[caw]

Reasons for not taking the fellowship:

If you want to work at a particular company, interning there is a good way to get in the door before graduation.

If you want to develop tech skills, you may develop them somewhat in the internships (I can't see the internships making you a manager, that'd be post graduation), but looking 5+ years after college it may not be to the degree you're seeking.

Pay freezes are a thing in government. You may go a few years without a pay raise if there's another recession.

Reasons for taking the fellowship:

You'll learn tons about dealing with people and their priorities. You'll have to coordinate with different departments and agencies. Hugely underrated skill.

Your work schedule will be 40 hours a week.

You mentioned middle-manager for IT initiatives. I can guess that the systems targeted for those initiatives are 10-15 years old at least, and you'll be responsible for maintaining the legacy whatever while transitioning to new technologies. Great experience combination.

If you can obtain a security clearance as a part of your government work, doors open in the private sector (Boeing, Lockheed, Harris, etc). Active TS/SCI clearances are worth pretty good money because you can be productive immediately and not have to do desk work for a year while you're cleared. If you hate the pay/benefits you can always jump ship to a contractor. This should still be true in 5 years.

[Kevin_S]

Just wanted to +1 for the note about the TS/SCI clearance. I am a contractor, and my firm will pay an employee $10k for referring a new employee that already has one. It took me 2 months of non-work before I received my interim, and it's only because it was pushed up from the head of my client.

If you have a clearance, companies in the space will be falling over themselves to recruit you.

[QuarterReptile]

I'm always surprised when I see things like this, considering the somewhat large number of military officers continually leaving service with this active credential,many of them from pretty technical roles.

What sorts of roles is your firm having such a hard time filling?

[decidetogether]

My biggest questions, after reading the information on this page (thanks everyone!), are for my partner rather than myself. She's a current government employee and there are no job guarantees w/r/t placement. She has a particular skillset and would definitely not be able to work remotely. She definitely requires the external structure of a job to be happy, so it's a big deal for her.

In addition, we'd have to get married. We are cool with that, but the greater problem is economic. We have about the same amount of student loans, but if my salary is effectively halved that would definitely be a hardship for us in the future.

[fred_is_fred]

> You may go a few years without a pay raise if there's another recession.

If you're in the private sector you might go without a job or a raise.