If you are a federal employee, depending on whether you work in the Information Technology (IT) field or are in the Civil Service Retirement System, (CSRS) of Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), your career options may be materially different – and better – than ever before.

No longer are federal employees considered civil servants for life.  A big reason for this is the creation about 20 years ago of FERS, a system which doesn’t especially entice people to stay with the government forever and ever, amen.  CSRS design could have that effect, and I confess that in my case it did.  Many times during my nearly 35 years in government I considered leaving for private sector employment.  In every case, I ultimately decided to stay put, as government retirement under the CSRS was too good to pass on.  Besides, once retired, I could always explore subsequent employment with McDonald’s, the local library, or volunteer work at the community soup kitchen.  Or, I could join the potentially lucrative ranks of the so-called “Beltway Bandits.”

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