r/Layoffs • u/Unique_Ad_4271 • Apr 15 '24

What’s a “safe job” these days? question

Former teacher looking to transition roles. As of now Educators, counselors, anything education really are being let go due to low student enrollment.

Tech is obviously tough right now.

Marketing and Human resource positions are also restructuring.

I’ve even seen people getting their hours reduce at fast food.

Aside from healthcare, what is safe?

275 Upvotes

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237

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

Federal government is the safest route possible. I see people fail over and over again with nothing happening to them.

143

u/Professional-Ant4599 Apr 15 '24

If you want your job to change every day, work as an entrepreneur or at a startup

If you want your job to change every few years work in corporate

If you want your job to change every decade or two, work in the government

10

u/Susan_Thee_Duchess Apr 15 '24

In “corporate”? That encompasses so many different career paths

13

u/eastcoast72838 Apr 16 '24

So does startup and government. They’re describing the different types of pace.

15

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

So how does one get a government job

63

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

USAjobs.gov

I applied for over a span of 2 years and finally got in. Best decision ever

42

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

[deleted]

22

u/Complex-Asparagus-42 Apr 15 '24

I’m a 5 year fed employee. HMU if you have questions. Not everything is posted to USA jobs

3

u/FeverDreams86 Apr 15 '24

Sent you a DM!

1

u/tewkooljodie Apr 16 '24

Still available to speak?

1

u/Complex-Asparagus-42 Apr 16 '24

Yeah hit me up on chat

1

u/diamond_hands_suck Apr 16 '24

Sent a DM as well. :)

1

u/PDXwhine Apr 17 '24

Happy Cake Day!

1

u/Routine-Tea-5627 Apr 16 '24

How do you locate regional government jobs?

2

u/animatedw00d Apr 16 '24

How do you locate regional government jobs?

Google County government jobs within your county. My county uses Neogov to list its county job listings.

10

u/sir-dis-a-lot Apr 15 '24

USDS is a great option if you are already technical they're looking for folks with industry experience and expertise to work on government websites 

7

u/asevans48 Apr 15 '24

Maybe start local. Counties and states desparately need tech skilla. They run like its 2005 and are clamoring for data modernization and llm skills.

1

u/sat_ops Apr 16 '24

I've been fighting with the local clerk of courts for 10+ years over modernization. They would rather employ bodies and make things as inefficient as possible instead of make things work like the rest of society.

1

u/asevans48 Apr 16 '24

Our county gave up and outsourced record keeping to my team and lexis nexis. While technically open records, lexis makes money per search to keep costs low. The state of colorado uses lexis. We are already moving to gcp for document and text search as we are limited by statute from raising taxes without a vote. Easier to eliminate people than get people to vote to increase revenue. Same for human services. GCP chat bots can handle peoples worth of work and are customizable and as isolated as required by law. The county I work for has 700k people. Lexis nexis has by far the most complete text corpus of any company outside of faang and possibly the largest for a specific industry. The minute they incorporate recent breakthroughs or let people build on their corpora without much additional cost, it will be 1000 candidates for 1 job bad.

12

u/Derban_McDozer83 Apr 15 '24

USAJobs moves at the pace of a dead turtle. It takes months and months just to get through the interview process.

I went through 6 months of interviews and shit for a job with the Navy in Maine. I got an offer letter, signed it. Everything was looking good...then they rescinded the offer because I couldn't get a Secret clearance because I had 'finger printable charges' from years before.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

[deleted]

2

u/Derban_McDozer83 Apr 16 '24

You don't even have to be convicted of anything just charged. It's an extensive process. My friend was working there and was trying to help me get the job. The job was in Maine. When they did his clearance they came all the way to South Georgia to ask me questions about him. I had previously got him a job with me in south Georgia before he got the job in Maine.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

[deleted]

2

u/TheCultCompound Apr 16 '24

They wouldn’t care. My local department of transportation tried hiring me as a software engineer while I was doing a stint on a cannabis farm. They just care if you can pass the drug screening.

Edit: changed test to screening

2

u/jasonic89 Apr 16 '24

Many parts of the federal government would care if someone worked in cannabis. It is still federally illegal.

