting to make the big bucks, but when they want stability and job security (i.e., starting a family or settling down), they move to the public sector.

I on the other hand, was thrown into the public sector via the Cyber Corps SFS program right after grad school. I don't make nearly as much money as I would in the private sector, there is a lot of bureaucraticred tape to deal with, tons of policy to deal with, and everything moves at a snail's pace, but my graduate degree was paid for and I was essentially handed a job. I owe the government less than a year of my time and after that I'll probably move to the private sector; right now with furloughs, pay freezes, dwindling budgets, and low morale, it is not a fun place to work.

My suggestion to you is to go private sector, move up and around, increase your salary - then when you are ready for stability, then consider the government.