Government jobs can be incredibly rewarding if you love building community and advocating for human rights. But they’re not for everyone—nor do these opportunities solely reside in the public sector, either.
If you’ve found yourself struggling to stay motivated or find happiness as a federal, state, or municipal worker, you might also be wondering whether a move to a private company or startup makes sense now or in the future.
Below, we’ll answer some of your most burning questions about transitioning from a government job to the private sector—including how exactly to do it.
“Should I leave my government job for the private sector?”
Leaving a government job for the private sector is truly a personal decision. Which is why experts advise defining your “why” for changing careers before you even start thinking about it—then you can decide whether a switch will actually deliver on that reason.
“Some people want to go from sector to sector because they think the grass is greener on the other side,” says Olivia Johnson, a Muse career coach who’s helped job seekers transition into and out of government jobs, and consulted for government agencies on recruiting. For example, maybe you’ve heard that tech companies pay more for your experience level or skill set. No matter what you think you know, get the facts first. “Talk to some people in the private sector in your field to make sure that the salaries are higher,” Johnson says.
Ximena Hartsock, the cofounder and CEO of job placement and upskilling company BuildWithin, says that if you’re not moving up or developing new skills or responsibilities—and that bothers you—that might be a sign that you should leave the public sector (it’s also true for any type of job or career change). “It’s not good to stay in jobs like that because you’re not growing,” Hartsock says.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in the private sector?
Just as the decision to move to the private sector is subjective, so too are the advantages and disadvantages of leaving government work for a private company.
That said, many people tend to take the following benefits of private sector jobs into consideration:
- Salary: There’s never a guarantee that a role within a private company or small business will match or exceed your current income, which is why it’s important to take into account salary ranges in a job description before applying. But, Hartsock says, “the compensation, if you perform, can be higher than in government, where you normally have a cap at the end.” Johnson adds that other common benefits like equity and health coverage may contribute to a bigger compensation package in the private sector.
- Fewer hurdles: Government work tends to be slow, with bureaucracy and red tape, when compared to private sector work. “The government side obviously is chock-full of regulations, and sometimes what could be considered stringent processes,” Johnson says. “If you go into the private sector, there’s typically a lot more flexibility, a lot quicker decision-making.”
- Work-life balance: For generations, government work was seen as promoting better work-life balance, as you’re unlikely to have to put in more than 40 hours a week—but Johnson says the perception has shifted in recent years. “A lot of corporations have now put work-life [balance] and family life above work, which is awesome,” she says. (Consider, for example, the recent return to office mandates the current administration has put in place, versus a company with a hybrid or remote setup.)
- Accountability: Hartsock says the private sector tends to be better about measuring and sharing performance, which can be beneficial for individuals who appreciate being rewarded for their efforts and insights into their growth and progress. “If your performance is low, you will know right away,” she says.
- Transparency: For a large portion of companies, what you see is what you get, which is a plus if you’ve found yourself in surprising or disappointing situations in the past. “You can get an idea of the culture of the company and the agility of the company before you join,” Hartsock says. “Government is much larger—you don’t know necessarily what team you’re going into.”
- Room to move up and around: The private sector offers career-boosting opportunities that may not be as readily available in the public sector. “In my experience, you grow faster, you acquire hard skills faster, you are constantly challenged,” Hartsock says. “It’s more competitive, and therefore that pushes you to be better. You grow thicker skin in the private sector.”
- Job security: Administration changes at any level of government can make the public sector job market volatile. “In the past, people saw government [as providing] more security,” Hartsock says. “I don’t think that’s the case today.”
On the flip side, here are some of the challenges former government workers might face in the private sector:
- Less focus on mission: Private companies tend to prioritize their bottom line over anything else. That can be disheartening for job seekers who care about doing impactful work or have little interest in making money. “If having that fulfillment is a driver for you being happy in your career, then maybe the private sector is not the right space for you,” Johnson says. If you’re determined to leave the mission-driven world of government work, she says, “look for a role in the private sector that still has some type of purpose focus that will help you feel fulfilled.”
- Faster tech adoption: Especially now with rising interest in artificial intelligence (AI), private sector workers need to be more on top of technology than ever before. The fast pace of this adoption might intimidate those with little to no expertise in this area. “More so in the private sector you’ll see the quick changes of technology,” Johnson says.
- More frequent change: In general, in government work, your responsibilities don’t change dramatically unless you have been promoted or switch roles. In the private sector, you might find your job changing significantly and frequently without your consent, particularly in the startup world. “A lot more agility and adaptability is needed,” Johnson says, to keep up.
