Federal job vs contractor job in mid-40s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the federal worker pension program include healthcare? TBH at this point in my life I would do almost anything to ensure access to quality healthcare after my working years.

Yes; you can keep your current coverage under FERS while retired...you will have to pay for it. Being a govie in your 40s is a good gig.

I'm a 40s financial regulator and will be until I retire. I'll never be scum wealthy, but the balance of positives can't be beat.

[Anonymous]

Meant to say dcum wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meant to say dcum wealthy.

Difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with not counting your chickens— even assuming your friend is right that the hiring official would like to hire you it’s not that unusual to have to cancel an opening because the people coming thru the cert as highly scored aren’t the people the hiring officer thinks are right for the job.

Whether a job is challenging varies a lot across the fed govt but in general there is a lot more challenge and responsibility than most people expect.

Also coming to the feds late in your career is a great time— work 10 years/until you are 57 and you have retiree health benefits for life, which might be almost as valuable as your pension. Compare that to the increasing risk of age discrimination over that same time period and to me, for a single parent (with less room for error) it’s a no brainer to move.

You better hope that no one finds out about that, because both of you would be gone in a second. No, a millisecond.

That’s not true at all.

The announcement needs to go out for open and fair competition. Then HR has to review the resumes. It only matters if the hiring official gets the resumes (assuming OP even makes the cert and he agency doesn’t have some mid-point between HR and the hiring official like mine does) and then if there is someone else clearly more qualified. There shouldn’t be anyone clearly more qualified if OP makes the cert.

All this said, I’ve seen people who literally lost the job that was announced for them. A veteran got through or someone else was just clearly better qualified. Most interviews are panel interviews so more than one person needs to agree. Of course people are brought in on purpose, but just as often people lose the jobs they think they’re certain to get.

OP if your friend thinks that you’d be hired, they should be helping you understand how to frame your resume and interview style to get the job in a fair open competitive environment.

We all know nepotism happens in the Government, just like anywhere people work, but it’s not as straightforward as in private industry.

This is so true. I have seen multiple favoritism selections going on and the selecting official is chumpy with the candidate. I don't see that as a problem.