Federal tech workers in the US may be in ‘a world of hurt’ – Computerworld

On top of that, Janulaitis said, CFOs don’t want to expand headcount because doing so represents the greatest cost to an organization. “That is what they are doing to drive costs down,” he said.

Public sector IT workers often have different motivations and attitudes than their counterparts in the private sector, who face competitive pressures and financial incentives. Whether federal employees can flourish in that environment depends on several factors, according to Foote. Those include a federal worker’s current job role, (e.g., admininstrator, manager, engineer, developer, etc.); the technologies they specialize in; the industries they target for work; and whether they pursue opportunities with small, mid-sized, or large companies. Relocation is also often necessary, since many companies are moving back to on-site operations.

“Some [workers] cannot or will not make that leap and will even seek state government or even local government jobs,” Foote said. “Confronted with a fractured job market that isn’t being kind right now — even to private sector workers looking to change jobs — many ex-feds will no doubt choose consulting or some form of temp or contract work just to get some money coming in. And I’m willing to bet this strategy will work for them if they have very solid IT chops and they price their work competitively.”