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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]…

We're in our early 40s with young kids. My spouse has been an SES for about 5 years, and I was recently asked by leadership if I might want to make the jump to SES. …

Try to make it clear that it might be the right job, but maybe just not the right time.  Don't close the door if you'd want that opportunity 5 years from now.  [/quote]

You’re young so this last point maybe the most important. I’ve been a GS15 for almost 15 years and am mid-50s now. We have about two dozen people like me in our division. At a meeting about staffing this morning someone brought up the lack of SES opportunities. Leadership responded that someone would probably retire in the next five years and so there’d be one spot. We looked at each other and someone said “but half of us are eligible to retire by then as well, so you’re saying there’s no path to move up left in our careers.”

A reason to consider this opportunity is that it can be worse to stagnate than to be challenged. [/quote]

Is it so terrible to stagnate though? You have a challenging, rewarding job with flexibility and seniority. I know so many 15s in this position. What is the harm in being satisfied with what you have? I struggle with this too but I also work to live no live to work and have to remind myself of that[/quote]

PP. a fair question, and the answer is “it depends”. Where I am it took most of us years of sustained high levels of effort to get the positions we’re in, and yes, it’s great to be a non supervisory GS15. But the characteristics that got us where we are doesn’t let us sit on our laurels for twenty years. [/quote]

I don’t know what your job is like but for me the reason we have non-sup 15s is because the work is really important and challenging.

I’ve been a 15 for probably a decade and I’m not “sitting on my laurels” — I’m working as hard as I’ve ever worked on really significant projects.

Being SES isn’t harder or more important work than what I’m doing— it’s just different. I applaud the poster who is keeping up morale for 60 people while managing politicals but I am happier doing the substantive work as SME. [/quote]

Lol. I’m the person you’re referencing in your last sentence. And you make a good point overall. I’m glad you know your strengths and what you like. Same here. I’m really good at the SME level work, but i really excel (and natural) at people leadership and strategy. I enjoy that so much more than being down in the weeds.  Being a 15 was a just a step along the way. But I hate seeing people who want to be SMEs applying for SES because they want power or a little more change. Completely wrong reasons to do SES. [/quote]

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