Most people are in India especially in smaller towns and cities are absolutely crazy about “Government Jobs”. They say that it offers “Job Security”, “benefits”, etc. I particularly am not fond of such notions. Since I have graduated as an Engineer,(without getting placed in campus, poor me right?) my parents regularly pester me whenever they see an advertisement for Government jobs. I fail to understand their fascination and lust for government jobs.
Now my hatred for so-called “Government jobs” is not without reason. First of all the system of recruitment for government jobs leaves very little opportunity for a general, physically fit, male with very little ‘connections’ or well-enough economic means to get a government job legally. It’s not impossible but very hard. So since its very hard its better not to spend any energy pursuing it and rather using it for some other purposes.
Secondly most government servants that I have seen are either bored of their jobs because they have very little to do or they are tired of their jobs. In other words the clichéd work-life balance is not to be found. Now I would rather work in a challenging environment in a corporate firm and possibly getting more or less deserved compensation instead of working my ass off in a PSU or other government sectors where my work will most possibly go unnoticed. Also the work that people are doing in SpaceX, Tesla, Google, Amazon, Airbnb like companies and many upcoming Indian startups amazes me and I would very happily love to work in such environments.
Thirdly office politics is existent everywhere but more so in the government sector(i am telling from my father’s experience) . Also laws of this country also makes it possible for somebody with lesser experience to be promoted before if he/she happens to belong to a certain section of the society(i will not comment on the fairness of it). I would appreciate a place where my merit is the first priority when it comes to promotion and salary raise which seems to be the case in the private sector.
Fourthly, the whole idea of job security in the government sector and no job security in the private or corporate sector is utter bullshit. If you really have skills you will never be laid off and even if you are you can always expand the plethora of skills and get a job anyway. During recession in America even public sector job cuts also happened. Such a thing have not happened in India (as far as I know) till now but we cannot be negate the possibility of it happening.
Therefore unless the situations in the government sector improves or I am overpowered by family pressure I am not joining any government sector jobs any time soon.
P.S.- when I say about Government jobs please exclude the Defense, Civil Services, Research and Higher education jobs, because I would love to work in only these sectors of government, if at all.
