I’m in a position where I have been looking for work for a while, have a family of six, things are tight and with everything going on in the Federal Workforce and these superstar company layoffs, the thought of a larger field of competition is daunting. But – I feel compelled to say this. Don’t pass these folks up for consideration.
My gut says the low-performer moniker was a poorly thought out, poorly communicated excuse to lower headcount, and showed a disgraceful lack of emotional intelligence and poor leadership skills. And honestly, even if it were true in some form, Meta’s low performers could be your organization’s absolute rockstar or you recruiters’ perfect candidate. Their low-performing team lead could be your next CTO or Software Development Manager. Rockstar developers at other companies go to places like Meta and blend in with the crowd and Meta’s expectations of performance are probably much different than your organization’s.
And as a former government contract hire, if you want employees who absolutely rock at doing more with less, hire out of the pool of talent coming out of the Federal workforce. The idea that Federal workers led to inefficiency is absolutely bonkers. Even well-funded government entities have groups that operate well under what is typical for a corporate organization and make it work.
When I was at The Dept of Energy’s Brookhaven National Lab run by Brookhaven Science Associates, I was part of the Business Systems Division before we were folded under ITD, and we handled work on a variety of domains onsite including HR, Laboratory Protection, onsite maintenance, the Fire Department, multiple research groups with different levels of domain requirements and expectations, needs and leadership. We also consulted on integrations and COTS purchases. In a single day, a BSD developer could work with Laboratory Protection, the Biology department, HR, and more.
We built and maintained physical systems that handled everything from temporary badging to handheld appliances in the field. We even supported to some extent the onsite library, and learning center. We also provided heavy support for human resources. And BSD had to my recollection only about 44 developers.
And this doesn’t include the stuff ITD’s developers pre-merger handled and each group’s own development staff handled covering 278 acres of facilities and supporting at the time if recollection serves over 30,000 visiting guests a year. And if you are in dire need of someone who can work with Legacy technology, some of these longer-lived career workers have probably worked with what you need.
Of course, there may be adjustments, training may be required, but if you are in an organization who feels a need to help lower the temperature these times , this is definitely a way to contribute.
And if you are an organization who sells to the government, these are people who understand the needs of these organizations, what the integration obstacles are and who know what kind of efficiencies your products and services need to provide in this new environment of efficiency and opportunity, it’s a win-win.
Original Post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7296243091416526848/