<story><title>Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/google-eric-schmidt-us-digital-service-academy-2020-7</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>curiousllama</author><text>This will fail not because it&amp;#x27;s a bad idea, but because the government will reject it.&lt;p&gt;Contrary to popular belief, established universities do a very effective job of preparing tech talent for government jobs.  The issues, which Schmidt seems to miss, are twofold:&lt;p&gt;(1) the government, with few exceptions, is a TERRIBLE place to build effective tech skills.  Slow, heavily outsourced, bureaucratic beyond belief, and low paid, there is very little creativity and variety in which to build unique technology, and no reward for the BS.&lt;p&gt;(2) Current universities already prepare tech workers well. In some cases, there are even joint CS-Public Policy degrees (e.g., MSCAPP at UofC).&lt;p&gt;Those engineers with policy expertise just don&amp;#x27;t want to work for the government. I know; I was one of them, and I could not for the life of me find a policy tech job that paid even HALF what tech companies would pay me.&lt;p&gt;Schmidt should focus on building &amp;quot;the department of innovative technology&amp;quot; and pay engineers appropriately.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jayparth</author><text>I mean... &amp;quot;The Department of Innovative Technology&amp;quot; is kind of what the USDS is. It&amp;#x27;s ran by very competent people, and do short &amp;quot;tours of duty&amp;quot; with competent SV engineers instead of long-term, safe, bureaucratic jobs. Here&amp;#x27;s a podcast:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=DvXN7fRTVds&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=DvXN7fRTVds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think you&amp;#x27;re misinformed on the topic, but that&amp;#x27;s OK. I assumed it was a typical government agency until I got further information, and then I changed my mind. Will you change your mind?</text></comment>
<story><title>Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/google-eric-schmidt-us-digital-service-academy-2020-7</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>curiousllama</author><text>This will fail not because it&amp;#x27;s a bad idea, but because the government will reject it.&lt;p&gt;Contrary to popular belief, established universities do a very effective job of preparing tech talent for government jobs.  The issues, which Schmidt seems to miss, are twofold:&lt;p&gt;(1) the government, with few exceptions, is a TERRIBLE place to build effective tech skills.  Slow, heavily outsourced, bureaucratic beyond belief, and low paid, there is very little creativity and variety in which to build unique technology, and no reward for the BS.&lt;p&gt;(2) Current universities already prepare tech workers well. In some cases, there are even joint CS-Public Policy degrees (e.g., MSCAPP at UofC).&lt;p&gt;Those engineers with policy expertise just don&amp;#x27;t want to work for the government. I know; I was one of them, and I could not for the life of me find a policy tech job that paid even HALF what tech companies would pay me.&lt;p&gt;Schmidt should focus on building &amp;quot;the department of innovative technology&amp;quot; and pay engineers appropriately.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>MattGaiser</author><text>&amp;gt;  Slow, heavily outsourced, bureaucratic beyond belief, and low paid, there is very little creativity and variety in which to build unique technology, and no reward for the BS.&lt;p&gt;Currently a public sector tech worker, although in Canada. We can recruit some great people as although the salaries are not FAANG, they are pretty good for people who don&amp;#x27;t live in cities with that.&lt;p&gt;Problem is, they don&amp;#x27;t give raises or if they do, the raises are tiny. I earned 10,000 more choosing a government job over other offers where I am. I have been in the role 11 months. Recruiters are consistently offering 10,000 more than what I make now. Guess how long the average person stays? Just over one year.&lt;p&gt;If I quit my current department and went to a different government, I could get that 10,000 dollar raise and if I quit after another 1-2 years there to another government department, I would probably hit near the maximum bracket for tech work in the government unless I took a lead position.&lt;p&gt;Government also doesn&amp;#x27;t recruit people out of school for tech unless they have a full slate of internships. You need at least one year of experience to join. So there is this narrow 2-3 year in your career window where government work can make sense.&lt;p&gt;So not only are you kind of forced out fairly early in your career, but they incentivize spreading your time among many different departments as that is the only time you can get a big salary jump.&lt;p&gt;Plus all the other things you say are true. Decisions take months for anything.</text></comment>