Same dream here - they work very interesting problems at very interesting scale, but I can see 3-4x the comp while working from anywhere? Not even a chance. I do sometimes fantasize about making a career shift when the cash comp isn't that important to me and the kids are out of the house, but as of now I value afternoon coffee breaks with my kids just too darn much.

Maryland.

To expand on this, NSA is located on Ft. George Mead, in the state of Maryland. I have no doubt (as in, this is true) they have locations all over the world.

Oahu, Hawaii is another notable location.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Cryptologic_Center

Just make sure not to fly to Hong Kong from there.

I wonder why they don’t pay more, it’s not like the government is shy about spending money on defence.

The government isn't shy about spending on defense, it is shy about spending on people. GS and GG pay scales aren't that great when compared to industry positions. Consider that GS-13 is often the max for SMEs in many engineering disciplines across the fed until you get into PhD territory (to stay technical, management roles more easily go up to GS-14/15). GS-14/15 if you're in cyber and somewhere like the NSA, maybe. And while that's better than GS-13, you're talking about capping at around $200k or a bit better in high cost of living areas with skills and clearances that could make you much more in industry.

They’re not, but they are shy about defying their own regulations around pay scales. The real money in defense is in private contracting.

This is accurate. Imagine if NSA paid FAANG people FAANG salaries how different the world might be.

The NSA does pay FAANG people FAANG salaries. It's just through private contractors, many of which you've never heard of.

Many of which you’ve never heard of.

Have you? Is this just public information I didn’t see? Or are starting a conversation with an impossible premise?

I also wouldn’t make assumptions.

That's the "royal you", not you individually.

If you go looking around on linkedin or crunchbase, you'll find numerous 10-50 employee defense contractors. Having known a few individuals employed this way, I would rank them as smart, capable, highly technical and easily capable of working at FAANG. They're getting comparable compensation/benefits with far less stress, and probably work on more interesting problems than the average Googler.

Some of L3's subsidiaries definitely recruit from HN

probably an element to it of not attracting the wrong people, they recruit largely fresh out of college and I think the expectation is that people stay, akin to a career in civil service.

If you had people cycling through one of the most critical branches of US intelligence at startup pace primarily motivated by money that probably creates some issues. Because they probably care where these people wander off to when they leave the agency

"The geeks who man the NSA don’t look much like Julian Assange, because they have college degrees, shorter haircuts, better health insurance and far fewer stamps in their passports." -- Bruce Sterling

At this point I'd rather work for the Israeli intelligence service.

The pager/walkie talkie shit will be legendary.

There’s lots of terrorist organizations brandishing terrorist tactics the world over, why limit your choices by focusing only on the Israelis? They all kill children, too, like the Israelis did during these last attacks, maybe that’s also down your alley.

Guess we were bound to get political comments, but do I really need to see r/iamverybadass on HN?

Maybe I should just take a break.

In what way is my comment redolent of r/iamverybadass?

That's fine but stop expecting us to care about jewish casualties or a certain jewish "genocide" then. I don't.

What the hell is wrong with you?

I'm an equality absolutist. No people, not even jews, get special treatment in my worldview. This is a radical position in the modern West.

I don't care, bro. I'm a white Australian-American. The idea that either side is committing genocide is laughable and belies complete legal ignorance. But saying that doesn't mean I don't know which side I want to win, on ideological grounds.

I'm sure the Israelis have also come to the conclusion that almost nobody cares, and they have to mostly look after their own interests, which is good - the sooner they open their arsenal properly against Hezbollah and Iran the sooner they can end things, instead of trying to fuck around with the UN and pointless resolutions and an international law game that nobody cares about.

Well you would be, by proxy.