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CIA Labs

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Re: CIA Labs

#91

Post by bumby »

rprenger wrote: post #87
CamperBob2 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are (legitimate) ways to get paid more in government service. Years ago, I sold a Ferrari to a guy who worked on nuclear weapons at Los Alamos. His boss drove a Lamborghini. I've never understood how this fit in with the whole GS scale thing, but the reasoning was straightforward: if we don't pay them well, somebody else might.

The employees of the DOE labs aren't civil servants on the GS scale. They're paid more like defense contractors. The base salaries at a DOE lab can be comparable to FAANG base salaries if you ignore RSU part of the compensation you also get at a FAANG (which can be a significant portion of the overall salary).

Can you explain? I thought they were compressed pay “bands” still limited ton the GS pay scale? E.g., DB pay band still tops out at the equivalent of GS15

Re: CIA Labs

#92

Post by enkid »

jdm2212 wrote: post #56
throwaway894345 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would imagine CIA officers get a regular civil service salary What is a "regular civil service salary"? Presumably CIA officers are better paid than the clerk behind the DMV counter? Perhaps a CIA officer salary is still "excellent" if not on par with defense contractors?

Federal civil service is all on the same scale, and it tops out below what new grad engineers typically make at defense contractors, to say nothing of FAANG.

You can have bonuses for things like special skills or location pay.

Re: CIA Labs

#93

Post by babadaba »

johnknowles wrote: post #73
FishKey wrote: post #55

This is so cool. I bet the CIA gets to work with the coolest toys.

lol, 2 day old account with generic [Word]+[Word] username pumping up the CIA....hmmmm, something's Fishy FishKey.

And that’s how johnknowles was selected for recruitment

Re: CIA Labs

#94

Post by bumby »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #29
balls187 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...with all the defense sector benefits, some very exclusive. Could you elaborate on that?

Not affiliated with them, this is just what I found on Google, but here are their benefits [1]. They don't seem that great honestly. New hires need to work for 3 years before they can get more than 13 days of PTO, and you only get 20+ days after working there for 15 YEARS. For comparison I work at a university and we get 20 days PTO on day 1. Plus very long holidays (2 weeks in december / january when the semester is…

I believe that’s just “annual leave” and doesn’t count “sick leave” (which doubles the baseline PTO) and the federal holidays (10 days per year I believe)

Re: CIA Labs

#95

Post by tingletech »

bumby wrote: post #91
rprenger wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The employees of the DOE labs aren't civil servants on the GS scale. They're paid more like defense contractors. The base salaries at a DOE lab can be comparable to FAANG base salaries if you ignore RSU part of the compensation you also get at a FAANG (which can be a significant portion of the overall salary).

Can you explain? I thought they were compressed pay “bands” still limited ton the GS pay scale? E.g., DB pay band still tops out at the equivalent of GS15

the federal government is not the employer of anyone I've ever met from a Department of Energy Lab. LBNL you work for the University of California. LLNL and LANL used to be the same, but UC lost the contract to run LLNL and LANL in 2006. Bectel and UC formed a partnership that still has LLNL but got fired from LANL.

Re: CIA Labs

#96

Post by saagarjha »

AWildC182 wrote: post #64
thoughtstheseus wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you meant the inverse. If you value optionality to work on government projects that require clearance wouldn’t one view already having said clearance as a perk? If you don’t want to do that work you would not view it as a perk.

It ropes you into that ecosystem and that ecosystem only. Most consumer/web tech companies won't understand a resume that's just "I did a thing, can't talk about it".

Have you never hired an ex-Apple employee?

Re: CIA Labs

#97

Post by bumby »

tingletech wrote: post #95
bumby wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain? I thought they were compressed pay “bands” still limited ton the GS pay scale? E.g., DB pay band still tops out at the equivalent of GS15

the federal government is not the employer of anyone I've ever met from a Department of Energy Lab. LBNL you work for the University of California. LLNL and LANL used to be the same, but UC lost the contract to run LLNL and LANL in 2006. Bectel and UC formed a partnership that still has LLNL but got fired from LANL.

Ah, ok I don’t think agencies like national labs are true “civil servant” employers but quasi civil servants and essentially contractors. I was referring to DoD labs

Re: CIA Labs

#99

Post by bumby »

jdm2212 wrote: post #56
throwaway894345 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would imagine CIA officers get a regular civil service salary What is a "regular civil service salary"? Presumably CIA officers are better paid than the clerk behind the DMV counter? Perhaps a CIA officer salary is still "excellent" if not on par with defense contractors?

Federal civil service is all on the same scale, and it tops out below what new grad engineers typically make at defense contractors, to say nothing of FAANG.

True, but the CoL translates quite a bit. For example, I was offered a position that looked not-so-great on paper but once you looked at cost-of-living was competitive (comparable to $400-$500k/yr in SV) plus had other things I valued like little commute etc.

Re: CIA Labs

#100

Post by BeetleB »

thebean11 wrote: post #6
iffyspectrum wrote: post #4

More information: "Officers who develop new technologies at CIA Labs will be allowed to patent, license, and profit from their work, making 15% of the total income from the new invention with a cap of $150,000 per year. That could double most agency salaries and make the work more competitive with Silicon Valley." : https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/21/1008654/cias-new...

Seems like a strange proposition, I take all the risk of creating a new technology that will likely fail, and then if I beat the odds and succeed I'm capped at 150k? Also, if I'm not allowed to monetize my technology or patents, do I really own them? Is this just a bad startup incubator?

> Seems like a strange proposition, I take all the risk of creating a new technology that will likely fail, and then if I beat the odds and succeed I'm capped at 150k?

This is more than most employees at companies get for patents. 15% is normal in academia. In almost all companies, the employee gets a bonus (which could be less than $1000), and that's it. It's very rare for a company to give an employee a percentage of the profits off a patent.

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