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[quote=NASAguy][quote=Anonymous][quote=NASAguy]I'm 56 and have been a NASA contractor for 29 years.  I have 10 year old twins, so I will be working here at least another 12 years until they graduate college.

But there are many people at NASA who work well into their 60s and even quite a few who work into their 70s.  This agency has won best large agency in the federal government like 8 of the last 10 years.  It is a fantastic place to work and people love it here.   NASA values experience, especially relevant experience needed for science and engineering positions but also people who know how to work the system to get things done.  Older people often have very valuable institutional knowledge that is prized here.  [/quote]

Hah, didn't know there were other NASA folk here.  I work at GSFC as well.  Curious if you know how much salaries are for your contractor? Mine starts out crazy low (70ks) and then we tend to top out at $150k unless business development/proposal side.  Is your company about the same?

We have many older people, partly because I think salaries top out early so there's not too much savings in pushing out and replacing ($150k vs $70k for a freshout)[/quote]

No real idea.  I've worked for 7 different contractors over the 29 years and what you've cited is pretty close to my experience.

I can say that I suspect at least some people get paid above that max range, but those tend to be people that have very specialized skillsets and are in high demand.  For example, I know a few scientists who were civil service, then retired and are working as double dippers and I really suspect that they are making more than $150K.  And I know a few network engineers who are key employees and involved in some critical infrastructure roles who get paid more than that.  But the exceptions are pretty rare.

I also know a few lower-end folks who are being hired for very basic non-skilled positions at the lower end who are making less.  At one point, I was a contract technical lead and we had a guy who interned with us during college summers in a basic IT support role.  He ended up dropping out of college and came to work for us full-time.  With no college degree, he was offered a lower end salary that was under that $70K limit, probably closer to $55-60K.  But it was much better than he was going to get most places as a college drop-out.  The college degree made a big difference.

Heck, when I started in 1992, I was very happy to make $29K in my first position here at GSFC!  I was young, single and it was plenty for me.  I was lucky that my first manager did some research into market values for our job and in 1995, he gave two of us (me and a guy who hired 2 years after me) a substantial raise to help us come up to closer to industry standards for our job.[/quote]

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