A few posts ago I was complaining about a recent “pay cut”. My old friend Tejush, argued that I should jump ship and head to the private sector. Another commenter, Laxpat, seemed to say that the private sector is not all it’s cracked up to be. Sort of.

Welp, it just so happens that I have all kinds of ideas about this topic. So without further adieu, I present my ideas on Private vs Public Sector Jobs.

I have worked in a quasi-Private sector job, a Private sector job and a Public sector job.

Working for the railroad was a quasi-Private sector job because the total workforce was somewhere between 400 and 600 people. Working for a large corporation brings with it a bureaucracy almost as large as a small town. Policies and procedures would come down the pike that had little to do with day-to-day operations. So we had our safety briefings and conference calls. We had little pieces of paper we had to fill out when we were near active tracks. If you got hurt, God help you, there were extensive procedures to follow.

I was just another worker bee in the giant hive of the railroad. The pay was good, the retirement was good (no Social Security - had Railroad Retirement), the company pension was good, the benefits were good and I had the chance at getting a large bonus each year (10% of my pay). Had I stayed with the railroad, I would have been able to retire with a very nice nest egg.

Health insurance was new to me. It was my first real job with benefits. I do not remember how much I paid per month for health and life insurance, but it had to be less than $100. I am sure it is more now, but back then it was peanuts in the grand scheme of things. Because there were so many employees, we had great group coverage. I had a basic life insurance policy that would pay my wife 3x’s my annual pay and I had an additional death and dismemberment policy that would pay $500,000. I was only 25 years old and worth much more dead than alive.

I left the railroad to move back here to Albany. I got a job with a local engineering firm. They had a few other offices across the state, but the total workforce was only around 70 people. The work was good but with it came a new pressure: billings.

I had to be profitable. I had to do enough billing each month to cover my pay and the pay of non-billable people. The pay was ok. I had to take a pay cut to move here, but that was expected because Albany is NOT Atlanta. But two things killed me: Insurance and Vacation.

I was given two weeks vacation. With the railroad I had three weeks and would have more within the next 5 years. At the engineering firm, the most I would ever have was 3 weeks. With the railroad we didn’t have sick leave. Since we were salaried professionals, we were allowed to take the time needed. As long as your work did not suffer. At the engineering firm, every hour was counted. It took some getting use to.

Insurance almost killed me. When I left I was paying over $600 a month for insurance. Luckily it was pre-tax dollars going to cover it, but still, it hurt the bottom line. The company had an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). It gave you the opportunity to own a piece of the company. Each year the company would be evaluated and each employee would be given stock in accordance with their pay. In theory it was a nice perk, but the way they had it set up caused problems. When I left, I was able to have the value of the stock rolled into an IRA, but people who left after me have had their stock frozen. I think this has something to do with the poor financial position of the company.

I would get a bonus each year, but compared to the railroad, it was tiny. Part of the problem I had with the company was that there was no real distinction between high performing and low performing employees. With no incentive to be a high performer, everyone settled into being average…the company is still having problems being profitable.

My job here at the City is a pure Public sector job. My paycheck comes from your tax dollars. Well, not yours…maybe Cullen’s, but he’s moving…so only those of you who live here. Thanks for the money. My family really likes it when I get paid.

There are no billings to worry about. If I need to take additional time to work a design, I can do that. Case in point, I designed a small sewer separation project (see here). It was kind of a hit or miss project. I had to get the line cleaned and TV-ed. Then I had to send our surveyors out a few times to pick up things that were missed or that I needed because I changed the design a little. In the private sector I would have been killed on the fee. The job was only $130,000, so a fee in the private sector would have been $8,000, tops. Probably less. I wouldn’t have been able to spend the time on it that was needed. The project has gone really well because of the extra time.

Insurance is great. I have your standard 85-15 coverage with $300 deductible for each member of the family and I only pay $285 a month. The life insurance is not great, somewhere along the lines of 3x’s my pay.

But, there are the unseen things. Politics enters the equation. Many times we get pulled off of an important job to chase rabbits for a Commissioner. As a result, the jobs we are supposed to be doing get placed on the back burner. The work comes in spurts. There will be months where you just do your job, no real rush or strange projects. You actually feel productive. But then there will be months like my last three where I can’t get anything done because my priorities keep changing, I am short staffed and everyone wants something from me.

So which do I like best?

The perfect job would be a mix of Public and Private sector.

A job where I did not have to worry about the billings and profitability of the Private sector but had the benefits of the Public sector.

A job where I had the financial opportunities (bonus/commission) of the Private sector but the resources of the Public sector.

You know, the perfect job that does not exist.

When I took my current job, I knew I had a choice to make. It is good for my career to have some Public sector experience. Seeing things from this side of the fence will help me immensely in my career. But, there is a draw back. If you spend to much time in the Public sector, you are “tainted”.

What does “tainted” mean? Well, if you are in the Public sector you don’t have to worry about billings or profitability. You can move at a slower pace and you can begin to turn into more of a paper-pushing bureaucrat than an engineer. If you take someone like that and drop them into the Private sector, they have a hard time adjusting and many fail.

So, I don’t want to be “tainted”, but I am advancing in my career. What to do? If I leave now to go back to the Private sector I will have 3 solid years of experience with a medium sized town. I feel that my skills are still up to date and that I would have lots to offer a Private sector firm.

But.

If I stay, I have an excellent shot at becoming the next Director of Engineering. Wow, to be the head of a City department! I am one step below the Director now. The current Director is going to retire in the next 2 to 3 years. He knows I want his job and so he has been positioning me to be able to compete. I feel I have a better than 50% chance at getting the position. The problem is that it is at least 2 years down the road. It will mean having been in the Public sector for 5 years just to get the Director position.

I would want to stay in the position for a few years at the minimum to see any real change, to see my ideas about the Department implemented. By then it will be year 7 or 8. At 10 years I am vested, so I might as well stay a few more years. Then what? I would have been out of the Private sector for 10 years. I would definitely be tainted and by then would have been doing very little engineering. Mainly paper pushing bureaucratic stuff.

You see my dilemma. If I stay I am basically signing on to being a life long Public sector employee in the hopes of getting the Director’s position. If I do not get it, 2 more years will have gone by and if I do get it, I’m locked in.

This is weighing very heavily on me right now. Things are happening, the winds are shifting, and choices will soon be made that will answer the above question.

It is an interesting discussion.

What say all of you?