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Civil Service

This news story reminded me of India back in my college days. There some private sector hiring, multi-national companies were all the rage and paid much better than Indian private sector. But the overwhelming majority of kids were aiming for public sector jobs - they were not glamorous, did not pay very well and the work itself was cutting edge. It was assumed to be the slower but safer track - meant for those who had limited ambitions, valued security over the razzle dazzle of the working outside the confines of government and semi-government. This is not even counting the civil service aspirants - of which there were many. Some folks I grew up with went on to become career beaurcrats and from what I can tell its not such a bad life. 

Grass is greener and all that I suppose but from the vantage point of those who do not have that life, there seem to be advantages. There seems to be much higher degree of predictability in how a person's career will evolve and with that their socio-economic standing. One of my friends who was a part of this world until a couple of years ago, decided to shake things up and give private sector a shot. It was a very bumpy ride for her until she settled in. 

Even so, she compares her life now to a roller-coaster ride, where as in the past she was being chauffeured in an old but trusty car that could not go above a certain speed, was not particularly luxurious but the basic stuff worked. The car could break down sometimes but it would be taken care of - she just had to sit back and relax. That is very far from the life she has now. The trade-off is income and greater freedom to spend which can be liberating if the person has the gift of time to enjoy the bounty. My friend has yet to take a vacation since she started her new job so to her these concepts are still theoretical. 

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