AIBU to discourage DC from entering public sector careers?

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DD17, DD14 and DS12 have all been talking a lot about jobs they’d like to do lately. They are all very different fish, 2 very academic girls and one creative but not so book smart DS. Their schools to introduce a broad range of careers, but their teachers (understandably) seem to know more about public sector roles such as teaching, legal aid law and health professions (there’s a special ‘get into medicine course DD was encouraged to do).

When I started out, there were good options for people looking to work in the public sector. I headed into a helping profession in a Local Authority (but struggled with the inflexibility and have since moved into private practice). Friends were looking forward to careers in medicine, teaching and the civil service. A couple were pretty snobby about the moral superiority of public sector roles ( I remember an physio friend asking a trainee actuary friend how they got up each morning with such a boring job). Others headed into law, banking, consultancy etc. We were all very well educated and had many options.

However, at 45, things have all come out in the wash, and (with a few exceptions, notably two doctors who are independently wealthy, and a diplomat), those who chose private sector jobs are not just much wealthier but also seem to enjoy more flexible, varied roles and just seem happier in their work. Friends in the public sector complain that they are burnt out, struggling financially and stuck in their jobs with few other options.

AIBU to at least encourage DC to consider that public sector careers might not be the best idea any more? Obviously, they’ll choose what they choose, but to me, the difference between private and public sector roles (especially in London/SE) nowadays seems pretty stark.

Coding/computer stuff seems to be where its at on mns. There's threads of people with flexible hours/as long as I get it done I can walk the dog/hang put washing etc.

And good pay

But neither of my kids are tech save at all!

Terms and conditions are much better in the public sector.

The civil service is a great option for those leaving school due to the amount of degree apprenticeships and training programs. Still get a qualification without the debt, paid whilst training and work experience. There’s also no requirement to stay after qualifying and you will deal with external private companies that you can get a feel for should a private move something you want to explore.

Public sector (local government)
Very flexible working, good benefits. 100% job security during the pandemic.
Mediocre pay.

I don’t think they need to consider sector. I’ve worked in both and the reality is that it’s not much different and day to day you need the same skills for the same type of role. It would be much more productive to encourage their interests and skills development so that when the time comes they have options. A job is not a job for life anymore and I have spent the last 30 years flip flopping between sectors and academia, as I come across interesting opportunities I’d like to pursue. Education, skills, and experience give your children choices and the opportunity to have a career they enjoy and will enable them to grow.

Those benefits are not common in the private sector though. You are comparing a few exceptions in the private sector with the public sector. You are also minimizing the pension benefits- defined benefit indexed linked pensions are rarely available outside the public sector and are incredibly expensive to replicate.

It's quite hard to flip between if you've trained in a public sector role (nurse/ot/teacher) or to even get the higher pay grades so you are limited on income in that sense. Nothing like the mumsnet "oh 70k that's nothing, I'm not well off" threads!

Something like accountancy or HR or something presumably you can flip?

I don't really know enough about graduate training schemes to advise my kids so will encourage them to look for themselves. There isn't civil service work near us and a lot of grad schemes are London based or a lot of travel which not everyone wants.

This doesn't really work as a comparator.

You'd either have to compare by sector eg public vs private teaching
or perhaps by ability - what other career could a person on track to qualify in medicine do instead, for example.

The problem is that you'd need to compare other careers that save lives, or whatever other motivation there is to join a medical pathway, for it to be a useful comparator.

Perhaps the actual issue is that careers advice is non existent these days

Yes that could be it too. I was an oxbridge genius but have ended up in low paid work. Friends son scraped into uni after btecs and earns squillions now in tech in mid 20s...

Agree with this. I've never heard of 2 years paid sick leave anywhere! In the private sector it varies from 6 months paid to 2 weeks paid. Most companies are cutting back on benefits. For example, the coverage with my private medical insurance is the worst it's ever been. When I was ill last year, I hit my outpatient limit within 1 week and after that I had to self-fund.

I am really interested what people are saying about Civil Service roles, especially working out of Whitehall.

I do not know anyone of my generation who opted for that path (except one who is now a deputy High Commissioner, mostly worked overseas). But DH's father worked in central government policy making for a while (on industry secondment but I presume was a Civil Servant) and he absolutely loved it.

It sounds like a really interesting, worthwhile career.

