The MM Network

[G.Irish]

Knowing what I know of Taylor's preference and personality, I do not believe consulting would be a good option. It's very, very common to have to commute much farther than intended, work longer hours than intended, and have a stressful relationship with the client.

That's a fair assessment. I've avoided the consulting scene for that reason. I guess a better thing to say is that I'm interested in getting into government contracting. I don't know much about it, but it seems a lot less fast paced and a lot more stable.

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Stability depends entirely on the contract.  If you get in on the first contract year with several option years, you'll usually be ok.  Occasionally contracts get ended early but that's the exception not the rule.

If you come into a contract when a recompete is coming in a year or 2, you may find yourself either having to transition to another project, or looking for another job.  If you're not working for a shitty company and you're a good employee, most of the time you'll be able to switch onto another contract your company has.  If you work for a small firm that doesn't have many contracts or the ability to pay people on the bench, then you have a higher chance of getting laid off.

The big challenge in government contracting is that your experience largely depends on the customer and the culture at the customer site.  I've worked with great government customers and I've worked with tyrants.  The biggest frustration for me is just the inertia and stubbornness.  A lot of the time it's not the technical solution that is the problem, it's that it is difficult to get people to change how they do business.  And incompetent government people rarely get fired, so you can only hope they move on, retire, or die.