Leaving Private Sector For Federal Job And Paycut That Come With It?

[Ramza Beoulve]

Key Demographic Information: I'm 29, single and I live in Orlando. I do not currently own a house. I have degrees in pharmacy and healthcare informatics.

I work as a pharmacist job in a good private sector job that has me only working over 40 hours a week if I want to. However, my key dissatisfaction with my job is that I feel the work is very unsatisfying day-to-day and there is not a promotion path whatsoever.

I see a government position I believe I qualify for at GS13. However, the position is in the (Silver Spring, MD to be exact) DC area so the cost of living is much higher than where I am. It is possible they could match my current salary, but they could also throw me into the lowest step. So looking at anywhere from an effective 25% to 33% paycut.

Has anyone left the private sector and taken the associated paycut to land that federal job?

[Giro]

Apply for any job that you may find interesting.  Once you get an offer, do the analysis to see what you are looking at regarding pay cut, COL, job security, potential promotions, pensions, retirement fund matching  etc.

My husband is a civilian and the benefits definitely need to be taken into account when doing the analysis.  I stayed a contractor to go for the big bucks but that's a bit more risky as far as no defined pension, more employer changes, etc.  We decided for him to work as a govt employee to offset the risk of my job.  One of us would always be pulling in a paycheck but you are right, public sector pays less.

[sol]

but you are right, public sector pays less.

That's true for the majority of government jobs, but not all of them and not all of them in aggregate as compared to all private sector jobs in aggregate. 

For example, federal janitors and office temps typically make more than their private sector counterparts, because these are low-skilled jobs at the bottom end of the pay scale and the federal pay scale effectively has a higher minimum wage because of the mandatory benefits package. 

And it's not true in aggregate because the government has a lot more lawyers and engineers and bureaucrats than the private sector does, and not nearly as
many fast food workers, so the average federal job is higher up the income spectrum than the average private sector job. 

But for most people looking to do the same job for the feds as compared to privately, then yes I agree with you; the feds pay less for the same job.  Part of the trade-off for that lower salary is better job security.  Federal jobs are harder to get, but also harder to lose.

[Jack]

I have degrees in pharmacy and healthcare informatics.

The software company I used to work for would have loved to hire you as a product owner (i.e., domain expert) for their pharmacy management product. (I don't know if they still need one, but they had trouble keeping that position filled because [I think] the pharmacists they tried to employ didn't have enough of a software-development mindset. We spent a lot of time where our product owner was the project manager's Magic 8-Ball.)

[AZDude]

Don't do it!

Obviously, different employment, different people, etc... However, I was never more miserable in my life than the two times I worked in government. Horrific environment.

[mozar]

I don't think the issue here is money. Do you really think that working for the government would be more interesting? It's unlikely.

The federal government is aware that different places have different living costs. You should negotiate to get that higher salary to match the higher COL, then live somewhere inexpensive. Rent in DC is astronomical but you're lucky that the job is in silver spring. You could live in a place like Adelphi and do a 15 minute commute to SS.

[Dee18]

I loved working for the federal government.  The work was interesting and had much more autonomy than a similar job that was private.  Also, the initial salary grew quickly due to pretty automatic annual raises...not sure if that's still the case.  I also loved living in the DC area because there was so much to do and wonderful places for weekend trips.