What’s it like working for the Department of Defense?

Micro Focus / Eng
hellabro

Go to company page Micro Focus Eng

hellabro
Sep 9, 2019 9 Comments

I’m interviewing with Perspecta soon, they have several contracts with the DoD working on some interesting projects. Is a government job a good place to learn and grow as an engineer?

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TOP 9 Comments
  • Don't do it. (Extremely) Outdated software and much lower pay than the private sector is the name of the game. Plus, modern practices like agile basically don't exist in government and government contracting work.
    Sep 9, 2019 1
    • New / Eng
      yourboi

      New Eng

      yourboi
      Exactly! Just posted almost the same comment lol
      Sep 9, 2019
  • Extreme job security if you're semi-competent is the best benefit. Even if your company loses a contract you will get poached for your clearance and experience. Work is extremely boring though and the tech stacks will be highly dependent on the contract. Agile is being used more and more now as is AWS GovCloud and Azure. Highly political work environments obviously due to many people constantly protecting their redundant jobs. Pay is mediocre, but it was great during the deep recession years relatively speaking.
    Sep 9, 2019 0
  • New / Eng
    yourboi

    New Eng

    yourboi
    If it’s software I haven’t had the best of experience, and heard the same from others. I would avoid personally.
    Sep 9, 2019 2
    • Micro Focus / Eng
      hellabro

      Go to company page Micro Focus Eng

      hellabro
      OP
      Yes, software developer role. Can you please elaborate a bit more on why you didn’t have a good experience?
      Sep 9, 2019
    • New / Eng
      yourboi

      New Eng

      yourboi
      Tech is usually old, have to comply with a lot of requirements, we just switched to react last year and still have to comply with super old internet explorer, the process is slow and long. Waterfall is generally used. It’s contract based so bottom line is big issue for company, not much room to learn more on the job. I think software engineering is more taken for granted in defense contractors. Also usually from what I’ve seen pay is on lower end, but that could depend
      Sep 9, 2019
  • The tech side is totally dependent on the specific job. There is new stuff and ancient stuff.

    One thing to consider in the (defense) contracting world is that, in many cases, engineers add value to the contracting firms by providing billable hours, not by doing good work. That means top performers may not be rewarded, because the firm makes the same amount of money off of top performers and slackers. If you want to push your professional skills and career, then these jobs might be a bad fit. Again, it's totally dependent on the specific job.
    Sep 9, 2019 1
    • Way more ancient stuff than remotely new stuff. It isn't half of one, half the other. And the tech is of a specific kind - mostly hardware. The skills that are more valued basically everywhere else - namely, web, mobile, and data science - are almost nonexistent in defense.
      Sep 10, 2019
  • SAP
    RrWs73

    Go to company page SAP

    RrWs73
    Safe from off-shore competition. Work has to be done in the US by US citizens
    Sep 9, 2019 0