Returning to Private sector post Federal work

Welcome back to the fray!  Where will your home base be?

@notsomuch I'll be stationed at home in the StL Metro running the survey division of a multi-state firm.

Without delving into the political spectrum, I'm curious, if you are willing to comment: is your departure from Federal employment prompted or caused by this past year's upheavals in the federal budget/spending/layoffs?

Hey man glad to see you back. It took me a bit to get my head wrapped around private sector life again when I made the leap.  But I had more years in military and fed services so you should be able to adjust quicker than I did.  But I still snap as if I am still a Marine sometimes when people under me don’t listen to what I want them to do and how and they tell me what they are going to do.  Lol.  

@peter-lothian Yes, the chaos for sure weighed in on my decision. But overall, the Federal sector is not for me.  I had 21 years in the Private sector before switching over to the Fed side so I struggled from day one to pivot to the process and forget the profit.  The slow roll of work, the feeling of nothing ever being completed, but only being worked on was tiresome.  Another factor was knowing you are not in control of your career, promotions goofy and buddy-buddy.  However, I will say, I had the ability to work with really good people, many Agencies, and very different and exciting work you will never see in the Private sector.

@olemanriver Ha! I can only imagine.  One thing I learned is that working directly with Military folks, active and former is great!  Much respect! Would hire a 12Y, MOS 1361, Navy Seabee EA,  Red Horse any day!

@stlsurveyor Nice.   Yeah some great people.  I think you summed it up above. Pivot to the process vs profit or even just getting the job done.  If you still have my contact hit me up sometime.

Posted by: @stlsurveyor

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.... the feeling of nothing ever being completed, but only being worked on ....

I have found that working for my city. Jobs never really end. They transition from planning to design to construction to maintenance phases. And those phases go in fits and starts, with timelines in years and decades rather than weeks and months. But at this phase of my career it is where I should be.    

Forty-plus years ago I did engineering work for a very large military contractor.  Many of the standard practices were anti-efficient. One example being that I could not assist other workers on a project at times when I had completed all of my own assigned work.  There were times when I might have no work to do for a month or more.  At the same time, I might get a pay raise because my employer had convinced the military representatives that Senior Engineers (my job title) should be paid a minimum of $xx,xxx.  Crazy!

@stlsurveyor I received a letter in the mail from a St. Louis firm about a month ago.  If I wasn't so tied down to West Tennessee, the money would have been too much to turn down.  If you got that much, congratulations!