Aaron Bryant has quit his state job. Again.
The first time, Bryant, 37, a computer analyst, left in disgust after his career plans were squashed by a policy he says made it harder for him to be promoted.
Bryant came back two years ago with the Department of Motor Vehicles to an information analyst job that paid about $44,000 per year plus benefits. Last month he left again, this time for a position handling special projects with high-tech industry giant Intel at its Folsom campus.
"The company offered me a wonderful package that I couldn't resist," Bryant says.
State workers generally make less than their counterparts in the private sector. Their total compensation also lags other public employers.
In Sacramento, the difference is about 16 percent, according to a 2006 study by the Department of Personnel Administration.
The trade-off: job security and defined retirement benefits.
But many younger workers think of working for the state of California as what you do until something better comes along. About half of all state workers hired at age 30 or younger leave within 10 years, according to state figures.
When a job disappoints, these workers don't hesitate to move on.
And the state has disappointed Bryant more than once.
You can hear it when you talk to him: The state bureaucracy is "archaic." State departments are "inflexible." There's entirely too much red tape.
"It takes forever just to get a job interview," he says.
Bryant first dumped state work in 2004 – then came right back as a consultant, he says, "charging (the state) almost four times as much."
After two years at DMV, Intel made him an offer. Then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger laid off 10,000 part-time employees and ordered state workers' wages cut to the federal minimum as paralysis set in over the the state budget.
"It's a mess, just like the last time I left," Bryant says.
Leaving DMV for Intel means more money – and more risks. The company is renowned for its computer chip technology, but it has whacked hundreds of jobs in Folsom as tech trends shifted and competition forced the company to change.
"You lose that job security by leaving the state, absolutely," Bryant says. "Does it worry me? No."
Computer chips come and go, but government is forever. Bryant figures the door is always open.
He knows his skills are in high demand: The state this week listed tests for 13 tech jobs, some paying more than $90,000 per year. And Bryant knows how to work the civil service system to get back in.
"You can always come back," Bryant says. "So maybe I get two years of experience at Intel. Then I come back to the state with a padded résumé – and a shot at a better job."
Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043. Read his blog, The State Worker, at www.sacbee.com/blogs.
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