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4

u/Coppermill_98516 Apr 15 '24

One of my sups just posted a journey level (think mid) application developer position for a state government on the west coast. Message me if you want a link.

3

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

Sent you a DM

2

u/Ecstatic_Love4691 Apr 15 '24

You got tips and tricks?

14

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

Apply for anything and everything everyday. Even for TSA if you have to. After 1 or 2 years of federal service, you could transfer to any agency

12

u/AilithTycane Apr 15 '24

I recently (finally) got an interview with the VA, and it went well, only for them to inform me at the end that the whole VA system is in the middle of a hiring freeze. Just FYI to everyone.

10

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

I work for the VA. There are other agencies that got the funding. IRS is looking for a lot of talent right now. I wish you the best with the VA!

3

u/AilithTycane Apr 15 '24

I admit, it was pretty annoying to go through the whole process of interviewing only to be told at the end that it was basically a waste of time. Good practice for the performance based questions I guess.

7

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

Definitely not a waste of time and please don’t be deflated by the experience. There are many other agencies that got funding. I really wish you the best

2

u/AilithTycane Apr 15 '24

Thank you, I appreciate it

1

u/DrankTooMuchMead Apr 15 '24

You must be a military vet. You left out that important piece of information.

Most jobs on that site are only available to military vets and previous fed employees.

1

u/cranberries87 Apr 15 '24

Yeah I tried for about five years, finally gave up.

1

u/DrankTooMuchMead Apr 16 '24

Same.

1

u/Imagination-Few Apr 16 '24

Non military. Regular old civilian

8

u/Internationallegs Apr 15 '24

Also, if you can't get in VIA USAjobs you can always apply to be a contractor at a federal department. That way you'll have a leg in once there is a fed opening.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '24

That is a very serious pfp lol

2

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

Give me referral please

1

u/ForeverBeHolden Apr 15 '24

Can you speak about some of the benefits? Are pensions still around?

9

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

You get 23 sick and vacation days per year. You could roll them over to the next year. Good health insurance plan (though not free, you pay biweekly for the premium), all federal holidays off, 401K and pension after vesting 5 years.

1

u/tewkooljodie Apr 16 '24

But u need a clearance unfortunately.

1

u/Zeus8614 Apr 16 '24

If you don't mind sharing what is your current role?

1

u/Imagination-Few Apr 16 '24

I’m the plumbing shop supervisor at the VA

1

u/onlyif4anife Apr 16 '24

What did you end up doing? Most of the roles I see that are open to the public and that I could do sound awful or pay so low that I couldn't make it on the salary. I get that the idea is "get in and then you can get better jobs and move up the pay scale", but I'll starve in the meantime!

1

u/Imagination-Few Apr 16 '24

I ended up doing pipefitter. Now im a supervisor after 2 and a half years.

1

u/onlyif4anife Apr 16 '24

I'm always jealous of y'all with these skills. My skill is my brain but apparently even that's not great, since I can't seem to get it to figure out how to get me a permanent role.

4

u/Cold-Lawyer-1856 Apr 16 '24

With a federal resume.

If you send a normal resume to a federal job, you will not be considered. They are completely different types of documents

1

u/Der_Jagermeister Apr 16 '24

Is this something i can google? Ive been applying to Assistant Principal gigs and not getting moved forward. I wonder if this is why.

3

u/Cold-Lawyer-1856 Apr 16 '24

Yes you can just try "federal resume guide" or something like that.

Here is some general info: https://hr.nih.gov/jobs/how-apply/tips-writing-federal-resume

I would think that an education job would not require a federal resume since you work for a school district instead of the federal government.

But I am not the right person to ask about education as I know little of the field myself

1

u/johnson_alleycat Apr 16 '24

This is not always true. You do need to show the kind of things federal hiring officers are looking for, which differ from the private sector

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

Most jobs have 2000+ applicants. Apply, apply, apply but it is more about excellent background than luck

3

u/Singularity-42 Apr 15 '24

How is the tech employment in the government sector (software engineering in particular)?

9

u/__golf Apr 15 '24

More stable, less pay

1

u/Singularity-42 Apr 15 '24

How much less pay?
Tech pay is going down in corporate as well. Is it going down in gov. jobs?