How many pps who work in the public sector have worked anywhere else? I think a lot have no idea of the reality of working in the private sector. I will give an example. When I went for my covid jab (at a centre dedicated to this), in the 15m walk from my car to the nurse, I encountered the following (and they were all NHS staff as they wore uniform and name badges): 1 person standing under a sign saying Covid Jabs This Way telling me that covid jabs were this way, two people just inside the door, 1 who asked my name and another who found my record card from a very small pile (jabs were pre-booked), another telling me to join the queue, another at the bend if the queue telling me which way to go and another two at the door to the room, one asking my name and another pointing which nurse to go to.
Seven people. in the private sector, this would have been handled by one person asking your name and giving your records and another one taking your records and allocating the jab booth. So five less.
That's why I tend to take tales of woe about short staffing in the public sector with a pinch of salt. Because in the public sector the volume of jobs would not exist in the first place.
OP I think you've fallen for the hype I am afraid.

I wouldn't necessarily discourage it, but I would give them some different opinions, like DH is good at his job and enjoys it, has a good pension, but also has to put a lot into it from his salary, and may have letters after his name but hasn't had a proper pay rise in ten years. So what may start out as a good salary isn't necessarily when you take into account inflation (especially at the moment).

Whereas in my job in the private sector, I have had lots of pay rises, sometimes having to move to get one, and work fewer hours than DH but get paid 40% more, but my pension will probably end up being about the same even though I earn more. And in some jobs I have earned a good deal more than this but that money isn't everything. Stress levels, work environment, job satisfaction, autonomy, trust, creativity, flexibility are all important factors to consider.

If anything I've tried to encourage more thinking outside the box with careers than my parents did (or perhaps were able to)- the best jobs are often ones you make up yourself.

A lot of those people were volunteers 🙄

It's not a great example of "public sector inefficiency".

Pretty much all defined benefit pensions out there are amazing.

I think you have more potential to be a very high earner in the private sectors but if you are more of a mid level professional the public sector has more benefits flexibility and a good pension. Unless you are in the NHS as a clinical professional which
which has all of the negatives but none of the perks of public sector. I would never encourage my kids to be a clinical NHS proffesional.

Why are you focusing on sector rather than job role?
Like any other organization the public sector also has accountants, procurement specialists, project managers so if you choose that path, all good.

Of course a senior civil servant will have many transferable skills for the 'private sector', whereas a driving instructor (also a civil servant btw, with jobs on the gov.uk website) won't.

There's too much variation to consider, or write off an entire sector

Even teachers are leaving the profession in droves and seem to have no issues pivoting into other jobs roles.

In 2023 the only certain things is that careers are fluid....

What I would say in my experience is that they recruit very diversely in terms of sex, race, sexuality - on every area, except class. It is still very middle and upper middle class.

I particularly wouldn't go into medicine at the moment.

The salary was good and the final salary pension excellent when I entered med school in 2000.

However, the salaries have stagnated, and the final salary pension has gone, and since its based on salary, is also being devalued at the same rate as the salary due to inflation.

If you went into medicine now, and pension and salaries follow the same pattern of the last 25 years, you'd start on a salary worth the equivalent today of £20k and finish on a salary worth the equivalent of £15k, based on a rough estimate of salaries being devalued by around 30% per 15 years.

@Catspyjamas17 already covered that in my posts.Did volunteers were NHS uniform and have NHS name badges and job roles?

As I said, I'm retired public sector worker, I actually dealt with people who were or were going to become homeless. I was ran off my feet, we were understaffed , because lack of money, I never stopped from 8-5 , when I made sure I went home.My lunch break [ha ha!] was never more than 30 minutes and often consisted of me eating while working. I actually liked my job, when it went well for customers it was very satisfying. Sadly lack of investment in social housing and unrealistic expectations have made customers very angry, unhappy and often abusive. The idea that we all sat around doing nothing/didn't care/had no skills /training /idea, or that a trained monkey could do better are way off the mark. Most of the issues are caused by underfunding and poor governments.

If you are in the NHS pension scheme then it is not true that the pension is devalued. It is adjusted each year in line with CPI plus 1.5%. Do this year would have been increased by 11.6%

There's no need to get over-involved in any career you children may choose.

If asked you might give and opinion, but it seems you are assuming you will direct rather than support the choice.

There are of course good and bad jobs and work conditions in both public and private sector careers, so it simply is impossible for you to judge.

Ok - But still, the way Covid jabs were rolled out across the country was largely pretty amazing, with huge take up. I think it's an example of how good the public sector can be, all coming together like that. I'm sure at some point some units were overstaffed when they didn't know how many people would be coming at once, but I'm sure they were redeployed or reorganised soon after. There was a difference between my first, second and third jabs - process more efficient and fewer staff required each time. It's really not a good example of overstaffing- and we know there is a big shortage of doctors and nurses.