[quote=AN][quote=CA renter]They found that those in the public sector were, on average, making at or below what comparably qualified employees in the private sector were making.[/quote]
and
[quote=CA renter]Public employees tend to be the most qualified employees in their respective fields. Of course they expect to be compensated for it.[/quote]
are two totally different thing.
Also, what’s the definition of qualified? Those who are most efficient? Those who have the most patent? Those who streamlined their jobs the most? Those are the characteristics I would consider for being qualified. If they are the most qualified, and the kind of service I get from DMV vs AAA or USPS vs FedEx/UPS say that they either measuring the wrong qualification or these qualified people are not performing at their peak level.
I know a few public sector engineers in both the school system and the Navy. I wouldn’t say they’re the most qualified. I’ve seen their tools getting dulled every year they’re in the public sector. While the one in the private sector, if you let your tools get dulled, you’re gone. Those I know who are in those public sector advise me not to get into there (I did consider switching at one point). Their reason is, if I get in, I can’t get out. My tool set will be dulled and the skills I gain in the public sector won’t be very applicable to the private sector.
Just because someone is not doing something doesn’t mean they can’t talk about it. If you follow your suggestion, then you should “step up to the plate” and be an investment banker or stop whining. Or better yet, you can apply to become a CEO of those banks or private equity firms. Is that a good argument to you? BTW, my skill sets is absolutely not applicable to public sector jobs. So, even if I wanted to, I can’t switch, unless I want to go back to entry level Engineering. The longer you work in an industry, the harder it get for you to switch. Even between different industries in the private sector. Not sure about other profession, but engineering tend to be very specialized as you gain more and more experience.
BTW, in engineering, do you know where the most qualified tend go go? It’s Google, Apple, Facebook, Qualcomm, Microsoft, etc. (depending on where they want to live). Those are where the cream of the crops go. Not to the public sector. Just talking to those who are doing engineering in the public sector, I’d be pulling my hairs out trying to deal with the bureaucracy. Also, with the speed that they’re moving at, I’d be bored out of my mind.[/quote]
In the fields I’m familiar with, “highest qualified” would mean those with the highest/best/most-specific-to-the-job degrees, the most experience in that particular field, and those who score at the top of the aptitude and/or psychological and/or physical agility tests.
Unlike the public sector, getting “banker/CEO” jobs in the private sector depends much more on how well-connected you are rather than how capable you are. I generally don’t complain about their compensation unless public sector employees and taxpayers are forced to make up their losses.
As far as the USPS/FedEx or AAA/DMV comparisons, It would be interesting to find out the per-capita cost of each. Obviously, the USPS and DMV handle far larger loads and require consumers to pay far less. I’d like to see what the USPS and the DMV cost per capita/transaction after taking into account all govt pay/subsidies, etc. so we could compare apples-to-apples.
I’m not in tech, but it would seem obvious that the “cream of the crop” would go to those private firms because they pay a whole lot more, with a far higher liklihood that an employee could move up in a rather significant way.
Of course, I’ve heard that the “real” cream-of-the-crop in tech end up in places like this, but we can’t really know what they are getting paid. I’m guessing it would be even more difficult to get hired here than at Google IF one is qualified.