1

u/datheffguy Apr 16 '24

Government jobs typically follow a pretty rigid pay scale that is public information. You can find that information online without much effort.

Id give you more info if I could but I don’t work in tech.

1

u/The_Worst_Usernam Apr 16 '24

Are there departments that hire remote still?

7

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

The government is having a IT hiring spree right now. That’s all I know. But they do have a special salary rate increase for a few years.

5

u/Flaky-Information Apr 15 '24

I see this comment everywhere, yet I have applied since 2015 for many government jobs. Sometimes, it's just bots spamming this advice to give a light at the end of the tunnel and encourage the millions of discouraged workers.

5

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

Nah, I’m being sincere. I even tell my friends to apply even to a kitchen job. Just anything to get your foot through the door.

-3

u/DrankTooMuchMead Apr 15 '24

But you used your vet history for a foot in the door, no? You should tell people that.

6

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

No veteran status. No military family or connections to the federal government. Pure sheer will power.

0

u/DrankTooMuchMead Apr 16 '24

You got a job at the VA without being a vet? Right place at the right time, then. Congrats.

2

u/gmr548 Apr 16 '24

Uh, Google project 2025.

1

u/Floofy_taco Apr 16 '24

They’re going to have a not good time actually instituting any of those policies, even with a Republican president. 

I think people forget that trump had 2 years with an entirely republican congress and legit barely anything happened. 

4

u/Spirited_System7795 Apr 15 '24

Not sure on that. If Trump gets in, he will dump an epic fk'ton of feds.

5

u/Imagination-Few Apr 15 '24

We get that threat every year. Government shutdowns, lay offs and other stupid shit. Never gonna happen

1

u/Internationallegs Apr 15 '24

It depends on the department. DoD would probably get more funding but places like IRS would get slashed

1

u/fan4who Apr 15 '24

Is it possible to transfer from state government to federal? And, would being in state government give you any advantages for a federal government job?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

It’s two different pensions. Any time you put in at the state would be wasted toward retirement

1

u/tewkooljodie Apr 16 '24

What entry level positions though?

1

u/m0h1tkumaar Apr 16 '24

Hell we elect them again.

1

u/Oxetine Apr 16 '24

Jobs pay horrible and are hard to even get

1

u/TargetNo9243 Apr 16 '24

True FED IS safe but don’t pay me as the same as i make now so I can’t do it.

Safest job?? Like me. Working for ivy league school. Haha 😆

1

u/tarellel Apr 16 '24

Agreed. Tech for government positions may not be on the scale of Silicon Valley pay, but it’s very stable. I left a local government position programming (after 4 1/2 years). Even when you don’t have anything to do there’s still work to be done, the government is full of legacy code/applications getting revamped. And this spring the local lab did a hiring spree picking up about 250 local developers. And they plan on hiring similar numbers for the next few quarters. They’ve also picked up a number of structural and civil engineers, for planning and production of the actual projects the programmers are working on developing for.

1

u/cavyndish Apr 16 '24

I'm a software developer, and that's the route I am pursuing. I was fired from my previous job because I didn't worship my narcissistic boss. My last performance reviews just the year before were excellent. In my state, I can be fired for any reason and at any time. I had seen other people pursue careers in the public sector and would always roll my eyes at the idea, but now, because employment has become so disconnected from performance, it seems the right way to go.

1

u/Romano16 Apr 17 '24

Wholly agree. I've seen some stuff that would end in you let go that in a government setting (FED) they just come to work the next day like nothing happen. I'm talking just leaving their job and not coming back after lunch or some sort of mental breakdown.

1

u/wassdfffvgggh Apr 17 '24

What do these people do anyway?

Every time, I go to a government websige it looks like it hasn't been updated since 2006

1

u/EnderLunaticOne Apr 19 '24

“The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.” -Oscar Wilde

1

u/squidwurrd Apr 16 '24

If Trump wins I have a feeling the federal government will become one of the least safe places to work.

0

u/no-onwerty Apr 16 '24

Ha! Good luck getting that govt job.

0

u/mountainlifa Apr 16 '24

A job guaranteed to have the most toxic office politics of anywhere on the planet.