In terms of qualifications, people have different things that motivate them to work in certain fields/jobs. People value things other than money as well, such as power and influence, ability to impact change at scale few organizations can match, feelings they are contributing to a meaningful mission/cause, etc. It's not just about money and overqualification is many times because of the way career ladders work in government and the educational, training, internship opportunities the government pays/provides for that you are unlikely to experience in the private sector. Government will sponsor employees to work an internship in the U.S. Senate for 2+ years, or attend a postsecondary education at Georgetown/Harvard/GWU, etc. Not just for senior level employees, for mid-career ones.
Re:Scammers siphoned $36B in fraudulent unemployment payment...
by bladegash on Wednesday December 30, 2020 @05:22PM
(#25586910)
The level of compensation is not normal for engineers, that was the point I was making. There are a lot of talented engineers out there who A) have zero interest in working for a FAANG, B) are perfectly talented, C) have jobs that pay just as well. Yes, that applies to those in government too.
Well, there's probably 100-200k engineers combined working at FAANG jobs, who have the option of the FAANG salary or the government salary. FAANG pays so /many/ paychecks that the expectation really is that high for people who can pass a FAANG interview. There are a lot of people who /can/ pass the interviews but choose not to, effectively taking a pay cut to go work on things they're passionate about; only a few of these end up working in 'boring' parts of government. The US Digital Service was meant to make it a broader/better path, though.
Your people description (B) is worth considering, too: I (personally) am unlikely to take a job I think I'm 'overqualified' for unless it's in a specific problem area I really, really care about. And 'overqualified' sounds near synonymous with 'few growth prospects': if the opportunities are there, why haven't they been taken? And if they aren't, why should I take a pay cut to work in a space with fewer opportunities for growth?