USDS isn’t going to hire a new grad at GS-15. Also government benefits are not as good as FAANG benefits.
Also GS-15 is the absolute max. 2 yrs at FAANG and your comp will be closed to 220-250k, which is already passed the absolute max you can get paid on the government pay scale.
I wasn’t really talking about direct government roles when I made that comment. I was more talking about what the government shells out to contractors for programming jobs which as many have pointed out is the vast majority of programmers that get hired to do work for the government.
And admittedly, it is a little hyperbolic. I don’t have actual data to directly back it up beyond some research I did earlier this year. But FAANG really represents the most you could get paid as a software engineer and it’s pretty clear to me that these salaries are at least average/middle of the road. There isn’t some widespread low pay issue for software engineers doing this kind of work.
Also GS-15 is the absolute max. 2 yrs at FAANG and your comp will be closed to 220-250k, which is already passed the absolute max you can get paid on the government pay scale.