Anonymous wrote:Negotiate. This is an offer.

OP should try and she may get a bit more, but there isn’t usually a whole lot of room with government offers.

Negotiate. This is an offer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re going to travel and have you live abroad, you will do it early and the government will pick up your expenses - housing, etc. After a few years your new salary will have moved up and if you are smart, you will have banked much of your earlier salary. It’s apples and oranges. I took a job like that and in my low earning years I lived on the government’s dime. Came home and had a downpayment saved.

OP here - yep, I'm very aware of the government benefits while living abroad. I do have those sorts of options in my current job as well but of course huge prestige difference in being a contractor vs. 'real' government employee.

Definitely struggling with this choice as this offer was a life-long dream of mine but the pay cut just feels insulting.

Well, right now I’m getting paid and our contractors are not if they don’t have a generous company, and most of them are not. Looks like they’re bringing you in at an 11 or 12. That’s normal for entry. You will get past that fairly quickly.

I know $135k sounds like a lot, but you will top,out in contractor land.

Anonymous wrote:If you’re going to travel and have you live abroad, you will do it early and the government will pick up your expenses - housing, etc. After a few years your new salary will have moved up and if you are smart, you will have banked much of your earlier salary. It’s apples and oranges. I took a job like that and in my low earning years I lived on the government’s dime. Came home and had a downpayment saved.

OP here - yep, I'm very aware of the government benefits while living abroad. I do have those sorts of options in my current job as well but of course huge prestige difference in being a contractor vs. 'real' government employee.

Definitely struggling with this choice as this offer was a life-long dream of mine but the pay cut just feels insulting.

Anonymous wrote:No way. You should only leave your job for a better one, which usually means a higher salary. Doesn’t sound like a better job. Less money.

Most people who head to government take a pay cut. There are other benefits, such as job security, which looks pretty valuable right now.

If you’re going to travel and have you live abroad, you will do it early and the government will pick up your expenses - housing, etc. After a few years your new salary will have moved up and if you are smart, you will have banked much of your earlier salary. It’s apples and oranges. I took a job like that and in my low earning years I lived on the government’s dime. Came home and had a downpayment saved.

Yes.

No way. You should only leave your job for a better one, which usually means a higher salary. Doesn’t sound like a better job. Less money.

That is not a pay cut, that is an insult. Is there any way you would be promoted in the gov job? It would be a no for me.

Anonymous wrote:How close are you to retirement?

I plan to work at least another 25 years. The pension benefit does look valuable.

I had the same thing happen to me recently with same numbers as you. they were able to bump me up a couple more steps but it was still 30k less than what i was making. If I was closer to retirement (am 15 years away), I would have considered it.

No

How close are you to retirement?

NO

I work for a name brand government contracting firm with decent benefits, work/life balance, interesting work, good supervisor, and relatively good job security (for the industry though you never know in contracting). I'm quite happy where I am and am on path to promotion.

Just got a government offer for what in the past would have been an absolute dream job (think foreign service / intel). But it entails a huge pay cut and I'm somewhat less interested in (this) gov job than in the past, especially given current events (involves constant international travel/living abroad). I'm also getting older (pushing 40) and am not so sure about making a change at this point in my life.

Kinda at a loss here. Any advice from the board?

Current salary: $135k
Government offer $87k