“Safe” Federal positions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is under Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is the safest place to be at the moment. I get special pay like 255K/yr, and we're very highly in demand. Should I decide to leave CISA and go to work for financial service company, my salary should be easily around 400K/yr.

I was going to say all Cyber positions in all agencies is a very safe place to be .... Cyber positions were on the except list in our agency from the Fork.

[Anonymous]

I don’t even think permanent career non-probationary positions are safe at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone with knowledge of what a contractor cost in my office, we pay the company a GS 12-6 ($118,304) salary for an executive assistant. They in turn pay the EA ($87k).

That doesn't seem terrible. Figure they are paying about $6K for the employer side of FICA and maybe $15K for health insurance benefits puts you up to $108K. Maybe they give that employee a small 401K match so there's a few grand profit there.

Or are you saying the EA pay and benefits in its entirely is $87K in which case wow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone with knowledge of what a contractor cost in my office, we pay the company a GS 12-6 ($118,304) salary for an executive assistant. They in turn pay the EA ($87k).

That doesn't seem terrible. Figure they are paying about $6K for the employer side of FICA and maybe $15K for health insurance benefits puts you up to $108K. Maybe they give that employee a small 401K match so there's a few grand profit there.

Or are you saying the EA pay and benefits in its entirely is $87K in which case wow!

I don't even know what to say about you thinking the employer would only take a few grand profit instead of pocketing the $21k difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is under Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is the safest place to be at the moment. I get special pay like 255K/yr, and we're very highly in demand. Should I decide to leave CISA and go to work for financial service company, my salary should be easily around 400K/yr.

I was going to say all Cyber positions in all agencies is a very safe place to be .... Cyber positions were on the except list in our agency from the Fork.

Aren't they firing all the CISA people who worked on election security?

No one is safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone with knowledge of what a contractor cost in my office, we pay the company a GS 12-6 ($118,304) salary for an executive assistant. They in turn pay the EA ($87k).

That doesn't seem terrible. Figure they are paying about $6K for the employer side of FICA and maybe $15K for health insurance benefits puts you up to $108K. Maybe they give that employee a small 401K match so there's a few grand profit there.

Or are you saying the EA pay and benefits in its entirely is $87K in which case wow!

I don't even know what to say about you thinking the employer would only take a few grand profit instead of pocketing the $21k difference.

I don't know whether the PP is saying the $87K is the total pay + benefits cost of the employee or if that is just the salary they are paying them. If it is just the salary there are other costs in there too that I mentioned that would make the profit margin more reasonable. I agree its an astronomical amount of profit if that is the total comp cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is under Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is the safest place to be at the moment. I get special pay like 255K/yr, and we're very highly in demand. Should I decide to leave CISA and go to work for financial service company, my salary should be easily around 400K/yr.

I was going to say all Cyber positions in all agencies is a very safe place to be .... Cyber positions were on the except list in our agency from the Fork.

I’m in cyber and none of us were exempted at our agency. Plus we had to deal with everyone reporting those emails as phishing (adding insult to injury!!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is under Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is the safest place to be at the moment. I get special pay like 255K/yr, and we're very highly in demand. Should I decide to leave CISA and go to work for financial service company, my salary should be easily around 400K/yr.

I was going to say all Cyber positions in all agencies is a very safe place to be .... Cyber positions were on the except list in our agency from the Fork.

Aren't they firing all the CISA people who worked on election security?

No one is safe.

Yep.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/07/trump-guts-cyber-workers-00203087

[Anonymous]

DOGE is the safest place to be. You can get hired despite leaking data in your last job, post white supremacist garbage, make tons of mistakes in your work products mixing up millions and billions of dollars, and post classified information on the Internet and still have a job.

Plus you can make 160K+ a year at the age of 19+ even if you have no experience or credentials.

[Anonymous]

I agree DOGE is the safest place to be right now.

Intelligence community was always considered relatively safe because cooler heads would agree that turning out a bunch of disgruntled intelligence officers onto the street is risky. China and Russia are already talking about stepping up recruiting efforts. But the people in power right now do not have cool heads, or perhaps even worse they want that to happen.

[Anonymous]

Patent Office! Revenge of the Nerds!

[Anonymous]

I don’t think there really are “safe” positions outside of something like air traffic controllers.

In my op/div they’re looking at programs to cut, rather than say all {insert job series here} positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Patent Office! Revenge of the Nerds!

+1 but only if you’re in patent or trademark examining

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think there really are “safe” positions outside of something like air traffic controllers.

In my op/div they’re looking at programs to cut, rather than say all {insert job series here} positions.

I think that is the best approach given series could apply in any area, program, division, etc.

I think this is the plan for DEd since they can't physically close it w/o Congressional approval. Get rid of the programs that aren't mandated etc. and it will be so small it won't really exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree DOGE is the safest place to be right now.

Intelligence community was always considered relatively safe because cooler heads would agree that turning out a bunch of disgruntled intelligence officers onto the street is risky. China and Russia are already talking about stepping up recruiting efforts. But the people in power right now do not have cool heads, or perhaps even worse they want that to happen.

The CIA is firing most of its "probationary"/new hires today, apparently.