Currently I'm on the same range. It caps out at 7, and I am not really sure how large or small federal offices can be. The new office is certainly larger than my current corporate office by a matter of degrees. I am unsure what opportunity there is for advancement, but one of the people on the panel did seem to be at GS8 or 9 after their years of service to the org.. so there could be some movement?

I'd be totally fine switching agencies, provided the right opportunity came up. I am unsure if I want to go through the TS process, but I am certain that the series I'm entering in on 0303 is very much a "foot in the door" billet. Like, you're in, now find something to do that isn't so generic.

What kind of free trainings could exist, broadly speaking? Do you mean leadership training, or would it be more like a cert to get someone into IT work? My absolute dream job (from my college days wargaming at GWU) would be to work in State at some small obscure desk (think.. Moldova, or Laos, or Algeria), but I am unsure what exactly could put someone in that position. Besides being in the USFS. It's a small dream, but it's something, the novelty I hink is what I find so appealing.

Ultimately, I know that I'd like to do some TDY rotations abroad, especially while I've still got some sight left, within my first couple years. Do those opportunities only really exist with the DoD?

It does, yeah! I had thought Dulles was the end of the line. That's super cool stuff :D thank you

Regarding the "government cut in half", thing, I'll tell you a small story that I think illustrates it. I went down to rural West Virginia on a church mission trip in my youth. Growing up, the idea that a town doesn't provide drinking water or electricity was something unthinkable. The country my family comes from was under the Iron Curtain so for a while things were grim, but not "no more rural water system" bad. As it turned out, this little community just an hour from a National Park, was a place where every resident was on well water by necessity. It also was a food desert, and the only place that seemed to have consistent electricity was the local church. These same people would say to us that the government could only make their lives worse. You ask three people you get five different answers.

The US isn't some social democratic paradise, but I'd like to think the people I serve don't resent my existence, you know? I have faith in this country, and I want to do my part to give back what it gave my family when we basically had nothing. I can't pick up a rifle, so I help make sure those who did get taken care of in some small way.

> He’s probably referring to the VRE. Not the metro

Ah, oop. I sometimes genuinely forget there's a difference. I see rail, my brain goes "Metro".

Thhey extended one of the lines to VA, yeah.. maybe to Dulles? I forget how the better airport (National bad, no food before the gates :C ) relates to Ashburn's locality.

I lived in Arlington during my time in college. My biggest mental hurdle is just theh fact that most Metro stations aren't like.. right next to housing, you have to walk/drive a good distance. I am reliant on rail not just to get to work, but to get around NoVA and the DMV at large.

Wrt renting, I saw one place with no joke a 20-30 minute walk time to the Metro (in Reston) offered at $1,200/month... What? Prices can't be that crazy, can they? This was for a basement unit, if that matters.

> Promotion potential: there’s no real upper limit given personal ability and time. My current Director is someone I helped train. My desk today sits ~10’ from where my desk was 12 years ago.

I'll be coming in at a GS5-1, with Excepted Schedule A service.. You think it's impossible for me to make GS10 by the time I'm in my early 30s? I am unsure about getting a clearance, but I want to set myself up for a solid career in the event my vision does start to go more than it already has.

> The further out you live, the cheaper housing gets. I commute ~50 miles by train and pay less than half DC rates. Nearly all of my coworkers commute by rail.

Does the Metro really go out that far?? I always had this assumption the Orange Line went maybe 30 miles as the crow flies into Virginia, and barely into Maryland. Cool stuff :D I am happy you've managed to make it work so long.

Thank you for the sound advice, and honestly cutting through the political noise. I saw a lot of posts today about Republican grandstanding at cutting federal telework policies and other things basically designed to starve out fed staff. Made me second guess whether it'd be even right to walk into a situation like that, ya know?

But you're right, it is basically recession proof. My current job doesn't require a clearance, but it's a foot in the door and as long as I get any part time work cleared, I should be just fine financially. As you say I won't get rich, but a solid life is what I'm after. I grew up a child of Central European immigrants so as you may imagine there's some leftover prestige in working for the state and respect for those civil servants/contractors, even if the average American thinks of them as just some bean counter or under-achieving IT student lol.

I am serving the nation, in my own way.

> I think the public transit in DC is pretty good. Haven’t used it in a while but always felt like I could get to where I needed to go in DC.

For context, around here the Commission for the Blind can do most everything except transit. It's really only Uber or Lyft, and they can't subsidize that (for obvious reasons, cost is too wildly in flux). There is zero public transit here, unless you want to go from your hotel to the Boardwalk once per day.

Is 4k on the low end of what might be enough to get someone set up? I know inflation has been kind of rough lately, eggs at $6/unit and all. I figure even if I don't put in 30 years, I can at least put in a solid decade or so, and get some type of secured pension.