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I live in DC, land of the professional Fed. At the absolute highest level and after adjusting for location, the most a DC Fed could earn is $164,200. No surprise that anyone with serious technical talent--and by extension, market value--doesn't want such a job.

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True, but consider some folks are content with a 38 hour week, may have automated large chunks of their job, and find the demands of working for a big public sector organization far less than that of a similar role in a private sector tech company.

If you can manage that, sure, sounds pretty good. But I doubt that's the case most of the time. None of the Feds I've had the chance to talk to sound like they're slacking off.

This is something I argue with myself a lot about. I work as a software engineer for a large non-tech company. They pay well, but I could easily go to a tech company and make 20% more. Except...well, in 18 months I've never had to work more than a 40 hour week. I can totally see the appeal of a government job.

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