Fema Employment

Are federal government jobs outside of DC dead end?

I am a 23 year old male who is a Geographic Specialist and I work in a federal government agency in Chicago. I have been there for a year and am wondering if federal jobs outside of Washington DC are dead end? I kind of get that vibe at my work-it seems like 10 years from now Id be in the same position maybe making 15K a year more at the absolute most. If I move to DC though, I don’t know if it would be worth it with the cost of real estate in the area. At this point I’m not sure if I should stay in the public sector for the security, deal with the slow growth, and have to face the likely possibility of having to move to DC, or switch to the private sector. I know I am in a pretty specific line of work now, but I think I can compare the work I’ve done to different fields with my resume, and explain that at interviews. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Public Comments

1. Federal jobs outside of DC do tend to carry lower pay scales than do jobs in DC. There also tend to be fewer openings at the upper levels in the district offices, so there is more competition. Mostly, this is because the organizational structure of most agencies place program management in the national office, with folks in the regional offices answering to DC and the folks in the districts answering to the regional offices. One rarely finds jobs above the GS-15 level in the field, with jobs at the District level usually topping out at GS-14.
2. No, not necessarily. It just depends entirely on what your job is as to how much promotability there is. In the Fed, you go where the jobs are if you want to get promoted. Look online at the usajobs.gov website to see where the bulk of the jobs are--that will tell you whether or not you are wasting your time in Chicago. Yes, real estate is horrendous in DC--but there is really good public transportation and everyone commutes. The benefits are better in the FED...you know that. So this sounds like more of a personal choice than a financial one--whether you want to work FOR someone or AS someone.