Why I Won't Be Working for the Secret Service Anytime Soon

Trying to find something new to do has been a long and hard journey over the last couple of years for me. I’ve been very fortunate in my nearly thirty years of working in technology and can’t recall a time that I’ve been unemployed. I survived the Dotcom boom and bust, traveled the US for technology gigs, been a freelancer, a consultant, and finally settled down for a long stint at a major bank.

After devoting 13 years of my tech career to a very toxic company, I found myself totally burned out and decided to start another freelance technology consulting business. I was very confident I could repeat my successes from the past. I was wrong. Granted it was very liberating and enjoyable being a content creator and leveraging Generative AI to assist me, but bills must be paid, and I was burning through my savings.

Most days I was shooting videos for Bad Gnome Gardening along with editing and uploading them to one of the three YouTube channels I was maintaining at the time. I acquired a few subscribers but not the amount it would take to make a living. In addition, I was writing regular blog posts for that endeavor while also creating technology videos, AI generated podcasts, and content for Knight Technologies. Along the way, I also managed to create an e-commerce site in an attempt to sell AI generated images. There were so many things I wanted to do including creating mobile apps which unfortunately never materialized.

After a few months, I decided it was time to find another paying gig. It was the end of the Spring in 2023 and from what I could see the technology job market was a barren wasteland. Despite my many years of experience and marketable skillset, I was finding little to nothing in terms of software developer roles. After a couple of months of searching, I ended up with a handful of interviews and finally an offer from a small government contractor.

Little did I know that I was entering an entirely different world then I had experienced while working in the banking industry. Don’t get me wrong, the banking environment was very toxic. But this new world of working for the government was different. Contracts are won, protested, recompeted, and milked. Yes, I said milked. Getting work done in an efficient manner using industry standards and best practices is sorely frowned upon (and a totally foreign concept).

Although I was a Senior Sofware Developer and a lead, every attempt I made to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation was met with vicious backlash from very junior “software developers” and management. I was disrupting the gravy train for everyone, and I ended up leaving after about 9 months. I’m so glad I did.

Shortly after, I ended up joining a much larger company on a different government contract. Things have been calmer and much more tolerable; however, the contract was recently recompeted and has been awarded to a different much smaller company. A majority of the original team was cut due to funding (not a bad thing necessarily). Most likely I will be contacted by the new company with an offer to work for them. I’m pretty sure at this point that I will take an offer if one is made.

Knowing the state of the current contract, I recently restarted the job search machine as I call it. Part of that process involves updating my resume and uploading it to all of the various job sites including Dice, Indeed, and CareerBuilder. Networking has never really been something I did by choice so leveraging LinkedIn is a new experience for me. As usual, I never hear back from most places, but I have received a few turn downs for positions that aren’t exactly a good match. I tend to apply for anything that resembles my skillset.

I will say that this time around, the tech job market looks really good. Applying for jobs is pure drudgery; however, it’s very encouraging to have hundreds of positions available across the various job boards. Job hunting is definitely a numbers game for me and the more I can apply the better I feel about landing something that I can live with for a while.

Turning on the job search machine does have side-effects. Now I have to answer my phone whenever it rings. I get a fair amount of “scam” calls but some of these could be a job prospect. In addition, I’ve been getting a lot of email with positions that are not even remotely related to tech. My favorite thus far has been this one:

We are a Raleigh, NC based company partnered with a Recruitment Marketing Agency to connect qualified candidates with the U.S. Secret Service.

Our role is to guide candidates through the application process to ensure they meet qualifications and are enthusiastic about the opportunity.

If you’re interested, please reply with “YES,” and I’ll assist you in applying for the position.

Job Title: Uniformed Division Officer

Location: Washington, DC

Salary: $75,134 – $129,251 per year

Working for the Secret Service might pay well, but I think I’m too old for that kind of work. Needless to say, I’m not interested in changing careers just yet. I think I will stick with software development.

Thanks for reading! By the way, this post is also available on LinkedIn.