What's the culture like in federal? I’m coming from a fast-paced tech company, mulling over some opportunities bc I want a better work-life balance, but I'm worried government might be too slow and overly rigid. Are departments becoming more modern and innovative?

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I worked as a fed across a handful of agencies, and have been a contractor at even more, all in the tech realm.

In general, the fed pace is going to be drastically slower than in the commercial sector. Bureaucracy and inertia are real things here in general.

There are pockets of faster paced work here and there, but by and large the federal government earns its reputation of being a slowly plodding behemoth.

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I came to government communications from breaking news about a year ago (I support tech now) and appreciate the ability to breathe and work on longer-range projects. I have a ton of projects in flight as well as hot tasks at any given time, but it's way less stressful when I can shift deadlines accordingly. Yes, it's definitely more rigid (chain of command in particular) but that's a small sacrifice for better work-life flow.

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Honestly, federal work isn't suited for everyone. If you're accustomed to fast-paced settings, the bureaucracy might come as a surprise.

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I mainly support tech operations. It varies office to office. At the top (current admin) and in the tech policy offices, you get a higher proportion of new grads, people who bounce between the private sector and government, and people who are hungry and want to work. But you also have to work with a lot of offices that may want to do the big-org/gov/Corp move of having endless cat herding meetings where 6 people talk and 40 just observe. And some things in gov are just slow. Contracting, HR, etc.

I personally love working with the hungry, fast movers from the private sector and wish we had more, but ymmv. *usually* if you're in an office that's more "cutting edge" (like a research agency) you'll probably like it more.

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