Anybody here work for the State of California?

LegitDuner

LegitDuner

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I've been self-employed for the last 23 years and I have an opportunity to work as a specialist and enforcement official in my industry. Just wondering how it is working for the state? Looks like all the bennies are under CalPERS. I thought they were going bankrupt? Or at the very least severely underfunded. Has that changed?

Just looking for some guidance on what to expect working for the state (Department of Consumer Affairs to be exact). The good, the bad, and the ugly. I feel like I've seen a few people here that do work there, so thought I'd ask my dune brothers and sisters!

The offer has me twisted in knots as I find it very hard to quit things. My business has been my baby but over the last 3-4 years my industry has completely changed and burned me out. No love for small businesses here, unfortunately. 

Appreciate any insight you can give me!

 
I work for a municipality.  Probably pretty similar to state.  Easy work, low expectations.  Anytime someone comes in from the private sector, they usually have a work ethic that blows everyone else away.

After running your own business it'll seem like a cake walk.  Just CYA really good.  As for retirement, you'd need to be in at least 10 years to benefit from it.  Get into any deferred compensation package they offer.  Good benefits as far as medical, etc.

You can always do some side work for extra cash $ if you're able to.  One of my new guys recently sold off his pool business and still does work on the side.

 
Bansh88 said:
I work for a municipality.  Probably pretty similar to state.  Easy work, low expectations.  Anytime someone comes in from the private sector, they usually have a work ethic that blows everyone else away.

After running your own business it'll seem like a cake walk.  Just CYA really good.  As for retirement, you'd need to be in at least 10 years to benefit from it.  Get into any deferred compensation package they offer.  Good benefits as far as medical, etc.

You can always do some side work for extra cash $ if you're able to.  One of my new guys recently sold off his pool business and still does work on the side.
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I was going to say the same thing, If you can build a pension, do it.  My wife moved from the private sector to a State (technically works at Cal State San Marcos) job.  The Benefits are unbelievable.  Health, pension are unbeatable, but I think it really pays off if you plan to do it long term.  On paper, the salary will look mediocre, but with everything else added in it is like 25% higher than the salary.  Because of this move she did, we will be retiring before 65 yrs old, due to Health care being paid for............

 
Those guys seem to have a good thing going on. They get a lot of days off too. I’m in the industry and considered that job as well. Are you in the termite biz and over it now?

 
Mayday said:
Those guys seem to have a good thing going on. They get a lot of days off too. I’m in the industry and considered that job as well. Are you in the termite biz and over it now?
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Yeah, I've been in the termite biz for 32 years now I guess. As a general contractor and an operator. The only thing I'm over is trying to find good help. As you know, we're so strictly regulated you can't just stick anybody out in the field. The SPCB will put you out of business real quick. Been really difficult to find good inspectors and wood repair guys. When the real estate industry changed their contracts it really cut out a lot of our business, and then when covid hit and nobody was even getting inspections, it made me rethink everything. 

 
LegitDuner said:
Yeah, I've been in the termite biz for 32 years now I guess. As a general contractor and an operator. The only thing I'm over is trying to find good help. As you know, we're so strictly regulated you can't just stick anybody out in the field. The SPCB will put you out of business real quick. Been really difficult to find good inspectors and wood repair guys. When the real estate industry changed their contracts it really cut out a lot of our business, and then when covid hit and nobody was even getting inspections, it made me rethink everything. 
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Yeah I’ll probably sell the biz and move to Utah eventually. Mostly focus on branch 2 stuff nowadays as profit is good and consistent. I’d seriously consider that job if you plan to do it long enough to collect on some pension and benefits after retiring. Tough decision for sure

 
Mayday said:
Yeah I’ll probably sell the biz and move to Utah eventually. Mostly focus on branch 2 stuff nowadays as profit is good and consistent. I’d seriously consider that job if you plan to do it long enough to collect on some pension and benefits after retiring. Tough decision for sure
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Yeah,  It's not the pay that's bringing me over there 😄.. It's definitely the benefits and atmosphere. Hell, I'm going to have more freedom than running a business. They give you a truck and you work from your home office.

