Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023)

Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by troutwine on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @12:54PM (#34985711)

It's just rough that the richest country in the world provides such a negative incentive for working in the public interest. I fully accept that government work won't be a lottery ticket type opportunity but asking people to sacrifice serious income for a max of four years without getting to participate in pension, etc that other government work allows and is a _real_ incentive is just wacky. (Maybe I'm out of date on the pension.) And the four year max, why? Surely the federal government out of everything must value institutional knowledge but how can you possibly achieve that with a four year cap?

Dunno. I love the idea of the US Digital Services but the way it's structured just does not come across as a serious effort on the part of the federal government to achieve its mission.

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by pempem on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @01:27PM (#34986311)

Agreed and not sure why this is down voted.

It would be totally possible to properly fund this over funding defense as much as we are. It would also likely greatly contribute to efficiency and cost savings if things like our IRS or healthcare or even parks could operate like they do in Japan for example.

Its worth asking ourselves why the offices that serve us, the citizens, on the daily are constantly underfunded to the point that the work is not rewarded in financial, social, or career oriented ways.

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by troutwine on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @01:54PM (#34986722)

> Its worth asking ourselves why the offices that serve us, the citizens, on the daily are constantly underfunded to the point that the work is not rewarded in financial, social, or career oriented ways.

I couldn't agree more. I fundamentally do not understand why working for state or federal government could not be seen as a prestigious thing, instead of something you end up needing to sacrifice to participate in. Working in the public interest _is_ an excellent thing to do, to my mind, but we sure don't pay like it is, to our collective detriment.

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by giaour on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @01:55PM (#34986735)

My understanding is that the four year max is more a consequence of funding sources federal hiring laws than an intentional choice. People get hired into USDS as "excepted service"[0] for a term "not to exceed two years" that can be renewed once. USDS has its own interview process, does its own job listings, has its own recruiting staff, and I think there was no way to do that with permanent, competitive service positions.

[0]: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information...

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by hanifak on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @05:17PM (#34989114)

How long did your post-offer process take? Specifically the background check process.

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by giaour on Thursday March 02, 2023 @08:50PM (#35004816)

Mine was quick because I'm boring and got lucky, but I've heard of it taking months.

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by roflyear on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @02:37PM (#34987187)

To be fair many gov employees do very little

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by troutwine on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @02:38PM (#34987204)

Citation needed.

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by roflyear on Thursday March 02, 2023 @02:50PM (#35000957)

https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/report/government-em...

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by troutwine on Thursday March 02, 2023 @05:40PM (#35003098)

That's making an argument about hours worked?

> According to a detailed “time diary” dataset that measures work wherever and whenever it takes place, government employees work around three fewer hours per week and roughly one less month per year than private-sector workers. Substantial differences in work time persist even after controlling for occupational and skill differences between sectors.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0275074003258823 would suggest the effort is on-par, which strikes me as reasonable. If you have good job security why butt-in-seat if you're done for the day?

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Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2023) by evilduck on Wednesday March 01, 2023 @05:19PM (#34989143)

There's effectively zero institutional knowledge in software in the Federal Gov anyways, it's been contracted out to lowest bidders with high churn rates for decades at this point. At best you're going to get a big contractor like General Dynamics or Booze-Allen with one person who's been willing to jump between those companies and contracts as they continue to underbid each other, but maintain the effectively identical role, or you're going to get a subcontracting company performing the equivalent.

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