Jumping from Defense to Commercial - Transition Idea

Leidos / Eng
ymjtx11

Go to company page Leidos Eng

ymjtx11
Feb 24, 2021 14 Comments

Should I leave my current, slow/low growth defense contractor job to the commercial side via AMZN/MFST cleared jobs or do I go straight to commercial?

- Currently located in the DC Area
- 4 yrs exp and working on MS in Computer Science

Main reasons for leaving defense:
- most of the tech is not that interesting to me/older
- lower salary trade off for "job security" mentality
- most skills are project specific and will not translate to other industries
- lack of work location flexibility
- your compensation is greatly based on how long you have been working and actual performance has little input
- time for a change of pace
- I can always come back if I want to

I think I have reached a point in my young career where the coveted "job security w/ government clearance" means little to me. I am planning on transitioning from Defense to Commercial and I have gotten a few recommendations from former colleagues who have made the change. Most of them went to work for AMZN or MSFT and used their clearance for a few years before transitioning out of the defense world as a whole.

- I have been looking at a few jobs at MSFT - CTJ that seem to be a good starting point to move to a company with more work other than defense.

- Do I go that route, work MSFT - CTJ for a couple of years then try to transition to commercial software engineering either within MSFT or outside of MSFT..? OR Do I go straight for commercial software engineering jobs i.e. Facebook, Square, Google, etc.

Any tips on interviewing for MSFT/AMZN?

What is the TC like for someone in my position?

Any and all feedback is much appreciated!

#engineering #software #swe #microsoft #defense #amazon

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
TOP 14 Comments
  • Lockheed Martin / Eng
    RawheadRex

    Go to company page Lockheed Martin Eng

    RawheadRex
    Get out ASAP if you're serious about going commercial.

    Long-term defense experience is poison on a resume at FAANGs (except maybe rest-and-vest Google) and FAANG-wannabes/startups.

    They typically avoid the slow, no-real-sense-of-urgency, over-specialized, stick-in-the-mud bureaucratic culture that's rampant in defense like the plague and assume it's "infected" you if you've stayed in defense for more than a year or two even if you're early career and low on total YOE.

    Leetcode, polish your resume and go full commercial while you still have fairly current skills or else you'll end up stuck in defense/government your whole career.
    Feb 24, 2021 3
    • Lockheed Martin / Eng
      RawheadRex

      Go to company page Lockheed Martin Eng

      RawheadRex
      Yeah, within the next year or two. After having interned at a startup and having this as my first real full-time CS job I can definitively say I prefer commercial side.

      The WLB in defense is great but the work I'm doing is brain-dead easy shit that anybody with a semester or two of introductory CS could do. Doesn't help that the stack is all JEE and Oracle shit that was mostly deprecated 15 years ago (we just now rolled out Git for example) and the lack of any real coding standards and code review process endlessly propagates bad practices, tech debt and janky software that just promotes bad habits instead of giving you opportunities to improve your skills/experience.

      Gonna miss getting paid six figs to shitpost on Blind and Reddit all day and looking like a SWE god for showing people with 15 YOE how to write JUnit tests correctly but there's more to life than this.
      Feb 24, 2021
    • Leidos / Eng
      ymjtx11

      Go to company page Leidos Eng

      ymjtx11
      OP
      I feel you, time to make a move and change the trajectory of our careers. Best of luck mate!
      Feb 24, 2021
  • Microsoft (specifically Azure) is hungry for engineers with clearances right now. Imo it's a good time to try them out. They're even giving out 15-25% guaranteed quarterly bonuses to cleared employees
    Can refer anybody who's interested just let me know
    Feb 24, 2021 6
    • Leidos / Eng
      ymjtx11

      Go to company page Leidos Eng

      ymjtx11
      OP
      Thanks for both of your input! I was planning on moving to msft ctj for maybe 2-3 yrs before going commercial unless I get some commercial offers soon. Msft ctj would probably be the easiest/fastest transition for me to get out of my current position
      Feb 24, 2021
    • greymatter.io
      hdoebs

      greymatter.io

      hdoebs
      How is the interview bar on the government side of MSFT?
      Mar 4, 2021
  • New
    vcx908a

    New

    vcx908a
    Hard to tell what your prospects are without clearance level. Like if you have a TS SCI FSP you can easily net over 200k with one of the smaller boutique consulting firms. There's also Palantir, Anduril, Scale.ai and others in the DC area. Even SpaceX will take an SCI clearance if you're willing to move.
    Mar 24, 2021 1
  • I can refer for msft
    Mar 28, 2021 0