Viewing profile — dnesting

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Government is not a place where modern collaboration tools thrive. This has less to do with "broken IT" (though that's part of it) and more to do with the government's unique legal…

The projects in which we are most successful are those where we have been able to quickly bring a lot of relevant experience to the table, not just knowledge and skill.

This was written not long after USDS was founded, and I recall thinking even then that many of his comparisons were not entirely accurate. The comments you read here are going to b…

There exist people that are happy to take a personal statement and attribute it to the author's employer to score political points at the author's expense. When I use this disclaim…

Hi, really sorry that you feel this way. Delays on the order of a few weeks aren't unexpected at this point, but we shouldn't have people that have been waiting for a response of s…

I'm really sorry about your experience. In many ways we're still a fledgling startup. We don't trust the regular federal government's hiring process, which means we have to build o…

The broader USDS family is focused on delivering better services. But one area we're starting to focus more on is policy itself. One thing that struck me about the federal governme…

Yes, the USDS HQ team is part of the White House which means you have to be a US citizen. 18F is part of GSA and they have more flexibility in hiring. Agency Digital Service teams …

If I (as a software engineer) want to improve the way IT works in the government, can you suggest a better use for my time and skills?

Why do you put it that way? Everyone serving in military takes home a paycheck, but that doesn't make them mercinaries. The top tech talent that we aim to attract to USDS often can…

It is an explicit goal to create lasting Digital Service teams in every federal agency specifically to ensure longer projects (those that actually involve (re)building something) h…

The simple answer here is that government agencies are funded by congressional appropriations and salaries are regulated. The "government" may be rich, but that doesn't imply that …

Don't assume that every piece of dysfunction you see can't be fixed. Many of these systems are mind-bogglingly complex and can't be replaced in one go. It seems entirely reasonable…

We're pushing for short-term engagements for a variety of reasons, but the big one is that the people that we want to attract most are people that already have nice jobs at compani…

Congress decides how the executive branch is paid and how it should use that money. Free food and other "free" perks run afoul of that.

Super sad to hear this story and we've circulated some of these comments internally within the USDS. We know the hiring process is backlogged and isn't very transparent. Please kee…

Hi Daniel, thanks for your perspective. My own perspective: There are amazingly smart people working in government, and even working for many of the contractors commonly cited as e…

The USDS is recruiting federal employees, not contractors. Base salaries can be competitive with typical engineering positions in Silicon Valley. The big difference is the inabilit…