That's why I'm concerned about the calPERS though. Would hate to make the sacrifice and not have the benefits there for me.

 
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Calpers was on it's way to going bankrupt before they made the PEPRA changes in 2013. It significantly lowered the retirement benefits for the public safety employees. Instead of the classic 3% at 50, it became the 2.7% at 57 (I think). It even lowered non public safety employees from 2% at 55 to 2% at 62. You will need to work in Calpers for 5 years to become vested in the retirement. Meaning, to collect some form of check in retirement. Depending on where you work, you may stop paying into social security. Which means that your contributions stop at whatever you've paid in to it so far. I'm not sure about the actual state but I do not contribute at the municipality that I work for.

Like others mentioned, start contributing to deferred comp as soon as possible. Try to boost up those numbers before retirement. Talk to a financial advisor to determine if its best to contribute pre-tax or post-tax. Our agency does have contribution matching for PEPRA employees but not classic members. You may want to see what they match as you will be a PEPRA employee. 

It's not so bad working for the man. 

 
Haha, i’ve been seriously considering going to the dark side too and working for the FAA. Its what they want. Everyone works for the govt. no private business except super wealthy corporations

 
I'm married into govt, and she got CalPers, too. Insane how her retirement is panning out. Probably retire at 57 and will get pretty much same as she's making now. Crazy! 

 
okla is no cali and its 2 way different branches but I worked for the state of okla for about 7 years. at first it was ok, but the longer i was there, the more i hated it. I really hated what I saw, and finally left. It was like everything they did was in reverse, tons of wasted money everywhere. The states job was to take as much from the feds as they could. Hell we could literally sit for weeks with nothing to do, I watched more you tube than I could ever imagine. Still have friends there and it's not changed. It was all about head count. We started 30 years ago with needing 50 people so by god we won't drop below because we would never get it back. There was 4 in my dept with enough for 2.5 people to do consistently. 

Then came the furloughs, they were trying to mandate we had to work certain days and take off when they said. I said no damn way. If your going to furlough me then I should be able to decide what 4 days i am working. Im not going to be off sat, sun and wed. I pushed back enough I got my days, but the funding came through and we didn't have to cut. but we were days away from it.

I worked in the office and the was on the road, and everyone I worked with was cool, but man, I thought why does it take 30 people to do the job of 10 lol. We did have alot of time off, and I did have a side job the whole time and lots of flexibility. 

Then my buddy from years ago called me up and said he we need you. I doubled my pay and make probably 3 times more than I would ever have made staying.  I don't miss it at all. There was so much good ole boy, BS it wasn't funny. 

Can you keep your business as a side gig? to do when you want/ if you want?

 
State and Federal jobs want people who stay in their lane and do things as instructed and to not innovate new ways to complete tasks. Think of it like this, on a scale of 1 to 10 how much would it upset you if your job was to go around the Office each morning and straighten all of the crooked pictures

Now how much on the 1-10 scale would it bother you if you found out that they hired somebody to go around and tilt each one every evening  ? 

That is how your going to feel working for a .gov after working for yourself..  If you can put blinders on stay in your lane and do only what is expected and required and nothing else you will be fine.  If your a I can save you 12 steps in this or that procedure your going to feel like your pushing a rock up a hill real fast.

 
Oh, COME ON!!!! I need you to continue doing what you are doing. 

You're going to hate it, just stick to what you have been doing  :classic_tongue:

 
BRANDON LONG said:
Oh, COME ON!!!! I need you to continue doing what you are doing. 

You're going to hate it, just stick to what you have been doing  :classic_tongue:
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I may be more valuable to you working for them. If any termite company tries to jack you around, you just need a name drop and it'll strike fear in their hearts. :legit:

 
Like many have said it’s a different world working for a government agency. You will be amazed at how inefficiently things are done. If you can deal with that you’ll be ok. Don’t worry about CalPers they aren’t going anywhere. As long as you plan on staying for many years you’ll have a great pension when you retire. I retired after 20+ years and it’s awesome 

 
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