What's the interview process like?
What technologies are common?
Staying with the US Digital Service
121–130 of 251 posts
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#122https://www.usds.gov/join#who says they are only accepting US citizens. However https://www.usds.gov/join#application only asks if you are authorized to work in the US, and says 'For some positions US citizenship is required'. So are there any positions that do not require US citizenship, or should that application form just ask if you are a citizen?
Most DC Federal jobs like the ones at USDS require citizenship. I know because I live in DC and my wife is not a citizen, drastically limiting her options.
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#123I wonder how the USDS is different than the 18F? Seems like they both are doing the same thing, why not just merge them?
Here's a write-up on the differences (and similarities) that I've found: http://ben.balter.com/2015/04/22/the-difference-between-18f-... .
For clarity: I found the write-up. Credit for listing the differences obviously needs to go to Ben.
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#124Since the election, has there been any dropoff in people staying or applying to join USDS? I ado agree that now is probably a good time to stick with things--but I'm sure others view it differently. I'm curious if there are enough such people to see a difference in staffing.
Edit: Also, as a programmer and DC person, I love the work USDS does and I hope you guys keep working indefinitely.
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#125>> "I'm the head of the webspam team at Google."
Just a heads up that the above is on your HN profile: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Matt_Cutts
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#126If you haven't seen Mikey Dickerson's presentation at last fall's Velocity Conference it's worth a quick watch: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LGSAyU2RZDo
Watching that video will make you understand why someone like Matt would feel the call to service he clearly does. USDS is a true example of everything that is right about civil service and has nothing to do with partisan politics despite being part of the Whitehouse.
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have a volunteer corps. For a lot of people, the military is one of the best job options as it also offers paid education via the G.I. Bill.
> For a lot of people, the military is one of the best job options How do you weigh that against the risk of injury, death, or PTSD, as well as the civlian casualties of US wars? To be specific - do you believe Iraq Body Count or the Lancet surveys, and how many civilians would have to have been killed in the second Iraq war for you to think it would be a net ethical negative to make it easier to enlist?
If your a bright kid form a depressed area working in the tail arms to get get an education is probably better than staying.
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#128What is the mood like with Trump coming into office? Is USDS going to remain alive and well?
There is a good article about it here: https://backchannel.com/the-final-days-of-obamas-tech-surge-... "I also spoke to a number of former team members. Publicly, almost all of them expressed optimism that the work would continue: The transition was proceeding cordially, the efforts to reform government IT were bipartisan, and Congress would back their efforts, which had already saved money for taxpayers and delivere…
> But lurking behind every statement was an existential dread
That sums up the mood in the media: existential dread.Not real. Not tangible. Not verifiable. Existential.
I doubt the Donald is going to mess with making the awful process of dealing with government easier. Existential is non-tangible for a reason I guess.
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#129Trump is going to shut this down unfortunately. I don't think people have really come to terms with what is going to change. If there is anything digital that needs done, some republican backed defense contractor is going to do it for 100x the price.
This sort of scare mongering is just plain weird.
Re: Staying with the US Digital Service
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> First I'll add the disclaimer that this is my personal opinion. I'm not speaking for anyone other than myself. And there it is. One of many reasons I'll never work for the government again. The government is so PC-sensitive that dude can't even post on HN without a mildly disguised form of legalese. When I was in the Air Force, everything I said had to be prefaced with The views expressed in this article are those…
To be fair, I often said that online when I was working for Google as well.
This is common amongst all megacorps. They can use anything you say on social media against you if it makes them look bad. The disclaimer doesn't really matter but I still put one in my profile. Basically, it's not just the government that goes too far into private life.