I work in the public sector (higer ed) as a SysAdmin but I'm very young w/o my own family or anything tieing me down but I can relate to the sentiment.
> are there any companies out here on HN [...]
I think it really comes down to what your credentials and experience are; the private sector is much more competative (I'm shocked how many non-technical or only semi-technical people work in IT in the public sector) and you're kind of asking for the holy grail of jobs - remote, good compensation, and engaging.
Personally, I feel this is the biggest risk/negative to public sector jobs. They typically aren't breaking new ground so gaining the experience that the private sectors values is difficult. This compounds the longer you work in the public sector.
If I was in your position this is how I would approach it.
1. Update your resume and try to see how competative you can make it; you can pick & choose the projects and skills from those 12 years that you think companies would value.
2. Identify gaps in your resume, most likely these gaps are the very thing you believe you are missing out on such as large/interesting software development projects, modern development & team paradigms (DevOps, newer languages, etc.)
3. Find open source projects that match these gaps and spend ~1 year learning the ropes and contributing. This will show that you're serious about your goals and have the talent to achieve them. And, most importantly, it sepertes you from the majority of people wearing your shoes.
4. Along this time and after, reach out to any place that is looking to grow. It may even still be public sector but not all public sector is equal just like a lot of private sector IT isn't going anywhere if it's not their core business.
Even though this may sound long winded and pessimistic, I think that experience + catching on on some modern technologies is enough to be competative for junior dev. position that recent, but highly talented college grads are able to obtain.
I work in the public sector (higer ed) as a SysAdmin but I'm very young w/o my own family or anything tieing me down but I can relate to the sentiment.
> are there any companies out here on HN [...]
I think it really comes down to what your credentials and experience are; the private sector is much more competative (I'm shocked how many non-technical or only semi-technical people work in IT in the public sector) and you're kind of asking for the holy grail of jobs - remote, good compensation, and engaging.
Personally, I feel this is the biggest risk/negative to public sector jobs. They typically aren't breaking new ground so gaining the experience that the private sectors values is difficult. This compounds the longer you work in the public sector.
If I was in your position this is how I would approach it.
1. Update your resume and try to see how competative you can make it; you can pick & choose the projects and skills from those 12 years that you think companies would value. 2. Identify gaps in your resume, most likely these gaps are the very thing you believe you are missing out on such as large/interesting software development projects, modern development & team paradigms (DevOps, newer languages, etc.) 3. Find open source projects that match these gaps and spend ~1 year learning the ropes and contributing. This will show that you're serious about your goals and have the talent to achieve them. And, most importantly, it sepertes you from the majority of people wearing your shoes. 4. Along this time and after, reach out to any place that is looking to grow. It may even still be public sector but not all public sector is equal just like a lot of private sector IT isn't going anywhere if it's not their core business.
Even though this may sound long winded and pessimistic, I think that experience + catching on on some modern technologies is enough to be competative for junior dev. position that recent, but highly talented college grads are able to obtain.