- Innovation over execution: Many private organizations look for people who don’t just execute, but also can generate new ideas, systems, or approaches to working. This propensity for innovation could deter government workers used to following and waiting on directions. “If the person is used to working in a system where you require a lot of approvals, where the system is risk-adverse…all of those are opposite in the private sector,” Hartsock says.
- Job security: Yes, this is both an advantage and a disadvantage in the private sector. Startups, especially, can’t provide the stability a well-funded and established government agency might. “I don’t think security should drive your work, but the benefits, if you go into a startup, probably are not going to be as great,” Hartsock says. “That may be an advantage of the public sector.”
Some of these perks may not seem like perks to you at all—and some of the downsides might actually be exactly what you need in a career. Overall, “it really just depends on what it is that you’re looking for at that time in your career path or at that time in your life,” Johnson says.
Is it hard to switch from the public to the private sector?
Making a full career change will require a heavier time and effort investment than just taking on a similar job but in a private organization. “Obviously it gets more complicated if you are not only trying to make the move or the transition, but you’re trying to make the move or transition into a whole different field,” Johnson says.
Government workers will likely have an easier go at joining a large corporation than a startup, Hartsock says, where the culture and expectations are much more fluid and less familiar.
Adjusting to how the private sector does business differently and figuring out where you “fit in” can also be harder for some folks than others. “The terminology is going to be different, the ways that you communicate are going to be different,” Johnson says.”
How to move from the public to the private sector
If you’re convinced this is the right move for you, these are the steps experts recommend you take to move to the private sector from the public sector with ease.
1. Research online and through networking
After you’ve figured out why you want to work in the private sector, leverage the many online and offline resources at your disposal to find jobs, companies, or industries that fit that why. “The last thing you want is to go from one field to the other and find out that it’s the same—or that you were better off where you were,” Johnson says.
The Muse, Glassdoor, and other anonymous review sites are great places to get a feel for how employees are treated. Even better? Reach out to people who work at your dream companies via cold messages on LinkedIn to get their take, and maybe snag a referral down the line. (Yes, this really works!)
2. Explore the lowest hanging fruit: government contracts and apprenticeships
The best private sector jobs for employees coming right out of government, Johnson and Hartsock agree, are at companies that partner or contract with federal, state, and local governments. This could be consultancies, defense contractors, research facilities, nonprofits, real estate brands, or even software or hardware companies.
For example, Johnson worked with one job seeker who moved from cybersecurity in the public sector to a similar job in the private sector. The hiring managers, she says, “were really happy about having someone with his background in the government sector and his understanding of how the contracts work.”
Other options that might make private sector work more attainable than cold applying, Hartsock says, are apprenticeships, which focus on building relevant skills for certain high-demand fields. While this may be a step down in terms of salary to start, the tradeoff is an immediate resume boost and connections to top employers outside the government.
This “low-hanging fruit,” as Johnson puts it, will make finding and landing a new job a lot simpler and adapting to a new working environment less jarring.
3. Highlight transferable skills and relevant keywords everywhere
Chances are a lot of your current skills—managing people, spearheading projects, selling ideas or services—apply just as well to private sector roles as it does to government work.
So, throughout your job search—from your online profile to your application to interviews—make sure you’re drawing a clear line between what you’ve done and what you can do for that specific team or function (in other words, your transferable skills). These hard and soft skills, Hartsock says, matter “much more than the title of your degree or the career that you studied in school 20 years ago.”
Including relevant keywords that are tied to both your ideal job and your experience is also key to rank well in applicant tracking systems (ATS), as well as attract the attention of recruiters searching for those qualities. “People need to make their LinkedIn profiles and resumes much more action-oriented, so a recruiter can see: What can this person do?” Hartsock says.
Read this next: How to Make Your Resume ATS-Friendly (Template Included!)
Take the leap
When in doubt whether you’re able to begin a career outside your industry, just remember that many people have already successfully made this transition—including Hartsock, who used to work in public schools and for the city of Washington, DC, before she ended up in the private sector.
“The move is scary for anybody, any move that you make, but the only way to grow is actually taking that risk,” she says. “Government workers have a lot to offer. They learn the rules, they know the regulations, they know how the government works, and all of that experience can be very helpful in the private sector.”
Looking for a better fit? Browse 400,000+ open jobs on The Muse—one of them could be your perfect next career move »