[mattduke]

http://www.mixpo.com/videoad/FWxrbqp9T1KE0HO0djUSXA/CIA

[Jotapay]

Government employment is a mixed bag. I'm going to give you an idea of the good and bad of it.

Typically, government employment is a joke. Mismanagement and the frustration for motivated employees is rampant. For the most part, I work in the private sector for a reason. The .gov sector would not challenge me.

I grew up in a Department of Defense environment and appreciate it for what it offers the people in the community. The positive flip side of the bureaucratic nightmare and inherent inefficiency is that the government typically does take good care of its people. I broke my forearm in two places and dislocated my wrist when I was 17, playing basketball at the DoD high school in Heidelberg, Germany. An Army surgeon fixed me up. A week in the hospital and three months in a cast later, I had the pins removed and I was virtually good as new. I saw him one day in the PX with his wife about a year later, reintroduced myself, showed him my wrist with the scar, and thanked him. He did a damn fine job in my opinion.

I've only personally met (on my own terms) one person employed by the federal government who could really think outside the box. Most Fed employees are worthless pencil-pushers. This person went to the Naval Academy on scholarship in Annapolis. I quizzed him on the limits they were allowed to use regarding their personal judgment. He was about 30 years old at the time and an officer in the USN. This guy was actually speaking to another officer on the USS Cole at the time of the attack when the other officer was killed by the blast. The summary of his response to my varied questions was that the USN Academy taught officers to think for themselves and exercise independent judgement. I was amazed at this and quizzed him further. He said that the USN does not require officers to adhere to absolute operations guidelines, they are granted generous leeway. They are taught history and operating procedure, but are then released to do as they deem fit and justifiable to a large extent. This amazed me, but it make sense if you understand the history of American ingenuity.

The USN recruited me right out of high school to become part of their nuclear program, due to my scores on the ASVAB test. I declined, because I still needed to answer some of life's questions for myself. My dad got a commission to the USN after getting an engineering degree at Rice and did alright for being in his early-mid 20s. About 20 years later he got a GS-rank civilian job and moved us to Germany for 14 years (I only lived there for 11).

You can do much worse than get a US federal government job. "Don't cut your nose off to spite your face" is my final recommendation, I guess.