Thoughts on Government Contractor positions?

Mar 31 8 Comments

It seems like Government Contractor roles tend to have great WLB but usually weaker TC, considering how slow the Fed moves. What are your guys' thoughts?

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TOP 8 Comments
  • Not even good WLB considering you have to clock in your time and clock 40 hours every week. If the company isnโ€™t wfh friendly thatโ€™s being in the office and fucking around for 40 hours. Work in tech might be harder but I rarely have to do 40 hour weeks to finish my work and when Iโ€™m done, I donโ€™t have to think about staying in the office go get to 40 hours
    Mar 31 1
    • From what I've seen you can usually leave early, tell them you have to pick up your kids, and nobody says a thing. There are some days of just dicking around and killing time though.
      Mar 31
  • It depends. You can get excellent wlb and great pay: 250-500k in DC metro or you can get horrible managers with 100-150k and strict deadlines.
    The mileage may vary. Pick your company and project wisely.
    Mar 31 1
  • As someone who worked for the DoD as a contractor for over 8 years recently. I would not assume WLB is better. The Federal Govt is huge and everything will hinge on what contract you're on and the company you work for. I have years of exp with Northrop Grumman, and a bunch of other businesses in the industry. If you end up working a mission critical systems you will not have WLB. My best advise is try to find someone you know already working in the org to get the scoop on the WLB much like you'd do for any other job.

    Things that make federal work not worth:
    - Pay not good
    - Long drives to the shitty parts of towns to work on Military bases.
    - No remote work (depends on contract)
    - working in a windowless building w/o a cell phone.
    - having to walk very far to my car to check my cell phone.
    - long queues for clearance processing
    Apr 1 0
  • I'm currently working for gov contractor and I'm getting tired from constant office trips. I want to work wherever I want. I don't mind coming to an office but not as a requirement everyday. WLB is very very very chill. My team puts in like 20 hours a week max. However, I've seen some teams work a lot more. But TC is ๐Ÿฅœ
    Mar 31 1
    • Yup, my boss even had us come in for an 8AM standup the other day, ostensibly for security, but nothing we talked about was even considered SSI, and it wasn't in a secure room, just his office. Thankfully we are only 2 days a week hybrid otherwise, and frankly I average about 10 hours per week myself. Some days are just standup and chill.
      Mar 31
  • VMware
    aupa02

    Go to company page VMware

    aupa02
    My husband was a government contractor - his company was full time remote even before the pandemic began.

    He had a lot of the flexibility that I have, but like someone else said, there was a timesheet he had to fill out every week. They had "unlimited PTO" but you still had to put it in the timesheet. And they had a pandemic leave meant for caretakers, but started giving him crap last fall about using it, as if the pandemic was over during the delta spike! Every time our son had a minor cold he had to stay home from daycare.

    His pay was also barely in the range for the HCOL we live in, since they were hiring folks all over the country. I made significantly more than him. That's not a guarantee of every gov contractor though.
    Apr 1 0