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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I just did this move - biglaw senior associate to gov't - about 7 months ago. I left bc I wasn't going to make partner and didn't have too much of a choice and I needed to move cities and get to DC for life reasons. I'm at one of the "great" agencies that's hard to get into and to be honest -- I am really unhappy and wanting to go back to any kind of firm.

Despite this being such a hard to get into agency that's so "high level," I find the people to be unmotivated and they only care about work life balance -- i.e. working as little as possible; I haven't met one person yet that I think is amazing at their job (though they are nice). So for me -- I am biding my time and thankful for my paycheck and the stability as I figure out whether I need to make a move to mid/small law or if I can get in house or whatever bc the thought of doing this for 10 yrs or life or whatever is too much to take.

So consider whether you are someone who needs/wants challenge and super smart people bc you may not get that.[/quote]

Your posts are interesting to me (a PP who likes government work) because of course you are partially right.  Not everybody in government is smart, and most are there for the work-life balance.  The significant cut in pay makes that 5 pm quitting time pretty important, because that's the whole point of the tradeoff!  If you came to government sort of involuntarily, I can understand why those perks don't appeal.  However, be careful not to conflate smart with busy / staying late.  They are not the same thing, especially in government where long-timers have the experience to know there are few true emergencies.  (This was true in private practice, too, btw.  How many of those late nights we put in actually had to happen, in the larger scheme?  Pretty few.)

My experience is that as people fill their time with things other than work -- notably, but not exclusively, family -- they start to appreciate the job more.  It's certainly possible that's not the case for you, though, and therefore not a good fit.

One last thought -- you may really be faster and better than many of your colleagues.  Someone has to be!  But as manager of government lawyers, my most frustrating employees are those who pride themselves on how fast they work but don't turn in the product I need -- either it's not the quality I need, or it actually isn't the product I asked for at all.  I value efficiency but I don't value speed / volume of work for its own sake.[/quote]

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