[voidpointercast]

Thank you very much, this was exactly what I was looking for.

Just In vaguest terms, if you could go over your own route, with no personal details, obviously, I would be appreciative.

What barriers existed, what would you prepare for differently, etc.

[thewildginger]

I made an account to also reply to this. My first hacker news comment, here we go.

These are all good points, and I want to add another good niche.

The government research labs need people. The pay is not as good as the private sector, but the desire to work on meaningful projects is aplenty. Batelle is the big one, with smaller labs. It's a complicated bureaucracy, but as a researcher, support staff for projects, or scientist, you don't have to go that route. All the mentioned paths can be hard to start in except the military straight up, but you mentioned other problems with that option.

Government labs have projects with clearances and without, and by working for one you can start to build a path to getting a clearance. If you have experience as a SWE you should be able to find a job at one of the many labs all over the country.

To clarify, They are mostly DOE. https://nationallabs.org/our-labs/

https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/national-laboratories

I've heard kf SWEs, engineers, and data scientists who started there. Also companies that are government contractors can be a path to breaking into the field like Oracle, IBM, AT&T, and traditional defense MIC companies like Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman, etc.

[S8h94O9emf1x]

I failed in getting into USDS which I attribute to lack of experience (US Digital Corps solved this) so I ended up in a standard private-sector SWE job. Got some exposure to electoral politics and did a tech policy "bootcamp" but realized both weren't for me, at least at the time.

During COVID, I decided I wanted to leave the startup world and move into the security field which caused me to revisit the idea of working in government. Decided to join the military as a "cyber" guy to obtain a TS (closest thing in the US to guaranteed full employment) and get access to TRICARE. Landed on commissioning as an Army Reserve Officer. It took several months to get my application together (admittedly, I took my time), 6 months of waiting to go to training (probably COVID related), 6 months of initial training, and 10 months of job specialization training. People might encourage you to direct commission, but it's extremely competitive and I didn't want to wait around only to get denied.

Honestly, the biggest barrier is the lack of transparency into the bureaucracy. It's hard to tell who the "point person" is or how you should actually go about doing something. I was lucky to find someone who helped walk me through the process.

The biggest learning was that you shouldn't lie, but telling the full truth will fuck you over.

I do wish I had joined the military earlier. I was always interested in it but told myself it wasn't compatible with my day job. It's definitely a young person's game and everything you do is based on how long you've been in, so the earlier you can start that clock, the better off you'll be.

I would encourage you to think really, really deeply about what is important to you. Easier said than done, I know. You say you don't care about money. Is that really true? Some people think they don't care about money, but then they have a kid or three while look at their friends who do half the work but make 5x, and change their minds. Do you have an idea of where you want to live? Because most military bases and government research facilities are in small towns with few activities for young people. Do you think you can handle the crushing inanity of the federal bureaucracy? Are you okay with going months, or even years, without shipping a project? Just be sure because I know several of people who spent more time getting hired into a federal job than they did at the job itself.

If you have more specific questions, I can answer them directly.