Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 547 posts

Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

#51

Post by fulafel »

username223 wrote: post #40
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if the NSA is going to spy on us, wouldn't you like that to be as secure as possible? I have a friend who worked for the NSA. We had a heart to heart over drinks about a year ago. She asked what I thought about her working there. I responded, honestly, that if I didn't know her personally I'd be starting to wonder if she was, for whatever reason, unable to pass muster at Google et cetera . Not the best decision to…

> if I didn't know her personally I'd be starting to wonder if she was, for whatever reason, unable to pass muster at Google et cetera. Not the best decision to drop that after a day of drinking together. But I'm glad I did--it was apparently the nudge she needed to quit. So she stopped being an indirect servant of popular will, and started selling ads. Great. > She now works in the private sector and is thrilled wit…

Serve Trump and the runaway deep state, or serve spam. That's bleak. That's not the only two options though.

Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

#52

Post by learc83 »

smhenderson wrote: post #15
aisofteng wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BMV stands for Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and is called the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) in some states.

Or DOT, Deprtment of Transportion in others, e.g. PennDOT.

To make things even more confusing the DOT is sometimes separate from the DMV, and sometimes not.

In Georgia we have the DOT that handles road construction etc..., and the Department of Driver Services that handles drivers licenses.

Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

#54

Post by ben_w »

vonmoltke wrote: post #16
speby wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one cares about government pay scales. You don't have to work FOR the government to work for the government. Many top NSA specialists work for contractor firms and do earn tremendous compensation from their employers. Those employers contract with our government for totally uncapped contract sums. Obviously the contracts have to be reviewed for budget and capex limitations but otherwise no such thing as a salary c…

> Those employers contract with our government for totally uncapped contract sums. No, they don't. Billing rates are fixed based on the experience and education levels of the people working on the contract. If the government says they won't pay more than, say, $250/hour for a security expert that is all the contractor is going to get, and that in turn limits the amount the contractor can make. Pay at government contr…

Assuming $250/hr is a real example, that’s $470k/year. Is that really a problem?

(Assuming 40h per week, 47 weeks per year because systematic staff shortage and EU-duration holidays because that’s what I’m used to).

Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

#55

Post by schoen »

smhenderson wrote: post #15
aisofteng wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BMV stands for Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and is called the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) in some states.

Or DOT, Deprtment of Transportion in others, e.g. PennDOT.

Or the MassDOT RMV in Massachusetts. (Which always has to be different, like calling itself a Commonwealth instead of a state and having a General Court instead of a state legislature.)

Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

#56

Post by qaq »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #28
ggg9990 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like Edward Snowden's $200k salary from Booz Allen Hamilton.

Which didn't exist. BAH said his salary was actually 122k. I know of a few BAH salaries, likely more advanced than his, and they are much closer to that number.

In what area?

Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

#57

Post by GlenTheMachine »

TheCondor wrote: post #47
smallnamespace wrote: post #3

It seems like it's pretty hard for the government to compete with private industry in compensation. Federal pay grades are capped by Congress, and the top grade is around ~$150k a year [1]. And note that since it's the top of the scale, you have to start people off lower so that there is salary progression. Pretty sure a top cryptographer or security expert should be worth several times that, especially if they are a…

That’s the top pay grade on the gs scale, there are special rates schedules and exceptions for specialists. NIH has Dual MD and research PhDs on payroll, those are unicorns... (I know a mid to top tier research university that has to start offers at over $700k for those, they don’t hardly exist, and that’s a university, they don’t make products) Nih doesn’t pay them GS rates either. NIST doesn’t pay gs rates. NSA cou…

I am a civil servant. There are special pay scales for scientists and engineers, but they are still capped by law at the top end at the same level as the GS scale. In the DC area last year that was $166,000.

I am not aware of any exceptions to the law, unless you mean the Special Executive Service. You can - eventually - make it into the Special Executive Service (SES), which pays somewhat higher (around $200k per year, depending on specifics). But that typically takes 20+ years of service and is reserved to less than 1% of the total workforce of a lab or agency. It is extremely rare for someone to be hired directly into the SES, unless that person is a presidential appointee.

Which means that under ordinary circumstances, my lab cannot offer a Nobel Laureate more than $200,000 per year.

Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

#59

Post by ransom1538 »

smallnamespace wrote: post #3

It seems like it's pretty hard for the government to compete with private industry in compensation. Federal pay grades are capped by Congress, and the top grade is around ~$150k a year [1]. And note that since it's the top of the scale, you have to start people off lower so that there is salary progression. Pretty sure a top cryptographer or security expert should be worth several times that, especially if they are a…

"Federal pay grades are capped by Congress, and the top grade is around ~$150k a year [1]."

If you make over $80k a year -- you are doing well in NSA [i]. The 150k number is pretty much fantasy land. With NSA on your resume I am sure a penetration testing firm would love to have you at 100k.

https://www.indeed.com/cmp/NSA/salaries

Re: NSA’s top talent is leaving because of low pay, flagging morale, unpopular reorg

#60

Post by [deleted] »

ben_w wrote: post #54
vonmoltke wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those employers contract with our government for totally uncapped contract sums. No, they don't. Billing rates are fixed based on the experience and education levels of the people working on the contract. If the government says they won't pay more than, say, $250/hour for a security expert that is all the contractor is going to get, and that in turn limits the amount the contractor can make. Pay at government contr…

Assuming $250/hr is a real example, that’s $470k/year. Is that really a problem? (Assuming 40h per week, 47 weeks per year because systematic staff shortage and EU-duration holidays because that’s what I’m used to).

[deleted]
Post reply on HN