Fed Up: Public to Private
Transitioning from the Federal Government to the Private Sector
The United States of America is undergoing drastic and disruptive change. Federal government employees are front and center in this crisis. I’ve experienced layoffs in the private sector. I was also previously a Federal Government employee for 10 years at the National Institutes of Health. I went through one of the longest government shutdowns and heard fake friends cheer that I was finally experiencing what it’s like to “have a real job”. I transitioned to working in the private sector after I relocated from the DC area back to Florida to be closer to family.
A Raw Deal
Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
― M. Scott Peck author of The Road Less Traveled
The chaos unleashed on Federal Government employees is cruel and unfair. Regardless of the objectives — pain, frustration, anger, and confusion are some of the many emotions being experienced. I personally value the contributions of Federal Government employees. I salute you and thank you for your service. I can’t offer specific words of encouragement, but I can provide some insights on how I successfully transitioned from the public to the private sector.
My Journey
I moved back to Florida in 2018 without a job lined up. My job series was Industrial Engineer while at NIH but my roles varied from consultant to project manager to biosafety engineering. I earned a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certificate in the years before leaving NIH. Initially, I looked for industrial engineering, process improvement, and six sigma roles in Tampa. I caught a major break when I received a phone call from a staffing agency that saw my resume on Indeed.
The cool thing about staffing agencies and headhunters is that they get paid when you get placed in a job. A good staffing agency may offer suggestions to improve your resume and advice to nail the interview. WARNING: Be wary of any search firms or websites that ask you to pay. Companies will use contract labor (W2, 1099, or Corp-to-Corp) for temporary work or temp-to-perm hiring.
Following the Great Financial Crises, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) changed the way major US banks calculate their rainy day funds previously called loan loss reserves. The new methodology was called Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL). Citibank was looking for a contractor with experience in consulting, Six Sigma, and process mapping to help develop a new CECL end-to-end Operating Model for the bank. The role was a great fit and I ended up getting an offer to join the global accounting team later as a Vice President.
I was fascinated to see how technology was being used at the bank. I was selected to participate in a rotation program where I was able to lead digital transformation projects for global accounting including machine learning, visualization, and process automation. I heard a lot about big data but I finally saw it on my rotation — reports with 5 million records and 110 million data points. A colleague used Python to analyze the data and we started working together. We created a program called the Digital Sandbox where ML startup executives gave presentations and we instructed coworkers on how to analyze data using Python. I observed that one of the best ways to accelerate learning is to teach. I saw huge potential in using Python to analyze data and automate manual processes typically performed in Microsoft Excel.
I got an amazing offer to join a fintech company called Happy Money focusing on process automation with Python. Happy Money is a venture-funded, fintech startup that sources loans from credit unions. My major objective was to automate a time-intensive process for month-end investor reporting. I was able to use Python to automate month-end investor reporting resulting in a reduction from 5 business days to only 20 minutes on business day 1 — a 96% cycle time reduction. I was included in a round of layoffs but I leveraged my experience and network to start a consulting firm with clients that include Citibank, the Gates Foundation, and the US Department of Health and Human Services. Next, I want to walk through the exportable lessons in my journey that can help you transition from the public to private sector.
A Particular Set of Skills
Keep in mind that you are not restricted to staying in your market vertical. I previously worked in healthcare for 10 years before my transition but I used my specific skills, certification, and experience (Six Sigma/process mapping/project management ) to transition into the financial services industry.
Your unique education, skillset, experience, projects, volunteer work, certificates, business interests, or even weekend projects can help you enter industries in the project sector. The important thing is to map out a plan that allows you to take a step, a leap, and then realistically launch towards a brighter future.
Designing a Parachute
“What Color is Your Parachute?” is an amazing book that helped me discover the overlap between the skills that I enjoyed using and performed very well. The Flower Exercise and Transferable Skills in the Job-Hunter’s Guide are highly useful tools in identifying new opportunities where you will thrive. Identify your ideal job and work environment (without boundaries). Do you prefer working remotely, in the office, or is hybrid ideal? What is your preferred industry, role, and level (independent contributor, manager, senior leader, etc.)?
A great example of a transition provided by the author is an accountant who aspires to become a sports commentator. The accountant can seek out a new accounting job in sports media with the NFL or ESPN. Then, the aspirant can create a sports blog, video blog (vlog), or podcast. Intentional networking (or connecting) while keeping an eye open for cross-departmental events, projects, and rotational programs closer to live media will yield opportunities to get experience in front of the media. Finally, the aspirant can use their proximity, network, and experience to get their dream job (without incurring the cost of going back to school).
New Skills
The next step is to take an honest look at where you are versus where you want to go. Ideally, the focus should be to maximize gains while minimizing time and cost. Do you have to go back to school to move in your new direction? For example, many technology workers taught themselves how to code with a mix of self-paced online learning or free resources like w3schools, MIT OpenCourseware, watching YouTube videos, or participating in coding challenge sites like LeetCode or HackerRank. I included additional links to resources to build skills ranging from data analysis to IT Support to software development. Don’t take it from me — the Stackoverflow 2024 Developer Survey shows that the majority of software developers use online resources, books, or e-courses to learn how to code.
