Reply to Dinged for being "too smart" - how do I transition out of government?

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

No matter how smart or how experienced a person is, you don't just start a job and jump to the head of the line when it comes to assignments.  [/quote]

Um, except she did.  In the private sector you would absolutely expect someone who is experienced and can deliver to have priority for assignments.

Wow. [b] Is the expectation in government that people should wait in line regardless of level of competence?
[/b]
I can see why OP wants to get out.  [/quote]

Yes. I've seen what op is describing. I've only seen this happen to women, never to men.  I worked at a pseudo govt agency with genererally well educated but under-performing staff. Women who came in strong were often treated like this. [/quote]

I've never had a job in or out of government where talented people who can get along with others aren't immediately and highly valued. It just doesn't happen. If you're the kind of person who can take things on and work with different people, there will always be people looking to give you work and take you on and help you along.

OTOH, I've seen plenty of smart people crash and burn because their are their own worst enemies. If you walk into your first staff meeting and immediately start telling everyone how they can be doing their jobs better, no one is going to want anything to do with you. [/quote]

I worked in the government for many years, and although management loved my hard work ethic and my creative solutions to problems and rewarded me well, I found that the hardest thing to manage was my peers. Even when I did my best to be kind and learn from them, some of those that had been there a long time started to dislike me, particularly if they were my age. The older ones were fine, they were tough to change, but at least they knew that they should use my skills to their advantage. The folks my age had time and an environment that was conducive to gossip, etc and not do work. They came up with rumors regarding my sex/dating life (which was not that interesting!), my relationship to peers (which was nonexistent), and my work product (which was always good).

The difference was that private industry had taught me to track my time and to use it wisely. I left government when I started realizing that my mindset was changing and I was not being efficient and was sort of becoming the status quo (and I had other career opportunities, obviously). [/quote]

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