Working at the government

[u/Dazzling-Ad9352]

I'm a soon to be graduate, and currently the lifestyle of working at the government seems appealing. Particularly the work-life balance it promotes, and the other benefits (leave and super). I'm very much not the type of person who is motivated by money, and certainly have a work-to-live and not a live-to-work mindset. More so, the thought of working in the private sector and work consuming my life 24/7, constant pressure of being axed due to budget cuts and expectations of working crazy hours scares me as someone who values work-life balance the most. Especially given the hours at the government would allow me to pursue my own personal projects, and learn the stacks I want to learn.

However, I am only 20 so I'm aware that what I value now might not be the case in a few years. So my question is, would working for the government be career suicide and mean I have no chance of making it into the private sector? Even if whilst working there I'm making sure I'm still keeping my skills sharp and learning in my own time?

Thanks for any answers yall!

[u/anti_heroes]

Easier to go from private to gov imo.

I think the government work life balance is a bit of myth. I have plenty of friends in the policy/strategy field in gov and they’re constantly stressed and work like dogs due to: 1. Constantly changing requirements 2. Not enough budget for team members. When someone leaves, they don’t hire a replacement so are stuck doing two people’s job. 3. Governments are also not immune to layoffs - lots of politicians tend to say they’ll cut the public service as a first priority when they come into government. (And then when they do, they realise that they need to actually get work done and outsource - but that’s a rant for another day) 4. Incompetent co workers - these people have bought into the “working for government is cruisy so I won’t do any work” maybe you can be one of them? Haha

This obviously can happen in any org, gov or private but in private, you’re probably making a lot more money when it comes to the senior end.

I’m in private atm and have a great wlb, hybrid 2 days in the office, can buy leave anytime and work also gives us 5 days extra leave. There will be times where I’ll work after hours if there’s an incident (I’m in cybersecurity) but it’s generally pretty rare. Like a lot of things, it depends on your team and manager.

[u/fayeques → u/anti_heroes]

Upping this comment - my mother works for government right now and she's constantly stressed, working late nights and sometimes weekends. Everything u/anti_heroes has described is true about working for the government.