INDUSTRY INSIDERWhat Do People Misunderstand About The Department of Defense?

With the Department of Defense, and the government broadly, there’s so much that goes on that people don’t realize.

I found out there’s a ton of venture capital & private equity type firms inside the DOD. In my department, we do supply chain risk, foreign capital risk management and broadly, economic statecraft.

It’s pretty insane. In my first few months, a transaction we reviewed made its way to the president who took our recommendation. 

So, for one, if you're a finance guy, you can do that within the government. 

Lastly, I will say the pay is a bit less, but the intangibles make up for it. I have friends who don’t take PTO or go on vacations because they’re worried about performance reviews. If I wanted a 3 day weekend, done, no questions asked. It’s 40 hour work weeks on the dot – lots of folks come in early so they can leave at 3:30 every day. The benefits are great, health insurance is cheap, the retirement/pension plan is great. You sacrifice a little in salary that you get back in quality of life and work/life balance. I wasn’t a fan at first, but I’ve come to really enjoy it.