Show Your Work
Spoiler Alert: I have a few courses on Udemy wherein I strongly recommend completing projects and posting them on social media, LinkedIn, and code repositories like GitHub. I turned my GitHub profile into an online portfolio: https://github.com/kaa2102. Open Source projects also provide a great opportunity to build credibility, network, and show your work. Also, volunteer work at your local soup kitchen or church can be an opportunity to display critical skills. Nonprofits can benefit from services including bookkeeping, cyber security consulting, web design, data analysis, and more.
Ghosts and Stuff
The job market is tough and new threats have emerged like ghost jobs. A ghost job is a fake job posting that companies advertise but have no intention of filling. Why would a company do this? Reasons can include trying to falsely signal to their understaffed and overworked employees that help is on the way. Connecting directly with hiring managers and recruiters can reduce the likelihood that you are hunting a ghost rather than a real job.
Connecting > Networking
Networking gets a bad wrap for a good reason — it doesn’t seem to lead anywhere. I prefer to connect with people and continue to add value. I was a young consultant at Booz Allen when an older and wiser Associate handed me the book, Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazi. Net net, this book is about being authentic and learning how to add value to other people’s lives. The chapter titles give away the tactics like: be a conference commando, pinging all the time, share your passion, follow up or fail, and build it before you need it. Example: You have a call with a recruiter about a job and you are not a good fit. You offer to send qualified candidates their way AND follow-up promptly. Recruiters should be your best friends and imagine the value of not just getting yourself a job but enabling others to find their fit as well.
Change and Growth
The winds of change are blowing. As you chart your new course, look for changes and growth in industries that will favor your current and future skills. There are industries that manage to fare well even during economic downturns such as value groceries, healthcare, wine and spirits, and beauty-care.
An investment theory is that while it may be expensive to invest in a high-growth technology company like Nvidia, you can also invest in their upstream suppliers. Similarly, as you look at industries and jobs for growth opportunities, consider that new AI startups will need accountants, data analysts, HR professionals, legal and compliance, technical writers, etc. Use your core skill to identify overlaps with growth. For example: the HR function has a lot of data and new enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools are being used for recruiting, compensation and benefits, and performance management. Could you leverage experience in HR with new skills like data analysis, creating data pipelines, and/or transitioning from legacy to new ERP systems?
US Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupations with the most growth
The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report
New Resume
I changed my resume when I went back into the private sector. In general, there are sections for education, skills/certifications, and employment experience. The major change was listing my employment experience as accomplishments that made a clear business impact. I changed my resume from my roles & responsibilities to actions that led to quantifiable results.
Solved problem X, using methods/technology Y, resulting in impact Z where Z is in PEP format = Productivity, Efficiency, or Profitability.
Productivity = made more widgets with the same or fewer resources
Efficiency = saved time, reduced Full Time Equivalents (FTEs)
Profitability = sales/revenue or cost savings
Happy Money example:
Created a Python algorithm that reduced month-end investor reporting cycle time from 5 business days to 20 minutes on business day 1–a 96% reduction in cycle time.
Sharpen Your Tools
chatGPT. DALL-E. Midjourney. Google Gemini. OtterAI. Microsoft coPilot. These are all Generative AI (GenAI) tools. Use them! Embrace the change. AI and machine learning roles are on top of the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs list. One thing that I am banking on is management overestimating what AI can do. One of the reasons I was laid off from Happy Money was because interest rates were at zero for years — who could imagine that they could rise up to 5.25%??? They did. Likewise, executives will be eager to haphazardly replace workers with AI agents just to open up more cans of worms. AI can hallucinate and just make stuff up. I wrote a bit about this in a post called An AI Dream of Net Present Value (NPV). Due to the shortcomings of AI, we will need AI engineers, prompt engineers, and subject matter experts (SMEs) to guide AI in the right direction. Prompt engineers, for instance, will figure out how to ask the right questions. SMEs and domain experts will need to check the solutions provided by AI to ensure they make sense in the real world.
Continuous Learning
Once you stop learning, you start dying.
~ Alber Einstein
I encourage you to make full use of AI and GenAI tools in your career search and in life. Don’t stop there. Make learning a habit. As you identify your new path, build continuous learning into your journey. Let your success be your reward and your vengeance. You may be fed up with the current situation but it’s time for FEDs to rise UP.
I am available for one-on-one consultations with impacted Federal Government Employees → Schedule with Calendly
Resources
Books
What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles
What Color is Your Parachute? The Job-Hunter’s Guide by Richard N. Bolles
Independent Consulting
Remote Job Sites
Work at a Startup (Y Combinator Startups)
My Courses on Udemy
Training
Databricks Learning (AI, GenAI, ML, Data Engineering / Some Free)
Grow with Google (Data Analytics, IT Support, Project Management…)
Staffing Firms