Oh, I'm a contractor and I'm paid decently, but the working conditions are terrible. I've been trying to find a job outside of defense/govt work for a long time, but either the pay isn't as good (the one or two times I managed to land an offer) or I'm not a "cultural fit." Not having a network outside of the govt bubble makes it hard.

Hi there, James. I'm a software engineer at Google. I've worked with many former government and defense contractors here whom I would consider some of the best engineers. Please send me your resume (or anyone else with a similar situation!); my email is in my profile. We have offices all over the US (but not Florida) so the bay area wouldn't be a requirement.

Well, I finally got tired of this place and went and got an offer from a local aerospace company, I suppose I ought to see how that goes :)

Man, I grew up in Brevard, and I wish I could work there, but unfortunately all the software jobs are for defense contractors. You'll probably have to work remote if you want to get out of the defense bubble.