Public v Private Sector - Making the transition

[SimonMac]

I have been very heavily based in the Public Sector, both Local and Central Govt organisations, current gig is my first real foray into the real world and am finding the transition both breathtakingly brilliant and painstakingly awful.

First the good points:

The speed in which things progress is awesome, the programme I am on is basically a complete rebuild of a Group of Companies core brand, and is projected to take 9 months from start to finish. In the Pubic sector a job of this scale would take years.

The bad:

I have been brought in for a "Best Practices" point of view, however I am clashing with a short term results driven approach, and where an answer of "because its best practice" was acceptable in the past I am having to fight to get my point across.

Its very challenging, but I am really enjoying it so far, has anyone else made the jump and lived? Or gone the other way and ended up slitting their wrists over red tape

[Sysman]

I've always been in the private sector, but for a couple of months was out at a customer which was a public sector site.

Any longer would have driven me nuts.

[Mich the Tester]

I have been very heavily based in the Public Sector, both Local and Central Govt organisations, current gig is my first real foray into the real world and am finding the transition both breathtakingly brilliant and painstakingly awful.

First the good points:

The speed in which things progress is awesome, the programme I am on is basically a complete rebuild of a Group of Companies core brand, and is projected to take 9 months from start to finish. In the Pubic sector a job of this scale would take years.

The bad:

I have been brought in for a "Best Practices" point of view, however I am clashing with a short term results driven approach, and where an answer of "because its best practice" was acceptable in the past I am having to fight to get my point across.

Its very challenging, but I am really enjoying it so far, has anyone else made the jump and lived? Or gone the other way and ended up slitting their wrists over red tape

The question you have to ask about every 'best practice' in the private sector is quite simple; 'does this help us to sell stuff?' If you can't demonstrate that it does, you won't stand much chance.

[TheFaQQer]

Its very challenging, but I am really enjoying it so far, has anyone else made the jump and lived? Or gone the other way and ended up slitting their wrists over red tape

I flit between the two - done local and central government as well as large-scale private sector.

I like public sector - years of work, no deliverables, taking significantly more out of the tax system than I put in

[The Spartan]

The question you have to ask about every 'best practice' in the private sector is quite simple; 'does this help us to sell stuff?' If you can't demonstrate that it does, you won't stand much chance.

I'd agree with the above, though I haven't flitted between the public and private sector while contracting. I did make the transition from public to private whilst a permie and I found it to be fast and furious and best practice is used only when it suits them.

[gingerjedi]

I flit between the two - done local and central government as well as large-scale private sector.

I like public sector - years of work, no deliverables, taking significantly more out of the tax system than I put in

WHS^

I prefer public sector as it's easy in comparison yet always pays better than private.

Suits me fine as I'm lazy and greedy.

[The Spartan]

Don't you get bored and worry that you'll get skills fade?

[gingerjedi]

Don't you get bored and worry that you'll get skills fade?

Yes, I plan on doing some security certs in the first quarter of next year.

[Mich the Tester]

Don't you get bored and worry that you'll get skills fade?

I was bored out of my mind in my last public sector gig, as well as sick to death of turgid civil servants who were resistant to any kind of change whatsoever. None of the people I worked with would last 5 minutes in current clientco.

[TheFaQQer]

Don't you get bored and worry that you'll get skills fade?

If you get bored, you're not involved with the bureaucrats enough

There are new skills to pick up in public sector - I did two years of solution lead for one client, but still kept my hand in with the functional and technical details as well. If you can manage two different consultancies in a public sector environment, then you can deal with most situations